Isaiah 35

Wesley: the solitary place—Emmanuel's land, or the seat of God's church and people, which formerly was despised like a wilderness, and which the rage of their enemies had brought to desolation, shall flourish exceedingly.

The desert blossoming like a rose follows directly on Edom’s ruin. Wesley reads it of Judah restored and then of the church flourishing after desolation.

Calvin: the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad. Here the Prophet describes a wonderful change; for having in the former chapter described the destruction of Idumaea, and having said that it would be changed into a wilderness, he now promises, on the other hand, fertility to the wilderness. I pass by the dreams of the Jews, who apply all passages of this kind to the temporal reign of the Messiah, which they have contrived by their own imagination. The Lord began some kind of restoration when he brought his people out of Babylon; but that was only a slight foretaste, and therefore this passage must refer to the kingdom of Christ.

The gladness is still after Edom’s waste, then the return from Babylon as a taste, then Christ.

Wesley: the excellency—the wilderness shall be as pleasant and fruitful as Lebanon, and Carmel, and Sharon. They—the inhabitants of the wilderness aforesaid. The glory—the glorious discoveries of God's power and goodness.

The desert receives the glory of Lebanon, Carmel, and Sharon, and people see the glory of the LORD himself. Wesley reads it as God displaying his power and goodness.

Calvin: flourishing it shall flourish. The glory of Lebanon, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the LORD’s glory of Jehovah. Till men learn to know God, they are barren and destitute of everything good; and consequently the beginning of our fertility is to be quickened by the presence of God, which cannot be without the inward perception of faith. Men might be satisfied with bread and wine and yet not acknowledge God to be the author of them, or cease to be wretched.

Seeing the LORD’s glory stays with that restored land, then with Christ.

Wesley: strengthen—ye ministers of God, comfort and encourage God's people, who are now ready to faint.

Wesley and Calvin both hear this as a charge to ministers: steady the hands and knees of God’s fainting people. Hebrews 12:12 reuses the words for the same purpose.

Calvin: strengthen ye the weak hands. The following verse shews that the whole of this passage relates to the ministers of the word; for he addresses the teachers of the Church, and enjoins them to exhort, arouse, and encourage weak men whose hearts are broken or cast down, that they may be rendered more firm and cheerful. So many tokens of God's anger could not do otherwise than fill even the strongest minds with alarm; the Prophet commands that they who are cast down and almost lifeless shall be enlivened.

Calvin and Wesley both keep the charge with the teachers of the word.

Wesley: your God—tho' he seems to be departed, he will come to you, and abide with you. He will shortly come in the flesh, to execute vengeance upon the enemies of God.

The word to fearful hearts is “Be strong,” grounded in a promise: God will come to save. Wesley reads the coming both as relief for Judah and as Christ’s coming in the flesh.

Calvin: say to them that are faint hearted. That strength is breathed into our hearts by God through his word, as by faith alone we stand and live; and therefore he adds the promise of grace yet to come. Behold, your God will come. If we are not supported by the word of the Lord, we must faint and despair. Nor is it superfluous that he adds your God; for if we do not know that he is our God, his approach will produce terror, instead of giving cause of joy. This vengeance is threatened against wicked men and enemies of the Church; to believers he will be a consolation, and he will come to save them. God is prepared and armed with vengeance, that believers may learn to lean on his aid, and not to fancy some deity unemployed in heaven.

Vengeance stays with the enemies of the Church after Edom’s waste, and salvation with the faint-hearted, your God.”

Wesley: then—the poor Gentiles, who before were blind and deaf, shall now have the eyes and ears of their minds opened to see God's works, and to hear and receive his word.

Jesus points to these signs when John’s disciples ask if he is the one to come (Matthew 11:5). Wesley reads them spiritually as well, of Gentiles whose eyes and ears are opened to God’s word.

Calvin: then shall the eyes of the blind be opened. Since a true restoration is accomplished by Christ, we must come to him. Isaiah probably alludes to a former prediction (Isaiah 29:10), in which he threatened against the Jews dreadful blindness; he now promises that, when Christ shall shine forth, those senses of which they were deprived for a time shall be renovated. So long as we are alienated from Christ, we are dumb, blind, and lame; we are renewed by the Spirit of Christ. Christ restored speech to the dumb, eyes to the blind, and perfect strength to the feeble and lame; but what he bestowed on their bodies was only a token of the far more abundant blessings which he imparts to our souls.

Body-healings stay as tokens of the soul’s renewal.

Healing and streams in the desert arrive together; renewal of people and land is one work. The mute who sing are the same who were silent before.

Calvin: for waters shall be dug. He next adds other blessings with which believers shall be copiously supplied, as soon as the kingdom of Christ is set up; as if he had said, that there will be no reason to dread scarcity or want, when we have been reconciled to God through Christ, because perfect happiness flows to us from him. Where formerly all was barren, there the highest fertility shall be found. We are poor and barren, unless God bless us through Christ; for he alone brings with him the blessing of the Father. Wicked men, indeed, have often a great abundance of good things, but their wealth is wretched; for they have not Christ.

The leaping lame stays with Christ’s restoration.”

Wesley: streams—the most dry and barren places shall be made moist and fruitful; which is principally meant of the plentiful effusion of God's grace upon such persons and nations, as had been wholly destitute of it. Rushes—those dry and parched deserts, in which dragons have their abode, shall yield abundance of grass, and reeds, and rushes, which grow only in moist ground.

Burning sand becomes a pool and the jackals’ haunt grows reeds. Wesley reads it chiefly of God’s grace poured out on people who had been utterly without it.

Calvin: the dry place shall be changed into a pool. Christ will come in order to enrich his people with all abundance of blessings; for waters shall flow out of dry places. An instance of this was given, when the Lord delivered his people and brought them out of Babylon; but the accomplishment of this prophecy must be looked for in Christ, through whom their ruinous condition is amended and restored; for that deliverance was but a feeble representation of it. And yet the full accomplishment of this promise ought not to be expected in the present life; our happiness, which is now in some respects concealed, must be an object of hope till the last day.

Jackals’ haunt becoming reeds stays with that waste reversed.

Wesley: a way—the high-way and the way are not to be taken for two different ways, but for one and the same way, even a causey, which is raised ground, and a way. Holiness—the people (walking in it) shall be all righteous. For those—but this way shall be appropriated to those persons above-mentioned; the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save. Though fools—the way shall be so plain and strait, that even the most foolish travellers cannot easily mistake it.

The Holy Way is so plain that even the simple cannot lose it. Wesley reads it as one raised road reserved for the weak, blind, and lame whom God leads home.

Calvin: and a path shall be there. Here it is promised to the Jews that they shall be allowed to return to their native country, lest, when they were carried into Babylon, they should think that they were led into perpetual banishment. Yet this statement is extended much farther. It will be called The holy way; the unclean person shall not pass through it; the Lord will separate believers in such a manner that they shall not be mingled with the reprobate. The full cleansing of the Church must be expected at the last day. The demonstrative pronoun is more correctly viewed as referring to God; as if he had said that God will go before them to lead and direct the way. Fools shall not go astray; they who are wise in their own eyes, and who rely on their own guidance, will be permitted by God to wander in uncertain courses.

The highway is still the Jews’ return from Babylon, then God himself walking as leader. The holy way stays with that road.

Wesley (on v. 8): this way shall be appropriated to those persons above-mentioned; the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save.

No lion or beast of prey is on the road; only the redeemed walk there. The journey home is safe because God has cleared it.

Calvin: there shall not be there a lion. Formerly he mentioned it (Isaiah 34:14) as one of the curses of God, that wild beasts would meet the Jews wherever they went; but now he declares that, when they have been received into favor, no lions and no beasts of prey shall attack them; because the Lord will ward them off, so as to open up a way for his people free from all danger and from all fear. God not only begins, but conducts to the end, the work of our salvation, that his grace in us may not be useless and unprofitable. He will not leave us in the midst of the journey, but at length will perfectly finish what he has begun in us by his Spirit.

The redeemed walking stays with that guarded return.

Wesley on the holy way of v. 8: the people walking in that way shall be all righteous; the way is appropriated to the weak, and blind, and lame, whom God will lead and save.

The chapter ends with a pilgrimage: the ransomed return to Zion singing, and sorrow flees. Both traditions read it as the joy of the redeemed, begun now and completed at the end.

Calvin: therefore the redeemed of Jehovah shall return. The Prophet confirms the former doctrine, that God hath determined to redeem his people, and therefore that nothing can resist his decree. He calls them the redeemed of God, that they may consider his power, and may not estimate by human means the promise which he has made about their return. He says also that they will come to Zion, because God does not in vain wish to bring them out of Babylon and leave them when they have commenced their journey. We have no means of entering the Church but by the redemption of God; no man will redeem himself; Christ is our only deliverer. They shall obtain joy and gladness; the true and only ground of rejoicing is to know that we are reconciled to God. Sorrow and sighing will flee away; the joy is everlasting, and all sadness flees away.

The return is still from Babylon to Zion, then the Church in Christ. Calvin and Wesley agree the ransomed come home by the LORD’s leading; Calvin refuses to let the decree be resisted, nor a man redeem himself.