Commentary - Isaiah 35:5-7

Bird's-eye view

Isaiah 35 is a blaze of glory, a stunning portrait of Messianic restoration. After chapters of judgment and woe, the prophet pivots to describe the glorious effects of the coming King. This is not just about a restored piece of real estate for the Israelites; it is a picture of the gospel's power to remake the entire world. The passage before us, verses 5-7, details the specific, tangible results of God's visitation. It is a great reversal. What is broken will be fixed, what is barren will become fruitful, and what is dead will burst forth with life. This is a prophecy of radical, supernatural transformation, both of individual human bodies and of the created order itself. It is a definitive statement that when God comes to save, He doesn't just patch things up. He makes all things new.

The central theme is the arrival of the kingdom of God, which brings healing and renewal in its wake. These are not vague spiritual platitudes; they are concrete signs that the King has come. The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame leap, and the mute sing. This is the calling card of the Messiah. Furthermore, the healing extends to the very land itself. The parched, desolate places, the haunts of demonic creatures, will be flooded with life-giving water. This is a picture of the gospel's advance, turning spiritual deserts into gardens for God. It is a robustly optimistic and thoroughly physical picture of salvation's power.

Outline

Context In Isaiah

This chapter stands in stark and beautiful contrast to the preceding chapter. Isaiah 34 is a terrifying oracle of God's vengeance upon Edom, representing all the nations that stand in opposition to God. It is a picture of total desolation, a land given over to thorns, nettles, and scavenging creatures of the night. It is a wasteland, a return to chaos. Then, immediately, Isaiah 35 bursts forth with a vision of the opposite: the desert blooming, the wilderness rejoicing, and the glory of the Lord revealed. This dramatic juxtaposition is intentional. God's judgment on His enemies means salvation and restoration for His people and His creation. The coming of God means two things simultaneously: wrath for the unrepentant and glorious renewal for the redeemed. This chapter is the "good news" side of that coin, describing the world as it will be when God sets everything right.

Key Issues

The Messiah's Calling Card

When John the Baptist was in prison, he began to have his doubts. Was Jesus really the one? Or should they be looking for another? It was a reasonable question from a man facing execution. Jesus's response was not a philosophical argument or a simple "yes." Instead, He pointed to His works, and in doing so, He quoted this very passage from Isaiah. "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matt 11:4-5).

This is crucial. Jesus was essentially saying, "Check the prophetic Scriptures. What did the prophet say would happen when the Messiah came? That is what is happening." The miracles were not random acts of power designed to wow the crowds. They were the specific, prophesied signs that the age of salvation had dawned. They were the credentials of the King, the tangible proof that the kingdom of God had arrived in His person. Isaiah s prophecy was the job description, and Jesus's ministry was the fulfillment, right down the line.

Verse by Verse Commentary

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

The first order of business in this great restoration is the healing of humanity. The prophet starts with two fundamental ways we perceive the world: sight and hearing. Blindness and deafness are profound symbols of our fallen state. Sin has blinded our eyes to the glory of God and stopped our ears to His Word. So when the Messiah comes, the first thing He does is reverse this sensory curse. He opens eyes and unstops ears. And of course, this is precisely what Jesus did throughout His ministry, both physically and spiritually. He gave physical sight to men like Bartimaeus and the man born blind, and He gave spiritual sight to all who believed in Him. He healed the deaf, demonstrating that He is the one who can make us truly hear and understand the voice of God.

6a Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

The restoration continues. Not only will perception be healed, but action and expression will be liberated. The lame, who have been bound and restricted, will not just walk, they will leap like a deer. This is a picture of explosive, unhindered joy and freedom. It speaks of a strength and agility that far surpasses mere recovery. Likewise, the mute, who have been silenced by their affliction, will not just speak, their tongues will shout for joy. The first thing they do with their newfound voice is praise God. This points to the ultimate purpose of our redemption. God heals us not just for our own comfort, but so that we might joyfully glorify Him with our whole being, with our bodies and our voices. Again, the Gospels are a catalog of Jesus fulfilling this. He made the paralyzed walk and the mute speak, proving He was the one Isaiah foretold.

6b For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.

Here the focus shifts from the healing of the human body to the healing of the land itself. The prophet gives the reason, the foundation, for the joy and healing just described: God is going to utterly transform the environment. The wilderness, the very symbol of barrenness and death, will have waters break forth in it. This is not a gentle trickle; it is a gushing, explosive arrival of life. The Arabah, the desolate rift valley, will have streams. This is a picture of the curse being rolled back. When man fell, the ground was cursed for his sake. When man is redeemed, the ground is blessed. This is the logic of the covenant. The coming of the Messiah means life, and that life is so abundant it overflows and turns deserts into gardens.

7 Then the scorched land will become a pool And the thirsty ground springs of water; In the haunt of jackals, its resting place, Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

Isaiah intensifies the imagery. The scorched, shimmering, mirage-filled land will become a literal pool. The ground that was defined by its thirst will become a source of springs. This is total transformation. And then he gives one of the most potent images. The "haunt of jackals," places of desolation and uncleanness, the domain of scavengers, will be where life now flourishes. Reeds and rushes are plants that grow only where there is an abundance of water. So, the very places that were hostile to life and inhabited by creatures of the night will become lush and verdant. This is a powerful metaphor for the advance of the gospel. The kingdom of Christ comes into the darkest, most desolate places of human culture and individual hearts, the haunts of jackals, and transforms them into places of life, beauty, and fruitfulness.

Application

This passage is a glorious promise, and because of Christ, it is a present reality. We must first recognize that the primary fulfillment of these verses happened in the ministry of Jesus Christ. He is the one who opened the eyes of the blind and made the desert bloom. The miracles He performed were the down payment, the firstfruits of the full restoration that is to come.

But the work continues. Through the power of the gospel, the Holy Spirit is still opening blind eyes to see the truth of Christ. He is unstopping deaf ears so that people can hear the good news and be saved. He is causing spiritually lame men and women to leap for joy in their newfound freedom from sin. He is loosing the tongues of the formerly mute to sing praises to God. The advance of the church is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Every time the gospel takes root in a hardened heart, a desert blooms. Every time a community is transformed by the Word of God, the haunt of jackals becomes a garden.

Our eschatology must not be one of retreat and pessimism. Isaiah gives us a vision of victory. The world is not a sinking ship from which we must escape. It is a parched field which Christ, through His people, is irrigating with living water. We are called to be part of this great restoration project. We do this by proclaiming the gospel that saves souls, and by applying the Word of God to every area of life, turning wastelands into fruitful fields for the glory of God. The King has come, and He is making all things new. Our job is to get with the program.