The Desert Will Bloom

Cracked earth. Dry stones. Not a blade of grass for miles. And then, as you watch, a crocus pushes up through the dust. Then another. Then a whole carpet of flowers spreads across the desert, and you can almost hear the land singing.

Isaiah, the prophet of Jerusalem, has just described terrible judgement on Edom, the nation to the south-east, whose land will become a wasteland of thorns and wild animals. Isaiah's own people knew fear, too: Assyria's armies, and later the threat of exile. They knew what it felt like to be dry, weak and far from home. In Isaiah's land, the wilderness was never far away. Travel east or south from Jerusalem and the green hills give way quickly to bare, rocky desert, where rain is rare. And then Isaiah turns the picture upside down. The desert will not stay a desert.

“The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing.” The desert, happy. Isaiah names the greenest, loveliest places he knows: Lebanon with its great cedars, Mount Carmel with its gardens, and the plain of Sharon by the sea. The glory of all of them will be given to the wilderness. And then the reason: “They will see the Lord's glory, the excellence of our God.” The land blooms because God is coming.

So Isaiah turns to the people who feel weak and afraid. “Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Tell those who have a fearful heart, Be strong! Don't be afraid! Behold, your God will come.” He will come and save you. And when he comes, look what happens. “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will sing.” Imagine someone who has never walked jumping and skipping like a young deer. Someone who has never spoken suddenly singing. Water gushes out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The burning sand becomes a pool.

And through that blooming land runs a road. “A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way.” No lion will be on it. No dangerous beast. Even a traveller who doesn't know the way won't get lost. Only the redeemed will walk there, the people God has bought back and set free. “The Lord's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Sorrow running away from them. Centuries later, John the Baptist was in prison, and he sent his followers to ask Jesus: are you the one who was to come? Jesus answered with Isaiah's words. Go and tell John what you hear and see. The blind see. The lame walk. The deaf hear.

We know where John the Baptist was imprisoned. The Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the first century, says Herod Antipas sent John to the fortress of Machaerus, on a hilltop east of the Dead Sea. It stood in the dry, rugged land of what is now Jordan, and its ruins can still be visited. From a prison in the desert, John heard that Isaiah's desert promise was coming true.

The desert will bloom. That's Isaiah chapter thirty-five. When God comes, dry places flower, weak people are made strong, and his people walk home singing. So here is a question to carry with you. Isaiah says, tell those with fearful hearts, be strong, don't be afraid. Who could you encourage this week?