Joy for the Journey

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the crocus. 2 They will burst into bloom, and rejoice with joy and singing. They will receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the Lord’s glory, the splendor of our God. 3 Strengthen the weak hands, and support the unsteady knees. 4 Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear!” Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared. 6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, and the thirsty ground, fountains of water. The jackals’ habitat, a pasture; grass will become reeds and rushes. 8 A highway will be there. It will be called The Holy Way. The unclean won’t travel on it, but it will be for those walking on that way. Even fools won’t get lost on it; 9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it. 10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away.

Joy for the Journey

Two more Sundays until Christmas Day. The season rushes headlong towards that day. For most kids it is a season of hope and joy.

We spend way more than we should this time of year that even the one who we celebrate gets shorted at Christmas time as giving for the Kingdom work takes a big dip.

Joy and hope seem to belong together. It is easier to be joyful when we have hope. It is easier to have hope when we have something to be joyful about.

I read an interesting account about the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I haven’t seen it yet this year. It is one of those movies that you never get tired of seeing because of the hope and joy that is portrayed in it. There was a story that Jimmy Stewart wrote in the Guidepost Magazine years ago that was about this movie. It is poignant scene in the move and I didn’t realize that there was more to the story.

Remember the movie? George Bailey, the lead character in this heartwarming film, never felt like he amounted to much in life. He had dreams of becoming a famous architect, of traveling the world. Instead he feels trapped in a humdrum job in a small town. Then a crisis occurs that strains his every resource. He is faced with unjust criminal charges. Although he has a fine family and many friends in the community, the injustice of the situation plunges him into despair. Faced with this crisis, George Bailey breaks down and leaps off a bridge into a river. That's when his guardian angel, Clarence, comes down to show him what his community would be like without him. The angel takes him back through his life. He shows George how his job has benefited many families, how his little kindnesses and thoughtful acts have changed the lives of others, and how the ripples of George's love will spread through the world, helping to make it a better place.

In one scene, for example, George Bailey is faced with unjust criminal charges and, not knowing where to turn, ends up in a little roadside restaurant. He is unaware that most of the people in town are arduously praying for him. In this scene, at the lowest point in George Bailey's life, Frank Capra was shooting a long shot of me slumped in despair. In agony I raise my eyes and following the script, plead, 'God...God...dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way, I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God...'

As I said those words, I felt the loneliness and hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless had reduced me to tears.

Stewart now says, "As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, had reduced me to tears." [1]

Our scripture text today is for people like George Bailey who are struggling for hope and joy.

Isaiah begins talking about a desert and dry land. The only desert I’ve ever been to is the Chihaunhaun desert in El Paso Texas. It was interesting to experience a different part of country, but I thought I could never live there. It is too dry, there was not much greenery. We explored some of the mountains surrounding the city with lots of gypsum. I was glad to get back home.

Isaiah says

Isaiah 35:1–2 CEB

Following those first warm days in the spring and their may still be some snow on the ground we’ll see those crocuses pushing their heads up and blooming. It is a sign that spring is on the way and the long cold winter is past. It is a sign of hope.

That is the picture that Isaiah is painting of hope and joy.

This time of year is a time when music plays a huge role in the celebration of Advent and Christmas.

One pastor told a could of humorous stories about music. He first wrote:

A man and his wife were browsing in a crafts store one day when the man noticed a display of country-style musical instruments. After looking over the flutes, dulcimers and recorders, he picked up a shiny, one-stringed instrument he took to be a mouth harp. He put it to his lips and, much to the amusement of other shoppers, twanged a few notes on it. After watching from a distance, his wife came up and whispered in his ear, “I hate to tell you this, honey, but you’re trying to play a cheese slicer.”

Not all of us are musicians. He went on and wrote:

One woman was talking about her parents who had recently retired. Her mom had always wanted to learn to play the piano, so her dad bought her mom a piano for her birthday. A few weeks later, the woman asked how her mom was doing with it.

“Oh, we returned the piano,” said her dad, “I persuaded her to switch to a clarinet instead.”

“How come?” the woman asked.

“Well,” he answered, “because with a clarinet, she can’t sing while she plays.”

We’re not all great singers. That’s all right. We can still make a joyful noise.

The last story he wrote about was a story about a choir at a Catholic church. A soprano for a solo was to sing for Sunday Mass. As the soloist’s beautiful voice soared through the church, she was suddenly joined by a bedraggled “street person” who had wandered in and taken a seat near the choir. The newcomer’s voice had seen better days, and it quavered along, slightly off-key, through the entire song. The choir members kept looking frantically at the director, who made no move to interrupt the intruder.

Afterward, some of the members of the choir asked the director why he hadn’t stopped her.

“Because,” he replied, “I wasn’t sure which song God would like better.” [2]

The joy is going to burst forth in praise and song. There was an odd encounter 4 years ago in the Reading PA area. There was a 30 something guy who had barricaded himself in his house for many hours. He had fired shots at the police that had responded. Eventually he agreed to surrender after the police negotiator sang him the song “White Christmas.” [3]

That song is a song of longing and hope. We need that.

Look at the next few verses that Isaiah writes

Isaiah 35:3–6 (CEB)

Isaiah 35:3–6 CEB

3 Strengthen the weak hands, and support the unsteady knees. 4 Say to those who are panicking: “Be strong! Don’t fear!” Here’s your God, coming with vengeance; with divine retribution God will come to save you. 5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be cleared. 6 Then the lame will leap like the deer, and the tongue of the speechless will sing. Waters will spring up in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.

Notice that he doesn’t say anything about the wealthy and healthy here. He is writing about the least of these.

One commentator suggested that verses 3 and 4 reflect a “transformation of attitudes” for the children of Israel.

The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 17: Isaiah 1–39 (From Weak to Strong)

“Weak hands” is the symbol of powerlessness and the inability to get things done.

“Feeble knees” suggests the inability to move forward with a sense of direction. As we remember, the drunken leaders of Israel had misled the people so that they no longer trusted their leaders or themselves.

The “fearful-hearted” are the people who have been traumatized again and again by threats of attack and destruction so that they lived emotionally on the raw edge of frenzy. To live constantly in fear drains the body, mind, and soul of its vitality, creativity, and faith.

Can you put yourself in the place of the Jews or a person with no hope and lives in constant fear?

David McKenna in his commentary on this passage said to put yourself in the shoes of someone who lacks hope and confidence and lives in constant fear. "Be strong, do not be afraid," the Lord says to you. He'll come to your aid!" (v. 4). Your feeble knees are steadied for a forward step, and your fearful heart is calmed in the assurance that the Lord will dispel your enemies and save you. The transformation of the environment from desert to garden may have been miraculous, but it pales in comparison to the transformation of the human spirit. [4]

When John the Baptist was in prison he sent some of his disciples to see Jesus and question if he was really the Messiah. John was Jesus’ cousin, he had known him all of his life.

Jesus meets with those disciples and tells them:

Matthew 11:4–6 CEB

4 Jesus responded, “Go, report to John what you hear and see. 5 Those who were blind are able to see. Those who were crippled are walking. People with skin diseases are cleansed. Those who were deaf now hear. Those who were dead are raised up. The poor have good news proclaimed to them. 6 Happy are those who don’t stumble and fall because of me.”

Jesus is quoting from this passage in Isaiah. He is saying that he is the fulfillment of this hope.

Jesus is the hope that God has made a way. Isaiah writes about it beginning in verse 8

Isaiah 35:8–10 CEB

8 A highway will be there. It will be called The Holy Way. The unclean won’t travel on it, but it will be for those walking on that way. Even fools won’t get lost on it; 9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it. 10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away.

In the desert, in the place of hopelessness it will bloom. There will be healing for the blind and lame and deaf.

There will be a highway that leads to the heavenly Kingdom of God. Isaiah says it will be called “The Holy Way.”

Not everyone will be able to walk on it. The unclean or the sinful will not be permitted on that holy way.

Access to the holy way is limited to the redeemed. It is a simple way, it is not complicated. Isaiah wrote that even fools won’t get lost on it. It is going to plainly marked so that even the simplest of people can travel on it and not get lost.

The holy way will be a safe place. Look there at verse 9

Isaiah 35:9 CEB

9 no lion will be there, and no predator will go up on it. None of these will be there; only the redeemed will walk on it.

Yes Satan is like a roaring lion, but 1 John 4:4 “4 You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

Paul wrote Romans 8:38-39 “38 I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers 39 or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.”

God in Christmas stepped out of Heaven and came to live as one of His creation. He created the highway of Holiness.

He gives us the joy for the journey.

Isaiah 35:10 “10 The Lord’s ransomed ones will return and enter Zion with singing, with everlasting joy upon their heads. Happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and groaning will flee away.”

That highway of Holiness begins for us when we repent and enter into a personal relationship with Christ. God the Holy Spirit comes to live with in us and begin that work of transforming us into the likeness of Jesus.

We are no longer walking aimlessly through life. We are on that highway of Holiness heading to the Kingdom that is here but not yet here. That Kingdom of God when Jesus returns and sets everything right.

How joyful is that! Isaac Watts wrote that before hymn:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let ev’ry heart prepare him room and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n and nature sing, and heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.

[1] Robbins, D. A. (n.d.). A Remarkable Film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Dale A Robbins. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from http://victorious.org/pub/wonderful-life-621

[2] Duncan, K. (n.d.). Sermon and Worship Resources. Sermons.Com. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.sermons.com/sermon/there-will-be-singing/1444175

[3] Armed standoff ends after SWAT member sings Christmas carol. (n.d.). Wfmj.Com. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.wfmj.com/story/39707821/armed-standoff-ends-after-swat-member-sings-christmas-carol

[4] D. McKenna and L. J. Ogilvie (1993). 1–39 Isaiah (Vol. 17, p. 326). Thomas Nelson & Company

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