Sermon Tone Analysis
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Welcome back to gardening class.
We are talking in these weeks about spiritual fruit.
And this week we are up to the spiritual fruit of joy.
And the Bible passage we are looking at today also talks about a garden.
We are going to see today how those things all connect together.
This chapter in Isaiah gives us a rather unusual perspective to think about joy.
It might take a little bit of unpacking for us to see the complexity of how joy is expressed in these verses.
So, let’s start out this way; I am going to begin by pointing out a few of the unique features of this passage, and from there we will make a few observations about the spiritual fruit of joy in light of Isaiah 35.
Features of Isaiah 35
“bookend” theme of joy
First thing: a theme of joy is wrapped around Isaiah 35 by the bookend repetition.
The chapter begins with a mention of joy and rejoicing in verses 1-2.
And the chapter ends by repeating joy and rejoicing in verse 10.
This tells us something.
It tells us that everything happening in this chapter is framed in joy and rejoicing.
The activity being described in Isaiah 35 is a depiction of what joy looks like for the people of God.
We’ll get back to that when we get to talking about the spiritual fruit of joy in just a bit.
mirror between chapter 34 & 35
Second feature: Isaiah 35 is a mirror of Isaiah 34.
This section in the writing of Isaiah all comes as poetry.
In fact, let’s notice the big picture of how these chapters fit into the book of Isaiah as a whole.
Isaiah 35 concludes a long section of poetry which begins all the way back in chapter 6 where Isaiah sees a vision of the throne room of God and receives his commission from God.
Most of the following chapters are pronouncements of various kinds of judgement upon Israel and the surrounding nations.
And all of that is summarized in the poetic vision of Isaiah 34-35.
34 — lush and fertile garden land which becomes a desolate and barren desert wasteland
35 — desolate and barren desert wasteland which becomes a lush and fertile garden land
Here is the snapshot image of how those two chapters are mirror images of each other.
Isaiah 34 describes a lush and fertile garden land which becomes a desolate and barren desert wasteland.
And Isaiah 35—which we read for today—describes how this desolate and barren desert wasteland becomes a lush and fertile garden once again.
Chapter 35 is the poetic undoing of chapter 34.
We cannot fully understand Isaiah 35 without seeing it in its context right against Isaiah 34, and the culmination of all the poetry in Isaiah which begins back in chapter 6.
four stanzas — what God does and the result which occurs
Third feature: Isaiah 35 describes first what God does, and then the result which occurs because of what God does.
let’s look closely at the breakdown of this chapter; the separations are captured in the English translation as well.
We had to take the line breaks out in the print bulletin so that it would all fit in.
But if you have this passage open in an NIV Bible, you see the line breaks that give the four stanzas of this poem.
The stanzas go two verses, two verses, three verses, and three verses.
The couplet of two-verse stanzas describes what God does (verses 1-4).
And the couplet of three-verse stanzas describes what occurs as a result of what God does (verses 5-10).
And remember what we saw in the beginning, that this whole thing is framed in joy.
Let’s take a look.
stanzas 1 & 2 — God’s presence transforms the wilderness into a blooming garden — gives strength and encouragement to his people
Verses 1-4 show us a desert wilderness which God transforms into a lush and fertile garden.
And within this revived wasteland God provides renewed strength and energy for his people there.
Look at what God does.
God comes to the desert wilderness and makes it into a blooming garden.
God does not wait outside of the desert for his people to come and find him.
God does not pull his people out of the desert to come be with him.
No. God is the one who moves to be with his people in the desert.
God goes to them where they are.
And by going to the desert wasteland, God’s presence transforms this wilderness into a blooming garden.
God does not take his people out of the desert and bring them into a garden.
God comes to his people and he brings the garden with him.
stanza 3 — reverse order: result of people being strengthened and result of desert becoming garden
Stanza three begins to describe what occurs as a result of God coming to his people in the wilderness.
It is described in reverse order of what we see in verses 1-4.
Verse 5-6a gives further description of what happens when God strengthens and encourages his people.
And verse 6b-7 gives further description of what happens when the desert becomes a garden.
stanza 4 — garden as passage for the redeemed
The final stanza marks out an interesting distinction.
Not everyone in this wilderness will participate in the joy of the garden.
And those who do participate will find passage to follow God to full restoration.
Notice: in the Old Testament context of Isaiah during the time of exile, full restoration of the covenant meant a return to the promised land; this is why the poem ends with people returning to Zion.
The Desert and the Garden Today
Alright; that’s step one – we look at the features of Isaiah 35 in its original context of the Old Testament.
Now let’s move on to consider how that context of Isaiah 35 fits with us in the church today.
The God who came to rescue and redeem Old Testament Israel from the wilderness of exile is the same God who comes to rescue and redeem us from the wilderness of a broken and sinful world
We often see ways in which Old Testament passages preview forward to the coming Messiah.
It is Jesus who comes into the barren wasteland of a broken and sinful world.
It is Jesus who brings with him the resurrection of new vibrant life into a world that is desolate and lost.
It is Jesus who redeems God’s people, and through the Holy Spirit gives strength and encouragement to follow him.
The God who came to rescue and redeem Old Testament Israel from the wilderness of exile is the same God who comes to rescue and redeem us from the wilderness of a broken and sinful world.
God does not transport his people out from desert
God transforms the desert itself into a place that can be a garden
It seems to me that the most prominent feature to note about the desert and the garden is that these passages in Isaiah 34 and 35 present it as the same place.
It is not an either/or scenario.
These are not two separate places in these chapters.
It is not that the desert is one place, and the garden is another place.
They are the same place.
In Isaiah 34 it is the garden that becomes a desert.
And in Isaiah 35 it is the desert that becomes a garden.
This is why that feature is important.
There may be those among us here today who experience life as a desert wilderness.
Maybe there has been a period of struggle in your life that has you feeling like you are stuck in a dry and desolate place.
And often in that place our prayer and desire is for God to come and take us out of this wilderness and bring us into the lush and thriving garden of God’s goodness.
We pray for God to transport us from surroundings of wilderness and place us into surroundings of gardens.
Isaiah reminds us that God does not transport his people out from desert.
Rather, God transforms the desert itself into a place that can be a garden.
garden has a purpose
not an oasis
Maybe this doesn’t seem very helpful yet; keep going with me.
Because of life feels like a wilderness right now, it may not be very helpful for me to stand here and tell you that God will make your desert into a garden.
The key here is to understand that in Isaiah 35 the garden has a purpose.
There is a reason for God to do what he does in Isaiah 35.
You see, I sometimes think we confuse the garden in Isaiah 35 for an oasis.
You know what an oasis is.
An oasis is a little slice of flourishing land in the middle of a desert.
An oasis is a place which provides refreshment for those who come to that place.
An oasis is a place where you can find some provision and reprieve from the harsh conditions of the surrounding desert.
Isaiah does not intend for the garden he is describing in chapter 35 to be like that—to be an oasis.
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