"The Way of Holiness" Isaiah 35:8-10

Introduction:

A. In Isaiah 35:8-10, the prophet describes a transformative vision of a highway that leads to restoration for the people of God.

This was good news for the people of Israel in Isaiah’s day because the Lord had been declaring that His people were in a spiritual wasteland that was coming under His judgment.

This transformative highway that the Lord is speaking of is described in such a way as to provide spiritual benefits to His people.

Highways in ancient times connected nations for travel and commerce which brought prosperity. But the Lord uses the allegorical imagery of a highway to denote a spiritual restoration and prosperity that He would bring in the restoration of His Kingdom through His coming Messiah. Just look back and read verses 1-7 to see the context and you know Christ brought it in His Kingdom.

The Lord is declaring through the prophet Isaiah that there is coming a highway for His people to travel that will bring them to spiritual restoration. And this is seen in three provisions being declared by the Lord Himself that in the end benefit His covenant people in this restoration. The first provision is seen in verse 8, Look back at your text:

I. The Provision of Purity (8). “8 And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.”

A. Notice first that the highway has a name and it is called the “Way of Holiness” and this denotes that it is a highway that has been established by the Lord as a provision to His people.

This is a highway that required the original GPS in order to travel it. And it had nothing to do with Global Positioned Satellites but it was another kind of GPS, namely God’s Providential Sovereignty.

And it is the Way of Holiness that is characterized by purity because the unclean will not pass over this highway. The implication is that only the spiritually clean will walk on it.

This is God’s doing as He is the one who worked by His grace to apply the work of Christ to His people and to make them clean. And their walk is reflective of the work having been applied to their lives.

This is why the end of verse 8 says that, even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. And this is good news to most of us that it is not our intellect that brought us to the Way of Holiness and nor is it our intellect that keeps us on the Way of Holiness.

God is at work in us by His sovereign grace and He has applied the work of Christ to us in our justification by faith alone and He is sanctifying us by that same grace. He not only placed us on that road but He is sanctifying us in such a way that our walk is reflective of the name of the highway that we are on.

Without Him we would never take such a direction in life and neither would we stay on such a road even if we did take it. There is a provision of purity but there is a provision of protection too as we can see in verse 9. Look back at your text to verse 9:

II. The Provision of Protection (9). “9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there.”

A. There is no need to fear the lion or any other beast on the Way of Holiness. There are nor dangerous animals to devour you because your security rest in your identity as the redeemed of God.

Safety and divine protection characterize the journey for the redeemed on this highway. This word “redeemed” in the Hebrew denotes the idea of retaining for ones own possession. God’s children are His and He has redeemed them by the blood of Christ and they are kept by Him and for His purposes.

The Lord not only purified us through Christ but He bought us for himself and ransomed us from the demands of the law to make us His own relationally. Nothing can separate us from God nor can it keep us from Him and keep us from being secured to Him for all eternity if we are truly His. This is not just a theological truth but it is one that has a relational component to it. We are His! We are bound to Him through Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, second person of the Godhead.

Only the redeemed walk the “Way of Holiness” because no one else is secured by God’s Providential Sovereignty and protected by such divine and effectual grace. God promises that no harmful thing will distract or harm those who walk His path.

I am reminded of Bunyan’s allegory of Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian comes to a spot on the King’s Highway where there are two Lions on the side of the rode. One on one side and one on the other. And they are ferocious and Christian was gripped by fear but a man called “Watchful” cried out to Him fear not the lions for they are chained! Stay in the middle of the road!

Christian couldn’t see at first the chains of God’s sovereign care protecting Him on His journey. God has secured us for Himself as His redeemed and nothing can ever change that. Those who are truly redeemed by God and are on the Way of Holiness have nothing to fear for we belong to Him and we are His and He has secured us for Himself.

The redeemed trust in God's providential care, knowing that through Christ, we are shielded from the ultimate and eternal harm of sin and death and we have this peace and assurance in this life and this eternal hope for the life to come. He provides our purity and our protection but He also provides our pleasure. Look back at your text to verse 10:

III. The Provision of Pleasure (10). “10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”

A. I am talking about pleasure in the sense of the ransomed of the Lord having everlasting joy and gladness. Life on the Way of Holiness is a joyous journey. Remember that the pursuit of holiness is not a weight to be carried but a joy to be had.

Zion is a reference to the restored Jerusalem as manifest in the already, not yet, of the Messianic Kingdom. Read Hebrews 12:18-24 later today and see how Zion is a temporal spiritual picture of restoration but also a coming end time picture of final restoration.

This distinction between the temporal and the eternal helps us make sense of how we can have joy in the face of temporal suffering and hardships

This is why Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18 tells us: “17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (See also James 1:2-4 and I Peter 1:3-9)

This understanding helps us to endure even the suffering and hardships of our current journey with joy in happiness in anticipation of what is coming.

We may get glimpses of this joy in this temporal life on the Way of Holiness but when we are reminded that the Way of Holiness is leading us in the direction of eternity where everlasting joy is upon us and where sorrow and sighing flee away the anticipation can be overwhelming sometimes.

Christian I am so glad that this world in this current fallen state is not our eternal home. The redeemed of God have a purity and a protection and a pleasure that awaits us second to none. Our experiential world reminds us of this too as C.S Lewis states so well when he says, “If we find in ourselves a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Conclusion:

This is why the only way to find true contentment and ultimate purpose is on the Way of Holiness. Because we were made by God and for God. The World and the system of the evil one tries to tempt us to live for the self and our own subjective purposes but it will never satisfy.

Unbeliever

Believer. Let’s Pray!