Isaiah 35 envisions God’s restoration of Jerusalem after the exile. Return to Jerusalem, its ruins home only to jackals, must have seemed an utopian dream to Israelites in exile. By 539 BCE, when Second Isaiah prophesies, they had lived in exile for nearly two generations and prospered.
Second Isaiah draws on ancient images of God as the divine warrior who will avenge Israel and restore them as a people. God is a powerful warrior who will lead Israel through the wilderness as once God led Israel’s ancestors through the sea.
God is creator whose coming makes the desert bloom and the blind, deaf, lame, and silent whole. Blooming, healing, and joy are signs of the coming of Israel’s God, signs of the messiah.
Second Isaiah’s vision
Say to those who are
of a fearful heart;
“Be strong. Do not fear!
Here is your God.
God will come with vengeance,
with terrible recompense.
God 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 speechless
shall shout for joy.
For waters shall break forth
in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand
will become a pool,
and the thirsty ground
springs of water.
Isaiah 35.4-7
- What is your vision of wholeness for the human race today? What are its signs?