Transformation.
xxxv. 1, 2, 7. The wilderness and the solitary place, &c.
Chapters xxxiv., xxxv., form one prediction, first announcing the doom of Edom, and then taking us into a new sphere where all is light, beauty, and gladness; a prediction which had a fulfilment in the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon to Jerusalem, which they set above their chiefest joy. But the prophecy is one of those in which the so-called secondary meaning is, in truth, the primary; the spiritual takes precedence to the natural, and the fulfilment is to be looked for, not in a remnant of Israel returning to the land of their fathers, but in these grand Gospel times, in which humanity, cursed and bloated by sin, is blessed, saved, and dignified by the influences that stream from the Cross of Calvary.
I. The end condition of the localities on which the Gospel is intended to operate.
How suggestive the descriptive symbols: a “wilderness,” a “solitary place,” “parched ground,” a “habitation of dragons.” The desolation turns mainly on the absence of water. No other similes could so vividly depict moral barrenness and death. The unregenerate heart is desolate, weary, solitary. Moreover, it is “a habitation of dragons,” a foul serpent-brood of uncontrolled passions.
This true of the world as well as of the individual. Think of the great unreclaimed wastes of heathendom. Can civilisation renew them? It has been tried and found wanting.[1] Only the Water of Life, gushing from the smitten Rock, can give moral life.
II. The effects produced by the kingdom of Jesus.[2]
Even we can appreciate the value of water and the beauty of its effects. But to Orientals water is a matter of life and death. Hence as an emblem it is employed to bring before the mind the blessed and joy-giving results of the kingdom of Christ. Note these results as they are brought before us in our text. 1. Gladness. “The wilderness and the solitary place,” &c. Music of Nature after copious rains following on scorching heat. This an emblem of the joy brought to human hearts by the Gospel. The wilderness state one of sorrow; the river of the water of life running through the heart makes it glad. This is seen in cases where sin and terror are cast out of the heart by the love of God. How this result has been manifested in modern times in nations converted from idolatry to Christianity (H. E. I. 1134). 2. Fertility. “It shall blossom,” &c. The desert is barren. The Gospel changes moral wilderness into fruitful gardens; the individual, the nation. 3. Beauty. Think first of a part of the earth’s surface parched, desert, and barren, and then of it as a garden covered with the fairest flowers. The first and most striking impression made upon the mind by such a transformation would not be so much that of fertility as of surpassing beauty. So with this moral transformation. Contrast the state of a country before with its condition after having received the Gospel (H. E. I. 1126, 1127). Look at the annals of missionary effort: Madagascar, Samoa, the Fiji Islands, &c. The same change occurs in individual character. 4. Glory and majesty. “The glory of Lebanon,” &c. Symbols of all that is glorious and majestic. To live by the power of Jesus the secret of a noble life. Alliance with heaven raises men to regal dignity. The Gospel elevates the character and dignifies the pursuits of men. Our lower pursuits are ennobled by a Christian aim, whilst the higher life has the very glory of God resting on it. 5. A vision that extends into the Holy of Holies. “They shall see the glory of Jehovah,” &c. Only in Christ can we see this. He is the glory of God. The Shekinah is seen above the blood-besprinkled mercy-seat.—John Key in the Modern Scottish Pulpit, vol. i. pp. 133–143.
This chapter is an anticipation of the great prophecy of the restoration (xl.–lxvi.) The firm confidence in God, the boundless hopefulness, the glowing visions of the future, the vigour and joyousness that spread so broad a splendour over that famous Scripture are here in a brief compendium. It has been assigned to the state of Judah under Hezekiah, to the return from the exile, to the Christian dispensation, to a future condition of Palestine, to some future state of the Church or of the world, as well as to some other occasions. Two plain facts are before us—1. At no period of Jewish history was there any approach to a perfect realisation of the magnificent promises of this and allied predictions. 2. God has already given to us so substantial a foretaste of the blessings here promised, that we may rest assured that the one satisfying fulfilment of the prophecy will be in the triumph of the kingdom of heaven through the power of the Gospel of Christ.
Let us look at the picture in the light of its glowing fulfilment.