Isaiah 35:1-10 “Love Shall Blossom”

In our Bibles there are many references to the wilderness. In the Hebrew Scriptures we have the story of the Israelites marching through the desert for forty years. We also have the story of Elijah out in the wilderness at the river Cherinth being fed by ravens. In the New Testament we have the story of Jesus going out to the wilderness to fast for forty days. There he is tempted by Satan. In all of these stories, the emphasis is on surviving the wilderness and eventually being led out of the wilderness.

Our Scripture for this morning, however, speaks of something very different. The prophet Isaiah tells us of the desert actually being transformed. The imagery is quite beautiful. If you have your Bibles open, then you can read from Isaiah with me what it says right off in Chapter 35: “The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.”

The prophet Isaiah mentions not plumeria or bougainvillea but rather a plant that we are not so familiar with here in Hawaii. This is the crocus. It does not sound pretty in English at all. It is however a beautiful flower. If you do not like the name “crocus” because it sounds like the call of a bufo frog, then you may call this plant by its other names; for, it is also known as “The Rose of Sharon” and “The Lily of the Valley.” It has also come to be an epithetical term for the Lord Jesus Christ. (Which I definitely prefer to the alternative “Our Lord Jesus Crocus.” (ha ha) This morning I want you to focus on the Crocus!

When we are in a wilderness, we cannot forget that God can even make a desert bloom with flowers. God can make a blossom come up out of what seemed like barren ground. God cannot only lead us through the wilderness, God can completely transform the wilderness around us. God can make even the bleakest desert turn into a paradise. The words that the prophet Isaiah uses are “glad” and “joy.”

I need to share with you that the ancient Hebrew in which this poetry from Isaiah is written has so many words for “JOY.” I like this because indeed there are many different levels of joy that we can experience. And, the closer we are surrounded by that joy, the more we should see the different colors and textures of joy. So, like the Eskimos in the arctic, who have twenty-three different terms for snow in their Inuit tongue, Hebrew has so many words for joy.

The word that Isaiah chooses to insert here for “joy” in the Hebrew is גִּילָה (gilah). I would not mention this but for the fact that all of us have heard and know this word. Are you sure pastor? Yes. I am answering my own question on your behalves. I know that all of us have probably at one point or another in our lives been privy to a Jewish celebration, that being a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding, at which a Jewish folk singer will start singing “Hava Nagilah.” That means “let us rejoice.” It does not mean that we have landed in Havana, Cuba! It means it is time for the entire room to get up and start dancing for joy!

We are not just walking through the wilderness, we are dancing with joy and strength. There is the story of a man who is walking along a path in the wilderness when all of the sudden a landslide puts a huge boulder right into the middle of the path where the man was about to tread. He looks around to see if there is any other way around the boulder to get back to the path he needed to take. There was none. His situation seemed impossible. He could not scale the boulder and he could not dig under or around it. Being a religious man he got on his knees and prayed to God to move the rock so that he would be able to continue on. The answer to his prayer came in God’s voice, which said, “Just use all of your strength to move the boulder.”

The man rolled up his sleeves and pressed his body against the rock but it did not move. He kept trying to move it on his own. It would not budge. He prayed to God again and was affirmed as before to just stay there and try to move the giant rock. He tried to move that rock for two weeks, and he finally realized that his provisions were all but gone and that he had not budged that rock one inch. He went back to God in prayer and asked what he was to do.

God answered him to stand back. With a rushing wind God came and blew open a passage around the giant boulder. The man was slightly upset in that moment and asked God why God had not done that two weeks earlier. God answered him that if he had done that the man would not have been strong enough for the journey ahead. After trying to move the boulder for two weeks, the man’s arms and shoulders had grown more muscular; his legs were much stronger, too. He was ready for the journey ahead and he proceeded in the joy of the Lord

We do not see that sometimes we are meant to be in the wilderness because that is where God wants us to be. God wanted the Israelites to be in the desert for forty years, Elijah to be in the wilderness being fed by ravens, Jesus to be in the wilderness overcoming Satan’s temptations! If you think your life is in a dry place right now, do not discount the idea that God is making a miracle through this experience, and the desert is about to bloom in your life. God is about to transform your life into a life of rejoicing and happiness.

How does this apply to Christmas? Well, you see, God did not just take us out of the world. He could have done that. God can take any of us at any time. Remember what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah or the Tower of Babel? God could have just taken us out. God chose instead to transform this world. He chose to do this by sending new life into a barren wasteland. He sent Jesus, his Son, to us. Jesus is like that first blossom in the desert! If in the middle of the desert a rose springs forth and blossoms, it really is not a desert anymore. If the whole desert is transformed and blossoms forth—what joy, what happiness we would know!

In the next couple of verses, Isaiah tells us that we shall see the glory of the Lord when this transformation happens. The word that is used in Hebrew here is a very interesting word indeed. The word is דבכ (“kabod”). It literally means “to be heavy.” In this understanding is a very unique Hebrew understanding. Let me ask all of you what makes a rain cloud a rain cloud? Is it not that it is “heavy” with rain? What good is a rain cloud that is not heavy with rain? It is only light with mist and is of little use to replenish the earth! The weight of its water is its glory!

Likewise, what good is a fruit tree if it is not heavy with fruit? In the Gospels at one point Jesus sees a tree that is not bearing fruit, and he causes it to whither and die. The glory of a fruit tree is in the weight of its branches filled with good fruit.

One more example: What is the glory of the human heart if it has never been weighted down with the love and responsibility for another? Christ tells us that we must pick up our crosses and bear our burdens. The weight of the Cross of Christ lands upon each of us, and in this is our glory! Life issues are heavy issues! When we come to church and share the Word of God, that is really heavy stuff!

The next line in the Scripture talks about the “splendor” or some translations will say “majesty” of our God. This is again a unique word in Hebrew; is הֲדַ֥ר “Hadar,” and it literally means “to swell up.” It is used to describe the swelling and ripening of fruit. In Proverbs 31:25 the exact same word is used to describe a good woman, the wife of “noble character.” In both of these ideas is a sense of the fullness of one’s purpose being realized to the utmost. There is also the idea of the potential for new life.

Isaiah tells us that we shall actually see the weight and swelling of the Lord God! And, indeed we have seen the coming of Jesus Christ as a child being born after nine months of gaining weight and swelling in Mother Mary’s womb. The next line in Scripture talks about the strengthening of feeble hands and the steadying of knees that give way. That is so much like a child that is first learning to grasp an object and to walk on his own! The Scripture tells us that “God is here!” God is here and is coming to save us! That is the glory and splendor that we see in Jesus Christ.

The next few verses of this text in Isaiah tell of how Christ will heal. Not only is the wilderness being transformed around us, but we ourselves are being transformed through healing grace. The eyes of the blind are opened; ears of the deaf are cleared; the lame leap for joy; the mute shout out with joy. All this while the wilderness around us is being transformed. Our eyes are opened to see this happening!

Then, in the middle of what was once utter desert wilderness, and is now a lush garden that we can see bearing fruit all around us, a highway is made for us and a city stands before us. This is the city of God. We will enter into this city—this New Jerusalem with thanksgiving in our hearts. The last lines of the Scripture tell us that we will be overtaken with joy. All of our sorrow and sighing will be gone.

To start all of this happening, there was first just that single blossom in the desert. A single floweret that came into bloom. Because of that single flower, the desert was no longer a desert but became the Kingdom of God in our time. We have seen the glory. It is Christ our King. Our world is changed. Amen.