Isaiah 35:8
A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for him who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
In chapter 34 the prophet Isaiah has just told us about the wrath of God being poured out on the nations. Notice one summary verse from that chapter:
Isaiah 34:5
For My sword is satiated in heaven,
Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom
And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction.
God is said to devastate the earth and those who rejected Him and fought against His plan and His people. He will leave the earth scorched. Great cities will be completely wrapped in ruin:
Isaiah 34:13
Thorns will come up in its fortified towers,
Nettles and thistles in its fortified cities;
It will also be a haunt of jackals
And an abode of ostriches.
Yet, in chapter 35 we come to an oasis, as such. Like a lily pad in a smelly swamp, chapter 35 speaks of God's redemptive plan through His Son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. In the midst of chaos and ruin, God provides relief through His Son. Christ provides a "Highway of Holiness" that all men can walk and travel upon into the City of Zion (Historically Jerusalem and Spiritually God's presence). Only those of faith will travel upon the road. The "unclean" cannot for they have not been washed by the blood of the Lamb. In Colossians 1:20-22 we are told that Christ, through His blood has reconciled us to Himself. He has "made peace through the blood of His cross" so that He can "present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach." In these days of the nation of Israel they often traveled on narrow paths, full of danger and ripe with peril. In the midst of the gloom and doom of destruction, God also offers a highway of hope. No longer will they travel through danger and destruction, but, through Christ, there is a highway to heaven. That is the truth of the Gospel message. Despite the ravish nature of sin, there is always the righteous nature of the Son to redeem and rescue.
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