Meditation on Isaiah 35
Posted by Jesse , Wednesday, May 5, 2010 7:08 AM
"The wilderness and dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and bloom like the crocus; it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing."
I can't read promises like this any more without thinking about the applications they have to the Yakama people. In this chapter, Isaiah is discussing a return of Israel's former glory through God's restoration of their nation. But the promise here does not stop in application only to the return of Israel from exile - it reaches through all history and speaks to the ongoing restoration, the ongoing work of Jesus to restore all things to Himself. And it's in that vein that I can read these verses and see the promise it holds for White Swan.
"Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, 'Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.'"
I wonder sometimes at the purposes of God, and why He has caused so much suffering to come on the Yakamas, and truly, all of Native America. The hope I can cling to is that He does it so that when His gospel moves forward and changes lives, there can be nothing else to which anyone can attribute such a miraculous change. How did "those who have an anxious heart" find strength and hope? Those who look can only find the answer to that question in the transforming work of Jesus.
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert..."
This is what Jesus does: this is why we pursue His call to go and share His Word. We hope to see these miracles done before our eyes as we bring His gospel -life-giving, hope-bearing, thirst-quenching - to those who need it desperately.
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