Isaiah imagines a road that...
Illustration
Isaiah imagines a road that led to home. He imagines it crossing a desert that was being transformed into an oasis. The dry grass will become reeds and rushes, the burning sand will become springs of water. It is a vision of a highway through the wilderness that leads from captivity to freedom, from an old life of brokenness to a new life of wholeness.
My friend lives nearly 400 miles from his mother. He visits her as often as possible. It is a long drive through the desert from Phoenix, Arizona, to Anaheim, California. It is a hot, monotonous road, with too few places to rest, too much cactus, and too much dust. But it is his road home, and traveling that road inevitably leads him to contemplate his life. Where is he living in captivity? Where is he enslaved? Where is he lost and out of communion with the home God is preparing for him? Sometimes it seems like the road he's traveling through life is a road in a desert that goes on forever and leads nowhere.
Just as the exiles in Babylon longed for their home in Israel, so there is within each of us a longing for home. Isaiah paints a picture of the road that leads to home. There is healing on that road to home. Isaiah says that the "lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." It is a road where we leave our brokenness behind. It is a road that leads from desert to green pastures, where the lions do not threaten us, and no one can get lost. But most strikingly, it is a crowded road, for it is filled with God's people. It is crowded with all the people God is saving and they are noisily singing songs of joy and gladness, and they are leaving behind the dirges of despair and death. They are rejoicing, for they are going home.
My friend lives nearly 400 miles from his mother. He visits her as often as possible. It is a long drive through the desert from Phoenix, Arizona, to Anaheim, California. It is a hot, monotonous road, with too few places to rest, too much cactus, and too much dust. But it is his road home, and traveling that road inevitably leads him to contemplate his life. Where is he living in captivity? Where is he enslaved? Where is he lost and out of communion with the home God is preparing for him? Sometimes it seems like the road he's traveling through life is a road in a desert that goes on forever and leads nowhere.
Just as the exiles in Babylon longed for their home in Israel, so there is within each of us a longing for home. Isaiah paints a picture of the road that leads to home. There is healing on that road to home. Isaiah says that the "lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy." It is a road where we leave our brokenness behind. It is a road that leads from desert to green pastures, where the lions do not threaten us, and no one can get lost. But most strikingly, it is a crowded road, for it is filled with God's people. It is crowded with all the people God is saving and they are noisily singing songs of joy and gladness, and they are leaving behind the dirges of despair and death. They are rejoicing, for they are going home.
