SUMMARY
When God comes, everything is transformed–all creatures, human beings, and the whole earth.
ANALYSIS
This chapter stands together with chapter 34 to form a bridge between the first and second parts of the book. Judgment of the wicked (chapter 34) and redemption of the faithful (chapter 35) are the goal of God’s work in part one, and they provide the keynote for the new work of God in part two.
This text is marked by a poetic symmetry that corresponds to the perfection of God’s redemption that it describes. The beginning and the end of the section portray the transformation of creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... (vv. 1-2, 6b-7); within those verses, the prophet depicts the transformation of human beings (vv. 3-4a, 5-6a); and in the middle is the announcement that makes all this possible: “Here is your God” (v. 4). Thus the concentric structure is creation-people-God-people-creation.
God comes with vengeance only to rid the world of those who oppress the weak, the feeble, and the fearful (chapter 34), paving the way for the salvationSalvation can mean saved from something (deliverance) or for something (redemption). Paul preached that salvation comes through the death of Christ on the cross which redeemed sinners from death and for a grace-filled life. of God’s faithful ones.
This is another of Isaiah’s texts that include the “environmental impact” of the work of God and human beings. On the one hand, human wickedness had dire consequences for the creation (chapter 34), but now God’s redemption will allow not only people but also creation itself to thrive (chapter 35).
When God comes, God will strengthen hands, firm up knees, calm hearts, open eyes, unstop ears, free limbs, loosen tongues, and restore the creation. Everything that was closed up, shut down, and made desolate in the judgment announced in the first part of the book (6:9-13) is now opened up and made new. This is the “new thing” that God is up to in the second part of the book (43:19).
When John’s disciples ask whether JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. is “the one who is to come,” Jesus refers to the events of this text as signs of the kingdom that Jesus is inaugurating with his deeds of healing and compassion (MatthewA tax collector who became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. 11:2-6). This messianic interpretation of the text stands behind George Frideric Handel’s use of it in the well-known alto recitative in his oratorio MessiahThe Messiah was the one who, it was believed, would come to free the people of Israel from bondage and exile. In Jewish thought the Messiah is the anticipated one who will come, as prophesied by Isaiah. In Christian thought Jesus of Nazareth is identified...: “Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened.” Indeed, many of the familiar words in Handel’s oratorio are taken from the book of IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time..
