MHB 100 – Isaiah 34 & 35

Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my one hundredth episode. In this episode we are going to study Isaiah chapters 34 and 35. These two chapters are generally taken together to form one prophecy. Before we jump into the text, I want to thank you all for being with me on this journey of the first one hundred episodes. This podcast started out as a repository for my own thoughts and things that I’ve been learning. As the content grew, I began receiving emails and messages thanking me for this work. The MHB Podcast is a personal project that has developed into a full blown ministry. Everyday we are guiding more and more people through the Scriptures and none of that would be possible without you. I’m very excited for what the future holds. As our audience continues to grow, The MHB Podcast will be a boon for local church leaders all across the world. I’m excited to partner with them in their efforts to reach people for Christ and transform communities. So you have my appreciation and my sincerest gratitude for your continued support. Thank you.

Now let’s get into the text. Isaiah 34 and 35 are two chapters that work together to form one prophecy. Chapter 34 functions as an announcement to all the world of what God will do to those who choose rebellion. Chapter 35 stands in sharp contrast by promising salvation and everlasting joy to those who trust Him. Before we talk about God’s judgment on those in rebellion – it’s important that we qualify what rebellion against God really means. Isaiah used the nation of Edom as an example of rebellion. Judah and Edom had a long history of enmity. This bad relationship came to a climax when Edom chose to support Babylon’s invasion of Judah in 587 B.C. Edom’s geographic location allowed them to seize control of Judah’s trade routes and prevent pilgrims from making it to Jerusalem. So Edom was like a nation that wasn’t very powerful on its own but betrayed Judah in an effort to get in on the power of Babylon.

The nation of Edom makes for an accurate portrayal of the kinds of people who do the most wicked and evil acts in this world. Rapists are weak men who abuse women to feel a sense of dominance – because they fail to be dominant among real men. Thieves are dishonorable individuals who are either too incompetent to earn value or are too lazy. People who abuse animals or children are failed human beings whose only means of justifying their pathetic existence is inflicting the pain they feel onto the innocent. All of these actors have one thing in common: outright refusal to trust God and a lust for power. Edom was a wicked nation who sold themselves to the illusion of Babylon’s power while refusing to believe that doing so put them in opposition to the One who is truly powerful. So God proclaimed judgment on Edom, and He used this proclamation as a warning to all the rest of the universe: final judgment is coming. All of creation will be taken to task for the malevolence that has been wrought in this world. But in the wake of God’s judgment is restoration of the created order and salvation for all who trust in Jesus. As we will see, this is the subject matter of chapter 35. But first let’s read chapter 34 beginning with verse 1:

Isa 34:1  Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it.

Right away we see that this prophecy is meant for more than just the people of Judah. God is speaking to you, to me, and to all life that has ever lived or will ever live. It’s also important to note that God is calling us to pay attention. He’s not simply pulling us in to be punished. He wants more than anything for us to shed our blindness and to heed this warning. Let’s read verses 2-4:

Isa 34:2  For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 

Isa 34:3  Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood. 

Isa 34:4  All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.

God’s wrath is not an unstable emotional reaction. It’s more like the snapping back of the fabric of reality in response to the wicked who attempt to warp and manipulate it. This idea of being devoted to destruction is a reference toward the ban, or, the holy war. It was used to describe Joshua’s invasion of Canaan when God handed the Promised Land over to the Israelites. God would not allow the Israelites to invade Canaan until the wickedness and evil of the Canaanites reached maturity. I like to think He was giving those people a chance to turn things around. But since they didn’t, Joshua was instructed to lead the Israelites into Canaan and devote the cities to destruction. In some cases they were prohibited from keeping anything as plunder – all of it was to be given to God. The same fate awaits Edom for their wickedness – they will be given over to God and Israel is prohibited from taking anything from them.

Throughout history we see God using various nations to bring judgment on other nations. One of the key differences with the final judgment described in this chapter is that God will no longer use an intermediary. He will do it Himself. It is a horrifying picture of death everywhere. Blood soaked mountains and masses of unburied dead is a scene meant to illustrate the all-encompassing power of this judgment. Seems a little harsh doesn’t it? I think it seems realistic. The doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction tells us that right now each developed country has enough nuclear power aimed at each other to destroy the entire planet many times over. Unlike the ancients, we live in a world where global annihilation no longer requires much faith to understand.

And then we see this idea of the stars fading and the cosmos being rolled up like a scroll. All of creation suffers a curse that results in a bondage to decay – something like entropy. This cosmological scene is the reversal of that curse. It’s something like the cosmos collapsing in on itself before being restored to the proper order. I’m not qualified to discuss the metaphysics of this, but you can do some research to see that the universe is expanding. There are physicists who have developed what they call oscillation models where the mathematics suggests the universe will collapse in on itself before exploding back out in something approximating a Big Bang part two. It’s important for us to remember that this is the fate of the evil and the wicked – not of those who love God, love their neighbor, and have come under the saving grace of Jesus. This final judgment carried out by God Himself is one of the reasons why He admonishes us against seeking revenge or trying to overcome evil with evil. Listen to Romans 12:17-21:

Rom 12:17  Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 

Rom 12:18  If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 

Rom 12:19  Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 

Rom 12:20  To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 

Rom 12:21  Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

God’s wrath is unpleasant to think about until you’ve been touched by malevolence or someone you love has been touched by malevolence. Reality is that you are made in God’s image and so when an evil person hurts you – not only will God’s wrath become pleasant to think about but more than likely you will wish to exact it yourself. You crave justice. God in His infinite grace and wisdom has called you to love and forgive your enemies because you don’t have what it takes to judge them properly. Let’s read verses 5-7:

Isa 34:5  For my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; behold, it descends for judgment upon Edom, upon the people I have devoted to destruction. 

Isa 34:6  The LORD has a sword; it is sated with blood; it is gorged with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 

Isa 34:7  Wild oxen shall fall with them, and young steers with the mighty bulls. Their land shall drink its fill of blood, and their soil shall be gorged with fat.

Well that’s not a pretty picture. Bozrah was the capital city of Edom. Isaiah used the imagery of sacrificial animals being slaughtered to convey to his listeners that God’s judgment was about payment for sins. Sinful people abused the sacrificial system of the Old Testament to suggest they could do whatever they wanted as long as they went through the atonement rituals to cleanse themselves of their sins. They put their faith in the rituals instead of putting it in God. They failed to see that animal sacrifice is never what God wanted – He just used it as a means of creating and maintaining humble, obedient hearts in His people. Isaiah’s illustration of the massacre of sacrificial animals was a metaphor meant to display that no amount of ritual or religion could save them from the wrath of God. For us, the implication is that the only way to be saved from judgment is to take refuge in the true sacrifice of Christ. Let’s read verses 8-15:

Isa 34:8  For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. 

Isa 34:9  And the streams of Edom shall be turned into pitch, and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning pitch. 

Isa 34:10  Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever. 

Isa 34:11  But the hawk and the porcupine shall possess it, the owl and the raven shall dwell in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness. 

Isa 34:12  Its nobles—there is no one there to call it a kingdom, and all its princes shall be nothing. 

Isa 34:13  Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. 

Isa 34:14  And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place. 

Isa 34:15  There the owl nests and lays and hatches and gathers her young in her shadow; indeed, there the hawks are gathered, each one with her mate.

The people of Edom cheered and assisted the Babylonians as they destroyed Jerusalem. They thought their clever diplomacy and dishonorable conduct had won them the power they so desired. But really it has just led to this: utter desolation. When you walk away from God you walk away from order. The only options left for you are chaos or pathological order which will inevitably break back down into chaos. So when we see God stretch the line of confusion and the plumb line of emptiness over Edom – it’s a picture of their civilization returning to the chaos from whence it came. The Hebrew words used here are tohu and bohu which appear in the second verse of the Bible to describe the world before God ordered it and filled it with life.

Some translators suggest that this scene of eternal burning is a picture of hell. They go further to say that the wild, unclean animals are used as metaphors for evil spirits and demons who inhabit this place. These scholars claim the night bird is a picture of the Jewish demon Lilith. This would be the only mention of Lilith in the Old Testament and nearly all of what we know about her is apocryphal so it should be accepted with caution. It’s likely that Isaiah was simply using the mythological character to deliver a point to his listeners. Jewish mythology teaches that Lilith was a dark, sexually promiscuous demon who devoured newborn babies including her own. She vexed and persecuted people while they slept. She was known for her ability to seduce young men into misery and never let them go. It’s possible that Isaiah is referencing hell in this passage, but I think it’s also possible that hell is the only proper analogy for what happened to Edom.

Total destruction of this nation meant that the land was rendered uninhabitable to human beings. All that could dwell there were wild animals. Once again we are reminded of nuclear fallout. The social constructions once considered so important were gone. Much sought after nobility no longer existed because there was nothing left to rule over. The trusted, impenetrable strongholds and fortresses became empty ruins. There’s a lesson for us here. It’s never a good idea to compromise your integrity for social or hierarchical advancement. If enough people within a population do this – the entire thing rips itself to pieces and that which you coveted is torn away from you. You will have lost the power you desired and possibly have lost yourself along the way. Let’s read verses 16-17:

Isa 34:16  Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. 

Isa 34:17  He has cast the lot for them; his hand has portioned it out to them with the line; they shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell in it.

Isaiah has called attention to the wild animals that will come to inhabit Edom after God’s judgment. This was to show his listeners that the words he spoke had been given to him by God. The Edomite civilization would be gone and the land would return to the wild. It was an appeal to God’s authority for the truthfulness of his words. If the people didn’t believe Isaiah – one day they would find out for themselves. And that brings us into chapter 35 where we shift away from the horrific scene of God’s judgment and toward the salvation of all who are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. This scene shows us how the approach of God and the full revelation of His holy presence results in the transformation of the cosmos and of the people who are saved by grace through faith. Let’s read verses 1-2:

Isa 35:1  The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 

Isa 35:2  it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.

To Isaiah’s audience, these verses would mean that Edom’s destruction ushered in a time when the previously contested lands would be able to thrive free of Edomite pressure. Judah and Edom fought over land south of the Dead Sea called the Arabah. It was a dry wilderness but sometimes shepherds would go there with their flocks hoping it would rain. With Edom gone, Isaiah predicted that this land would become as verdant as the forests of Lebanon and as lush as the fields of Sharon and Carmel. Reading these verses today carries a new meaning. We see that the creation itself blossoms, rejoices, and sings with joy at the approach of its Creator. God’s reversal of the curse in combination with His divine presence will cause the land to burst forth with life and joy. The redeemed people will look upon God fully revealed and experience His glory and His majesty. Let’s read verses 3-7:

Isa 35:3  Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 

Isa 35:4  Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” 

Isa 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 

Isa 35:6  then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 

Isa 35:7  the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

These verses are an assurance for those in the midst of struggle. Having doubts and being depressed doesn’t make you any less one of God’s children. It just means that you might need some help and you might need to be strengthened by those who can offer encouragement. God is committed to you even when you don’t feel so committed to Him. It is from His commitment that you can draw strength when you have no strength of your own. In addition to drawing strength from God’s commitment to you, you can also find hope in His faithful promise that He will save you. Do what you can to rest in that promise and allow your anxiety to melt away.

God’s approach and restoration heals the people who are with Him. The blind see. The deaf hear. The lame get up and walk. Those who are mute will sing for joy. Jesus performed these inaugural miracles during His first coming to earth. God tends to show us small-scale precursors to universal things which are to come. Judgments worked this way in the Old Testament and miracles of restoration carried the same theme in the New Testament. Jesus healed when He walked the earth because when He redeems the entire creation all will be healed. God’s salvation will bring both spiritual well-being and physical wholeness. Let’s read verses 8-10:

Isa 35:8  And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 

Isa 35:9  No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 

Isa 35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

First let’s look at the near-view of this prophecy. Edom’s destruction brought liberation to Judah’s border territories and freed up the trade routes going into Jerusalem. This meant that pilgrims could once again walk to the Holy City to commune with their God. The judgment against Edom is highly attested to in the Old Testament and I think it’s in part because Edom so accurately represents what enmity with God looks like. The Edomites were abusive and persecuted helpless Jewish people in many ways. They expropriated the best land from local residents in Palestine. They collected tolls from commerce on the highways. They harassed pilgrims who were trying to walk to Jerusalem and made the journey very dangerous if not impossible. As a crescendo to their acts of evil, the Edomites sold themselves to the Babylonians and helped them destroy Jerusalem. They laughed at Judah and kicked them while they were down. These traits are so clearly indicative of modern people who live in rebellion to God. A person given over to these kinds of evil actions is by definition a person who must be devoid of the fruit of the Spirit. So the Edomites – like those who lived their lives in rebellion to God – faced judgment.

In these final verses we see a highway called the Way of Holiness. Some scholars suggest this points to the highways running into Jerusalem which had been liberated from the Edomites. Other scholars take a distant-view of this prophecy and suggest that it is describing an eschatological highway that the redeemed will use to travel to Jerusalem and see God after Christ returns. The Way of Holiness will be so clearly marked that even fools will not miss it. I take a lot of comfort in that idea. It makes me believe that those who go on to everlasting life with God are those whose hearts were with him – even if their heads were too muddled to realize it. God isn’t going to trick you into spending eternity apart from Him.

In these chapters we saw that God’s judgment is only the first scene in His greater redemptive plan. God clears the world of the ungodly in order to prepare the creation for its final restoration. When He approaches, His divine presence fully revealed, the entire universe erupts with joy and everlasting life.

If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it on Apple Podcasts. You can find the link on my website. You can follow The MHB Podcast on Facebook or Twitter @mhbpodcast. Tell your friends about it and share it on social media. With your help we can bring this work to those who need it and God-willing we will change the course their lives. If you’d like to support my work directly, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me, and I will see you in the next episode.