We are studying a chapter that is titled "The Joy Of The Redeemed". Yesterday we talked about how this passage refers to the near future (the Lord's deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian army), and also the far off future (the eternal kingdom of the Messiah). As our text opens today we learn some of the things the Messiah will do---and indeed did do---at His first advent. In addition I believe this passage speaks of what the eternal kingdom will be like, for the redeemed will live in His presence forever in an immortal body like His and no one will have a disability, an accident, or an illness. No one will ever die.
"Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy." (Isaiah 35:5-6) We know that Jesus of Nazareth performed such miracles, which were signs that He was who He said He was: the Son of God. Also I believe that since the Bible often uses the terms "blind" and "deaf" as terms for those who are living in disobedience to the Lord, we know that no one in the kingdom of the Messiah will ever be spiritually blind or deaf, which is a subject we will delve in our next session.
Those who had physical impairments in their mortal bodies will be set free of their impairments when they receive a body like the Lord's. They will be set free of the spiritual impairments they dealt with in their mortal bodies as well. No longer will they struggle with doubts or fears; they will see the Redeemer face to face and they will know that everything He ever said about Himself is true and that every promise He ever made has now come true.
The earth will be restored to an Eden-like state, as the book of Revelation explains to us. Isaiah gives us a glimpse of that glorious state in today's text. "The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow." (Isaiah 35:7) There will be no barren land in the eternal kingdom. Everything will be lush and green. No one will ever have to trudge through a thirsty desert. No one will ever go hungry. Wild animals won't hold sway over any territories---chasing people away or attacking them---because the human race and the animal race will be at peace with each other once again.
This is the "new earth" as the Apostle John phrased it in Revelation 21:1. The Lord doesn't destroy the earth, as far as doing away with it completely, but instead recreates it, restores it, remakes it. And when He has done this, His promise will come true that: "He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." (Revelation 21:4)
The Lord Jesus Christ gave us a foretaste of what it will be like when He reigns over the earth by giving sight to the blind, by giving hearing to the deaf, by giving speech to the mute, by healing diseases, and by raising the dead. Because He performed such awesome miracles, we know that everything He has promised for us in our eternal future with Him will come true. He will remake the earth and He will remake our mortal bodies. As the Apostle Paul so beautifully described our transformation: "Just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man." (1 Corinthians 15:49) We have borne the image of Adam, so to speak, for our souls have inhabited a mortal body. But we who have placed our faith in the Lord will also bear the image of the heavenly man---the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't fully understand all that this means but we know that the risen Christ in the New Testament had a body that was not bound by the laws of physics as we know them today. Even the Apostle John, who saw Him in his risen body, did not fully understand everything the immortal body can do, but he said this about it: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2) In his mortal body the Apostle John couldn't fully understand everything he saw when the risen Christ appeared to the disciples a number of times. But when John inhabits his immortal body he will understand---and so will we---because our bodies will be eternal, immortal, and not bound by the same laws of physics and nature as they are today.
I long for that day! I was sick almost the whole month of May and am still not quite one hundred percent. Won't it be a relief to throw off the infirmities of these old bodies? We will live an abundant life in ways we can't even imagine now!
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