DAY 205: Isaiah 35–36

Welcome to 5 -Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's July the 24th, and we'll be looking at Isaiah 35 -36. Now yesterday, Isaiah contrasted Egypt's fleshly horses with the righteous king.

Isaiah’s Promise of Restoration in the Wilderness

The outpoured spirit and Zion secured beneath the Lord's reign. Well today, that section ended with the wilderness of judgment, and Isaiah is going to place the opposite future beside of it. The desert is going to blossom, the weak are going to be strengthened, and the redeemed are going to return to Zion with everlasting joy.

And then after these oracles are given, Assyria is going to arrive at Jerusalem's walls, and they're going to have a choice to make. The promise has been spoken before the crisis began. God is going to destroy Assyria.

But Judah must decide whether the word of the Lord or the voice of the king in the empire are going to be what interprets their reality. Now Isaiah 35 opens with the transformation of the wilderness. The deserts are going to rejoice and blossom abundantly and display the glory of God.

The prophet tells frightened people to strengthen their weak hands and their anxious hearts because God himself will come, and he's going to save them. And when he comes, blind eyes are going to open, deaf ears are going to hear, the lame are going to leap like deer, and the mute's tongues are going to be unloosed so that they can shout for joy.

Waters are going to break forth in the wilderness, and the burning sand will become a Edenic paradise. The text also talks about a highway of holiness that will appear. The unclean will not travel upon it.

Assyria’s Siege and the Rabshakeh’s Challenge

No beast will threaten those who walk there. And the redeemed of the Lord will return to Zion with everlasting joy. Sorrow and sighing will flee away. Then Isaiah 36 changes the scene abruptly. Sennacherib invades Judah and captures its fortified cities, and he sends the Rabshakha with a great army to Jerusalem.

He stands beside the conduit of the upper pool, the same place where Isaiah once confronted Ahaz and called him to trust the Lord rather than the foreign powers. And the Rabshakha ask Hezekiah's representatives, Where's the confidence that you have?

He mocks Judah's weakness. He ridicules Egypt as a broken reed, and he claims Hezekiah has offended the Lord by removing the high places. And then he speaks loudly in Hebrew so that the people on the wall can hear.

And he tells them not to trust Hezekiah or to believe that Jerusalem's God can deliver them when the gods of conquered nations could not deliver them from the might of Assyria either. He promises food and vineyards and a land like their own if they surrender.

Choosing Between God’s Promise and the Enemy’s Threat

But the people remain silent because Hezekiah commanded them not to speak a word to the Assyrians. So as you read today, I want you to ask the following question. Will God's people believe his promises when everything around them appears to contradict it?

Isaiah 35 and 36 places the word of God beside the army of Assyria. God promises salvation and restoration, but Assyria displays captured cities and military power. Faith in that moment must decide which voice is going to speak the final truth, the promises of God or the threats of the enemy.

And the central tension in this passage is between the promised salvation and the danger that's visible right in front of our eyes. Isaiah 35 speaks with certainty. God is going to come. The weak are going to be strengthened.

The fearful are going to be saved. The wilderness is going to blossom. The redeemed will return. But then Assyria comes. And that order matters because God gives the promise before the crisis reaches Jerusalem.

His word is not a desperate reaction to Sennacherib. The Lord governs the enemy and declares salvation before the Rabshakha begins speaking. And the location makes this confrontation even sharper because years earlier Ahaz stood beside this same conduit and refused to trust the Lord, choosing instead to trust in Assyria.

Now the empire that Ahaz was trusting stands in the very same place, threatening his son who will get to see deliverance instead of his father. Yesterday's false refuge now has become today's defeated enemy.

The Rabshakeh’s Mixture of Truth and Unbelief

Now the Rabshakha knows battles are often won in the heart before the field, so he wants to break Jerusalem's confidence before breaching her walls. So he asks, on whom do you rely? His argument is persuasive because it mixes truth with error.

Egypt really is a broken reed. Judah really is weak and incapable of defeating Assyria on her own. Assyria really has conquered many nations. But from those facts he draws a blasphemous conclusion. Therefore the Lord, like all of the other gods, will not be able to save you.

Which a statement like that could have struck fear into the hearts of God's people because fear often begins with something true. The danger really is real. The weakness is real. The resources appear insufficient.

All of that's true. But unbelief takes those observations and removes God out of the equation. Faith, on the other hand, doesn't deny Assyria's army. Faith denies that Assyria is ultimate or that Assyria is sovereign.

Assyria’s Counterfeit Salvation

The Rabshakha offers an Egyptian counterfeit of salvation. Surrender to us and you can receive your peace and vineyards and good land. Well, the empire promises life through submission while concealing the exile beneath its offer.

Jesus as Isaiah’s Coming Salvation

The people remain silent, thankfully, and they refuse to let the enemy dictate the terms of their faith. The Rabshakha has spoken, but he has not spoken the final word. And in all of that, Isaiah 35 -36 points us directly to Jesus as the coming God, the one who's going to be the healer of his people, the way of the new Exodus, and the king whose purposes cannot fail.

Isaiah announces that God himself is going to come and save them. Their blind eyes are going to be opened. Their deaf ears are going to hear. The lame are going to walk, and the mute tongues are going to be released.

And when John the Baptist later asks whether Jesus is the coming one, this is the answer that Jesus provides. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the good news is preached. He's telling John, my miracles are not isolated wonders, but they're accomplishing what Isaiah promised, the salvation that is coming through the true king who is also Yahweh himself.

Christ is the one who opens up the highway of holiness by which the redeemed people return to God. Through his death and resurrection, he removes guilt and brings his people into the Father's presence forever.

He doesn't merely point us towards the road home. He is the way, he is the truth, and he is the life. In another way, the blossoming wilderness also anticipates the fruitfulness of his kingdom. The gospel is going to bring living water into barren places.

The Cross, Resurrection, and Final Victory

Sinners are going to receive life. Nations are going to stream to Zion. And all of that is going to happen in lands that once were ruled by idols, but now rejoice underneath the reign of Christ. At the same time, the rabshakha anticipates the mocking voices that are going to surround the cross.

Jesus is going to be challenged to prove that the Father delights in him, and his suffering is presented as evidence that God will not save. But Jesus, like the Judeans, entrusts himself to the Father, passes through the coming death, and rises in victory in a greater way than Judah ever could.

Reading Isaiah’s Two Competing Voices

Assyria says God can't deliver you, but the resurrection answers that no empire, accusation, power, or even a grave can overturn the promises of God. So as you read Isaiah 35 -36 today, listen to the two competing voices.

The word promises that he will come and he will save, while Assyria insists that Jerusalem cannot be delivered. And tomorrow we're going to see Hezekiah will carry the enemy's words into the house of the Lord, and Isaiah will announce to the king God's answer.

And Psalm 76 is going to celebrate the one who breaks the weapons of war and defends his dwelling in Zion. But with that, read your Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully, and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely, and we will continue our journey tomorrow.

God bless you.