Isaiah 35:1-10.  Yesterday we saw the beginning of the end.  The people of Judah were given a hint of how God is going to deal with all of the bad stuff in life, and the picture wasn’t a pretty one, lot’s of blood and guts.  That is where sin leads to, destruction.  Sin destroys the universe and the people in it.  But that’s not the end of the story.  This second chapter gives the other side of the story and as I read these verses I wrote things like “Praise God!” (vv. 5-6), “Awesome!” (v. 7), and “Amen” (which means “let it happen”, v. 10), in the margin by them.  This is a very encouraging picture of the end of time, and the beginning of eternity with God.

Verse 4 mentions the stuff in Chapter 34 when it talks about God coming with vengeance.  I like the dictionary definition of that word, “punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong”.  It’s not anger it’s justice, like 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, it’s deserved.  What is not deserved is the life described in today’s reading.  We have no right to have a relationship with God because we all have turned our backs on him somewhere along the line.  But look at the end of verse 4, he saves us.  Look at verses 5-6, he fixes broken things.  God is a creator not a destroyer.  He created the universe for us and then placed us in it.  He created the world a garden, for us.  We violated it when we disobeyed him (Genesis 2:4-3:24).  Destruction is the consequence of excluding God from your existence because God not only creates he sustains.  That word means “to hold from below” we might say holds up, like a parent holding you up on your bike when you are learning to ride.  In Psalm 3 David is being chased by his son, Absalom, who was trying to take over the kingdom.  In Psalm 3:5 he was able to get a good night’s sleep because he had trusted in God and knew God was sustaining him or holding him.  Psalm 37 is even better.  It tells us that one day there will be justice and God will uphold or sustain the righteous (v. 17).  Two more:  Hebrews 1:3 tells us that Jesus holds all things together by the word of his power and Colossians 1:17 talking about Jesus tells us that “in Him all things are held together”.

The Bible tells us that there are no “righteous” people (Romans 3:10).  That word righteous means to do what is right in God’s eyes, you might say obedient or God pleasing.  So how can we be sustained by God (Psalm 37:17).  Most of the book of Romans is about that very question.  We are not right with God but Jesus was and is.  And he wants to share his righteousness with us.  He took our punishment (Colossians 1:12-14) and gave us power to please God with the help of the Holy Spirit (John 14:15-16).  Isaiah 35:8 tells us that in the end there will be a highway in God’s restored world, but only for the righteous.  But that can be any one of us, or all of us, if we will put our lives and our forever into Jesus hands.  We need to let Him hold us up.  For those that don’t there is only eternity without God, and that is a mess.  God is not willing for any to perish (2 Peter 3:9) but to avoid that we need to turn back to him (2 Peter 3:9).

I think that chapters 34-35 are a good conclusion to the situation that the people of Judah had been living through.  They had been drifting from God and were being attacked by ruthless neighbors.  There were promises from God that seemed to be broken.  God reminded them that he was dealing with the situation and that eventually all of the promises for a forever kingdom would be fulfilled.  Evil would be dealt with, including theirs.  But the story is one of hope because of God’s love and forgiveness.  He would heal them and their land, even the whole earth.  And people from many nations would join then in eternity.  We now know that Jesus is the solution, but we need to let him hold us up, we need to let him save us (Isaiah 35:4, Colossians 1:14, Titus 3:5).  God thank you for making this awesome place for us.  Thank you for making it so well that it still works in spite of millennia of sin and decay.  Thank you that one day you will renew it.  And thank you that you will renew all who will turn to you to share this awesome creation with you for eternity.  You are awesome.  Thank you for your love.