The Desert Shall Blossom As The Rose: For The 3rd Sunday Of Advent

The Desert Shall Blossom as the Rose: For the Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 35:1-10As we continue our Advent study this year from the Old Testament book of Isaiah, we come to this passage in chapter 35. as a way of reminder, we have discussed how the book of Isaiah is a mixture of prophecies of extreme judgment and undying hope. If we were to go back to chapter 34, for example, we have prophecies of severe judgment against the land of Edom. Edom is another name for Esau, Jacob’s twin brother, whose descendants inhabited an area on the Southeast side of the Dead Sea. Today, this area would be virtually uninhabitable desert apart from modern technology as it is dry and desolate wilderness. But studies of the Ancient world of the Middle East show that at one time, the climate was quite different. Abraham’s nephew, Lot, chose the area of Sodom and Gomorrah at the bottom of the Dead Sea because it was “well-watered.” As the Dead Sea is so salty that the water is undrinkable, this could only mean that at one time the area either received much more rainfall or had many freshwater springs such as the present En-Gedi which flows into the Dead Sea from the west.

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We don’t know the conditions of the land of Edom in the day of Isaiah, but it would have had to have been far more livable than it is today to have supported cities like Bozrah. So, we can see that the LORD’s judgment against Edom came to pass. the well-watered garden became a wild desert. This decline happened gradually as their territory decreased. It was not until 70 AD that Edom (Idumea) was destroyed. The same calamity which overcame the Jews also overcame the Edomites as well. The only difference is that God has preserved a remnant of Israel to this day. The only monument to Edom is the ruins of the city of Petra which was carved into the cliff, and the memory that Herod the Great came from Idumea.

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The LORD also prophesied judgment against His own people in Isaiah also. Within a few years, the Northern Kingdom of Israel would be taken captive to Assyria and become wilderness. A few were allowed to return to keep the wild animal population under control. But Israel became a ruin. Soon Judah would follow her into captivity, this time to Babylon. So, other than a scattered few, all of Israel and Judah became desert. This was the first of two disastrous exiles for the Jews.

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God gave Isaiah a prophecy that unlike Edom. Israel would be restored, The desert it had become would blossom as the rose. Isaiah uses the most joyful terms to describe the restoration of Israel. Even Carmel and Sharon would rejoice with her. The desert eagerly awaited the return of God’s people. Isaiah describes a time of abundance. We see the joy of the exiles who returned to Jerusalem after they were allowed to return home in 539 BC in Psalm 126. But the joy was quickly tempered by the harsh reality of the ruin of their homeland. The city of Jerusalem and the Temple were in ruins, the place was a desert. Most of the Jews remained in Babylon. Eventually through the prophecy of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah, a smaller Temple was erected.It would be another generation before Nehemiah would rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Judah was still a client kingdom of Persia. when the Persians were conquered by Alexander the Great, and Judah became a subject of either Greek Seleucid or the Greek Ptolemaic kingdoms named after the generals of Alexander. Israel broke free and for about 100 years maintained a tenuous independence before falling to Rome. so the fullness of Isaiah’s prophecy does not seem to have been fulfilled by the return from Babylonian captivity.

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Isaiah has many prophecies about the Messiah who would be the means of the fulfillment of this and other prophecies. We as Christians hold that this expected Messiah is none other than Jesus Christ. Indeed, he opened the ears of the deaf and loosened the tongue of the dead. The Gospel of John tells us in John 1:14 that the glory of the LORD stands revealed in the flesh of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Jesus in His earthly tabernacle amongst his people brought rivers of living water (John 7:37-39). His people did not understand how He would bring deliverance to them. They thought in a kingdom of earthly splendour. But Jesus would bring restoration through His cross as an atonement for sin. But the fullness of the restoration still awaits His return.

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Many see the restoration of the Jews in 1947 as being the restoration of the Jews. Indeed, they have made the country of Israel bloom like the rose. They brought irrigation to the farmlands which has greatly increased the yield of the land. They even have managed to grow crops in the Dead Sea valley despite the extreme saltiness of the soil. Because of the dense air at 1200 feet below sea level, crops grow quickly. In the ancient world, the plain of the dead sea grew fruits which otherwise only could be grown in the tropics. So in this sens the land of Israel has blossomed as the rose. Israel has developed many new technologies, and are known for their advances on medicine. So it is easy to see this as being Isaiah’s promise of restoration.