Isaiah 35:3-10 reads, “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear! Behold your God will come with a vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; It shall not be found there. But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” Blessed be the reading of God’s Word this morning.
In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to get the car back. So often when we run from God, we feel we’re trying to escape His punishment. But what we are actually doing is eluding His rescue.
So it is with this morning’s Scripture. It begins by telling us about how God is coming to take vengeance. It also talks about how everything will be made new. It especially talks about a special road we can all choose to take and the benefits of staying on that road. The question is – will we, like the car thief ignore the call to come back or will be take this Highway to Holiness that Isaiah talks about?
But in order to take this Salvation Superhighway, this Highway to Holiness we have to, like Isaiah, we have to acknowledge the weakness in others and especially the weakness in ourselves. The things we say to encourage or lift others up with we must believe and be encouraged by them ourselves. We need to give out real hope. You see, there are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them.
The author, Isaiah the prophet, often seemed to have no hope about the situation that Israel was in. Much like today, we look at Israel and see no peace, no solution, no hope for a country that has terrorism and war every other day. Isaiah prophesied that Israel would be severely judged along with the other nations. He writes in the previous chapter, “He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood.”
Isaiah was not just a prophet of doom and gloom. He knew that the people always had a choice. Just like us today we have a choice of how we will encourage each other. Verses 3 and 4 do that. They talk of strengthening weak hands and shaky knees. Isaiah talks about helping those who are in fear all the time. He encourages them by saying that God will come with justice and a vengeance on the enemies of God.
I know that is not always popular to talk about the vengeance of God, His divine justice. Most of the time we would rather hear about how God is loving, forgiving and compassionate, ‘slow to anger.’ But without justice there can be no peace. Without justice there is no truth. If there were no justice behind the law then everybody would do what they wanted because there wouldn’t be consequences for things like robbery, rape, and murder.
Supreme Court Justice Horace Gray once told a man who had appeared before him in a lower court and had escaped conviction on a technicality, “I know that you are guilty and you know it, and I wish you to remember that one day you will stand before a better and wiser Judge, and there you will be dealt with according justice and not according to law.” Later, surprised while robbing a house in Belgium, the thief fled out the back door, clambered over a nine-foot wall, dropped down on the other side, and found himself in the city prison.
Justice will come to the world. Thankfully, He doesn’t stop there. He not only comes with justice for those who have broken His commandments but He comes with salvation. Verse 4 reads, “He will come and save you.” We are to hold on to the hope that in our weak times we can be encouraged by the fact that there is a God who cares about what’s right and wrong. There is a God who wants to save us. There is A God who wants to get us on the right road.
And boy do we need saving. Verses 5 and 6 specifically talk about blindness, deafness; not being able to talk or able to walk. Isaiah tells us that when God comes, “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf opened up. The lame will jump around like deer and those unable to talk will sing praises.” That’s great! When we all get to heaven we won’t have these problems anymore. When God comes all of these disabilities will be healed.”
But what is very important to remember is that Isaiah was not another politician, he wasn’t a king. Isaiah was a prophet. And unless the definition of ‘prophet’ has changed in the last 3,000 years, one thing that a prophet does is not only warn and guide a generation but make predictions about the future that come true. Here is a prediction that he wrote, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Emmanuel.” Isaiah is not only talking about the final day of when God will come to judge and save men but He is also talking about the coming Messiah.
Isaiah is talking about Jesus. See if these words sound familiar – Luke 4:18, 19 read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind…”
It is not only physical disabilities that Jesus came to heal us from but also spiritual disabilities. In a culture where being weak is the last thing anyone admits, we forget something. A person with firm convictions can be called pigheaded. A person who calls himself frank and candid can very easily find himself being tactless and cruel. Loyalty can lead to blind fanaticism. Caution can become cowardice. Confidence can become arrogance. Freedom can become a free-for-all. All these are ways in which strength can become weakness. Weakness that can make us blind to the things of God.
It is these weaknesses that Isaiah knows we can all have spiritually. Spiritually, we can have weak hands because of the wrong things we do with them. We can have shaky knees because we’re not on the solid ground of God’s truth. We can be spiritually blind like the archbishop of Canterbury who said that Stalin was bringing in the kingdom of Christ while at the same time killing millions of his own people. We can be spiritually deaf when we hear of a need in the community and choose not to act on it. We can be spiritually limping because the disease of sin has eaten at our spiritual muscle. We can cut out our own tongues spiritually by gossip, slander and cutting each other down.
Yes, we have weakness. Yes, we have spiritual disabilities. But Yes, we have a Savior. As believers we are experiencing Isaiah’s prophecy – well almost. God’s final judgment has not come. But you see, Jesus has come. He has provided a salvation Superhighway. He has set people free from the bondage of sin. He has healed the spiritually blind, deaf, dumb and lame.
Watch Isaiah talk about how, “waters will suddenly burst out in the desert; parched and dry ground becomes a lake; and how the thirsty land will bubble with springs of water.” Jesus says to the spiritually dry Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked Him and He would have given you Living Water.”
Yes, when He comes again there will be a new creation and a new earth but right now we can have that Living Water that will make our dry and thirsty souls overflow with fresh and clean springs of life. With the Living Water of Jesus Christ we will not only have our thirst quenched but there will be growth, “In the homes of the jackals (that is the desert), There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.” If you’re looking for growth and a rich, fertile life then you need to drink the Living Water of Jesus Christ. Let Him show you the Way and water your thirsty soul.
And in the middle of this blooming, lush land there will be the Salvation Superhighway. The “Highway of Holiness” as Isaiah calls it. This highway leads to Zion which in Isaiah’s time represented Jerusalem the holy capitol. And today represents the new kingdom on earth that will appear with God’s coming. Are you on that highway? Are you going in the right direction?
I am amazed sometimes by all the roadkill I see on the way to Sioux Falls. So many animals are hit by speeding cars. But the Highway of Holiness we talk about this morning has a different kind of roadkill on it. It has the roadkill of those who try to take down Christians. There is no access to predators of our faith. No temptations, no one enticing us to. “come this way.”
So are you on your journey? Have you hitchhiked onto the Salvation Superhighway? There are many exits to get on. Isaiah says that even the fool – the person without any common sense – can’t miss it. But there is one thing that the most foolish believer and the wisest believer have in common on this road. It is found in verses9 and 10. The words are ‘ransomed’ and ‘redeemed.’ One thing we all have in common as believers is that we are ransomed and redeemed by God.
You see, in order for something or someone to be ransomed and redeemed there must be value. Nobody takes their garbage to the landfill and says, “What will you give me for this overstuffed Hefty?” or, “How much for the used bag of diapers?” To be redeemed and ransomed means God must think we are worth something or else He wouldn’t waste His time on us.
But redemption has more to it than clipping coupons or collecting trading stamps. Redemption has to do with getting your life turned around, so whereas it was going in one direction, it is now headed another way… it is often referred to, “a better way.” Such an experience gives one the opportunity to start over again, and nobody knows who or what one might become.
The problem is that we have a hard time understanding the fact that God knows we’re worth something. He knows that when he created us he made us, “in His image” and a little lower that the angels. The problem with us humans is that we tend to believe one of two things. One, we don’t need to be redeemed – we’re just fine, we’re better than so-and-so, we can handle our own lives and problems just fine. The other side is that we don’t think we’re worth redeeming, we’re not worth anything, we’re beyond saving.
The first problem has to do with arrogance. The boxer Mike Tyson who has made many poor choices was quoted, “I’m in trouble because I’m normal and slightly arrogant. A lot of people don’t like themselves and I happen to be totally in love with myself.” Many people justify their sin because they believe they are the master of their own life, not needing ransom or redemption.
The second problem has to do with self-hate, thinking that you are really worth nothing or that you have sinned so much you can’t be forgiven and changed. That is, in a way, like rejecting God. God has created you to be His sons and daughters. He has created us to be a reflection of His light on earth. The problem is that we turn out reflective mirrors away from God and on each other and others. Instead of soaking up God, we soak up the world and what the world thinks of us.
Redemption is the answer. Isaiah knows this. He knows that God still sees we are worth something even when, like the Israelites, we are captives to the world and sin around us. It comes to a choice: Will we continue to be spiritually blind, deaf, dumb and lame? Spiritually handicapped because we have lost sight of the Salvation Superhighway, this Highway of Holiness.
It is easy to forget or lose our way from this highway. We need to remember as Isaiah has that it does lead to somewhere and something much better than what we are in now. It leads to real life and happiness.
Most of us who drive have had the experiences of looking for a location, a destination. We have stopped to ask for directions. Sometimes a person will give so many directions that you get lost just listening to him. But once in a while some one will say, “Follow me. I am going that way and I will take you there.” What a difference that makes when someone who knows the way takes us there themselves.
The psalms say, “You have made known to me the path of life.” Jesus does not hand us an impossible list of rules and regulations as the road map for life. But rather, over all the other voices shouting to give us directions, we hear from Jesus, declaring, “I am the Way!” He did not say He is a way among a bunch of other ways. He stated, “I am THE Way.” He is the only Highway to Holiness. He is the Salvation Superhighway. All other ways are dead ends. Praise God He has shown us the Way. Dear Jesus, the Way, please lead us this church into the next 118 years. Dear Jesus, the Way, help lead us through his journey of life.
