Isaiah 51:3, commentary and pictures

The Lord himself comforts Zion by restoring all her ruined and desolate waste places, making her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Where he brings that renewal, joy and gladness with thanksgiving and the voice of melody and song are found. That promise is fulfilled in Christ, born as the Prince of life to uplift the cast down and gladden the waste places, and in the establishment of the Messiah's peaceful kingdom when sin and death are no more. This comforting and restoring is carried out through people who belong to the Lord and cooperate with him as they go into the waste places of the earth to work for perishing souls. To the renewed heart what seemed barren becomes full of spiritual life and beauty, and in tedious affliction and bodily pain the Lord bears every burden and gives strength to endure without murmuring.

Words and Context

The chapter to which the promise belongs gives assurance and hope in the Lord's comfort and care, for He bears the burdens of His people and brings them comfort. It is part of the Word that imparts hope and courage to the afflicted, and it is to be heeded rather than disregarded or misunderstood. The promise is spoken to those who follow after righteousness and seek the Lord. The voice of melody is the music, thanksgiving, and joyful song found where heaven comes into contact with earth, as hearts respond in praise to God's goodness.

Together with Isaiah 52 and especially Isaiah 53, Isaiah 51 shows that God has furnished fallen, sinful man with a life-giving Saviour, revealing man's only hope of a life that measures with the life of God. Isaiah 51 is a plain scripture on the Sabbath question, showing that God has made no change in His day of rest and holding wonderful promises for those who obey God's law. Now is the time for it to be brought to the front to do its work in hearts, gathered with other plain Sabbath scriptures and put before the public in print and in tract form.

Promised Restoration and Joy

The Lord himself is the source of Zion's comfort and restoration. He comforts Zion by comforting all her waste places, restoring what is ruined and desolate. He makes her wilderness and desert fruitful and beautiful like Eden and like the garden of the Lord. That transformation turns ruined places into Eden-like abundance.

Where the Lord brings this comfort and renewal, joy and gladness with thanksgiving and the voice of melody and song will be found therein. The restored land is filled with joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and song. Its desolate places are transformed into Eden-like beauty where that music is found. In Zion restored in the earth made new, that joy and music with thanksgiving and melody will go beyond anything mortal ear has heard or mind has conceived.

The verse therefore calls for coming before the Creator with reverent joy, thanksgiving, and song.

Future Fulfillment in Christ

The promise is fulfilled in Christ, born in Bethlehem as the Prince of life, who came to bring mercy to the world, to uplift all that are cast down, and to gladden the waste places of the earth. His glory shall fill the whole earth, and His dominion shall endure throughout all generations. The comfort and restoration of Zion belongs to the establishment of the Messiah's peaceful kingdom at the Lord's coming, when God comforts Zion and transforms its waste places, wilderness and desert into a place like Eden, marked by beauty, joy, gladness, thanksgiving and song. This restoration belongs to the universal renewal associated with the Lord's coming and the end of evil's rule. Its promise is fulfilled in the joy and music of the redeemed returning to Zion, where sorrow and sighing are gone and joy, gladness, thanksgiving and song are found in desolate places made Eden-like in beauty.

The comfort of Zion comes in the time when there is no more sin and no more death, when God comforts all the waste places of Zion and makes her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Then the law of heaven is the only law, and the saved are a happy, united family clothed with praise and thanksgiving while God and Christ proclaim the end of sin and death. Zion's desolation changed into an Eden-like place of joy, gladness, thanksgiving and praise means Eden lies ahead while desolation lies behind, so believers are urged to keep pressing forward in hope of entering the kingdom.

Mission to Waste Places

The comforting and restoring of Zion is carried out through people who belong to the Lord and cooperate with Him, for the promise of restored desolate places made fruitful and beautiful like Eden, with joy and gladness and thanksgiving and song found there, belongs to His workers. That promise encourages God's people as they enter new fields and spread the gospel, and it encourages those who work for the salvation of others in the waste places of the earth, with the Lord helping them and cooperating with their efforts. God's people are called to trust God and go out into the waste places of the earth to work for perishing souls in order to redeem the past, and though that work will meet close and trying times with temptation and trial, the Lord as all-powerful helper cooperates with every unselfish effort, so His workers move forward with singing, and its meaning will be understood better in the future. Those who receive this comfort will carry it to others in words of comfort rather than blame, and the renewal will stir them to share the light with people.

Christ's message given to the world through His messengers, if received, changes the character of society entirely, turning its wilderness of thorns and thistles into a garden of beautiful flowers and fruit-bearing trees. Barren land reclaimed by irrigation and cultivation into flourishing fruitful fields is an object-lesson of what the saving grace of Christ does to human hearts and lives, while the dreary desert pictures the spiritual condition of many cities, towns, and country places. Those given the riches of the water of life as stewards of God's grace must therefore go forth as faithful missionaries into all the barren places with earnest self-sacrificing effort to impart light and teach what Christ commanded as Christ taught it, so that the wilderness blossoms and unworked places hear the message. Places that are now a moral wilderness are to become as the garden of the Lord as they are cultivated through missionary work until they blossom.

The Lord can turn moral wilderness and barren, drought-stricken regions into His garden as the church carries the gospel message and its members turn from selfishness and iniquity, and the work begun in one locality can reach far away. That comforting of Zion by making moral wilderness like Eden and dry barren land like His own garden comes when schools do their special work of educating and training workers while holding fast to God in prayer for God to do what mortals cannot, when the gospel message is borne in its own locality and carried far and near even to the ends of the earth, and when the church works with everyone who names the name of Christ departing from all selfishness and iniquity and becoming full of life and vitality. Moral wilderness becomes the garden of the Lord as new territories are worked by the Holy Spirit, churches are established in different localities, angels go before to prepare the way, and God uses human channels through whom His Spirit is poured out and truth shines amid moral darkness. The Lord will do this when men by faith and works clear the King's highway, when self-sacrifice testifies to truth, when believers are reconverted and tell the story of the Lamb of God, when words and actions show the value placed on souls, and when brotherly kindness leads to brotherly love.

The barren places of the earth will become as the garden of the Lord when believers are reconverted, worked by the Holy Spirit, united in brotherly love with heart blending with heart in oneness with Christ, and light from heaven is poured over the world. All may receive the gift, new victories under the love and grace of Jesus Christ are added to the church, and the church becomes a region of light and usefulness requiring wakefulness to catch every divine ray. The promise is applied to people in distant countries whose hearts are turned from sin to righteousness through medical missionary work, where they are restored and relieved physically, mentally, and spiritually, the weary refreshed and the sick restored. When God brings this restoration their grateful songs of thanksgiving and praise testify of Christ and can lead others to Him.

The desert places of the South, though their outlook appears forbidding, are to become like the garden of God. The Lord comforts Zion by restoring neglected and desolate places into Eden-like fruitfulness and joy, and that promise applies to the Southern field, which is to advance, deepen, widen, and enlarge until it is no longer neglected but cultivated as a fruitful garden of the Lord. This happens by teaching the colored people to read, so that the Bible placed in their hands is made plain and applied by the Holy Spirit even without human explanation. The picture of waste places becoming gardens of the Lord is applied to neglected people and fields of need, where parents and children are to notice where care and spiritual cultivation are needed and help those places flourish by tending them as water is brought to a dry field. God can make desolate places like a garden, applied here to neglected and forbidding lands that can be improved and made fruitful through useful work and settlement.

Personal Comfort and Response

The Lord comforts Zion by bearing every burden in long affliction and bodily pain. That comfort gives assurance and hope that suffering is for His glory, enabling endurance without murmuring and confidence that Jesus watches over through the night. It strengthens by grace to keep writing and giving counsel to others even in weakness.

What seemed barren and desolate to the carnal mind becomes a place of spiritual life and beauty to the converted heart, for the change of wilderness into God's garden pictures how the word looks to a renewed soul. The promise is spoken to those who follow after righteousness and seek the Lord, and it brings comfort to all waste places with joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody found therein. It therefore calls gospel ministers to study the Word deeply and to plead with the Lord, asking the Source of all wisdom to enlighten their understanding so they can give light to others. They are never to rest satisfied with partial knowledge pieced out with weak suppositions.