Isaiah 55:13, commentary and pictures

Instead of thorn and brier, useful and beautiful trees grow, turning barrenness and trouble into flourishing life as a lasting memorial that honors the Lord and stands as enduring evidence of His power and faithfulness.
This belongs to the assurance that His spoken word falls like rain and snow to give seed and bread and does not return empty but accomplishes His pleasure, so that those He leads go out with joy and are led forth with peace while hills sing and trees clap their hands in shared rejoicing.
The thorn and brier are evil passions, strife, division and hurtful traits of character, and when Christ's grace is planted in the heart they are cast out and rooted up to give place to peace and the sweet graces of the Holy Spirit in fruitful, beautiful and lasting growth.
The same change pictures the restoration of God's people and their land, when wilderness and desert rejoice and blossom into a peaceful home and the curse is removed so the redeemed dwell with God in a world free from sin, sickness, weeping and sorrow to His everlasting glory.
It crowns His free call to the thirsty to come without price, hear so the soul lives, seek the Lord, forsake wicked ways and thoughts, and receive abundant pardon under the everlasting covenant, for His thoughts and ways are higher than ours, and it is received on the condition of obedience in meekness and right relation to Him.
It is also the fruit and reward of faithful work for perishing souls, for through the worker's faith and the help of angels lives are transformed, and seeing that evidence of the power of grace encourages workers and strengthens their faith to hold up one another's hands and speak light and rejoicing even when the work is hard.

Words and Surrounding Promise

Where thorn and brier grew, the fir tree and the myrtle tree come up instead, useful and beautiful and fruitful trees replacing desolation and barrenness and trouble with flourishing life and joyful restoration into a renewed order. That change shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off, a lasting memorial that honors Him and stands as enduring evidence of His power and faithfulness, never to be removed. Through the worker's faith and the help of angels, what was like thorns and briers gives way to what is like fir and myrtle, and the transformed lives become monuments to Christ's work and evidence of the Word's power to save and refine and purify and ennoble sinners who believe the gospel in its purity.

The verse belongs to the assurance that God's spoken word falls like rain and snow to water the earth and bring forth seed and bread, and does not return void but accomplishes what He pleases and prospers where He sends it. It belongs to the promise that those God leads go out with joy and are led forth with peace, while mountains and hills break into singing and trees of the field clap their hands, and creation shares their rejoicing under His care. The same joining of rejoicing creation with the replacement of harmful useless growth by good lasting trees as an everlasting memorial to His name calls fellow workers to refuse complaint and perverseness and darkness and discouragement, to speak light and hold up one another's hands and rejoice in the Lord even when work is hindered and experience is hard and grievous, trusting His word to accomplish His pleasure and work everything to His glory.

Isaiah 55 belongs together with Isaiah 56 and Isaiah 58, and more broadly Isaiah 55-58, as a message to speak to God's people bringing help from the Lord and sustaining strength that gives reason to praise His holy name. Those chapters are to be diligently studied to arouse pastors and people from spiritual stupidity, calling those in the cities who profess present truth to wake up and arise and shine and give to others the precious gospel light the Lord has given them, going forth with full assurance that angels will impress minds. The chapter reveals God's covenant with the people He seeks to save, the terms of salvation, and the most valuable education, which is the highest knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ, the laws of His kingdom, and how to live in this world as a citizen of heaven for present and eternal good. The promise leads into the call to keep judgment in Isaiah 56:1, applied as instruction to develop sound judgment in preparation for standing before the higher court and learning from Christ, with the picture of being led beside the tree of life and the trees for healing pointing to the life and healing of that future setting.

Present Character Transformation

The thorn and the brier picture evil passions, strife, division, and thornlike, brierlike traits of character, while the fir tree and the myrtle tree picture what is fruitful, beautiful, and lasting grown in their place. When Christ's grace is planted in the heart it casts out and roots out those evil passions that cause strife and division, and in their place peace and the sweet graces of the Holy Spirit are developed. This transformation fulfills the promise and stands as a lasting sign to the Lord's name, showing God's power at work in human lives and bringing Him honor.

Even people whom Satan has debased and who seem hopeless can become subjects of grace, so that life's desert blossoms as a visible result of work to win souls. The verse is fulfilled when truth becomes an abiding principle in the soul, replacing the order of men with the order of the Lord, so that grasping control that destroys individuality and ignores individual accountability gives way to new growth and life's desert blossoms as the rose. That change from the human mold to the Lord's order means union without one institution swallowing the others, each maintaining its own individuality and the stronger helping the workers of the others, with harsh and hurtful character replaced by new and fruitful growth.

The gospel presented in its purity and believed saves sinners and transforms character, refining, purifying, and ennobling them, so that transformed lives are monuments to Christ's work and enduring evidence of the power of His word bringing honor to the Lord. Christ's message given to the world through His messengers, if received, changes the character of society entirely, turning a wilderness of thorns and thistles into a garden of beautiful flowers and fruit-bearing trees.

Future Restoration Foretold

The verse pictures the restoration of God's people and their land, when what is desolate becomes fruitful and the wilderness is transformed into a flourishing home for the saved. Where thorn and brier once grew, fir trees and myrtles come up in their place, showing the renewed earth prepared as the eternal dwelling of the redeemed. This renewal stands as an everlasting sign of the Lord's name and glory.

In that renewal the wilderness and the desert rejoice and blossom, no longer barren but clothed with beautiful, fruitful growth. Wide plains, hills and mountains, living streams and shady trees provide a peaceful habitation for God's people after their long pilgrimage and wandering. Thorn and brier give way to fir and myrtle as part of that complete transformation of the home made ready for the redeemed.

The change shows the removal of the curse in the restored creation, when the redeemed dwell in God's city and presence in a world free from sin and every mark of the curse. That flourishing life without thorn and brier is an everlasting sign bringing glory and honor to the Lord. It belongs to the future joy and restoration of the redeemed, who live in God's presence without sickness, weeping, or sorrow, and the sign endures forever.

Conditions for Receiving Promise

It is one of the richest promises of God's Word, and it is received on the condition of obedience. It stands joined to the assurance that God's word falls like rain and snow to water the earth and bring forth seed and bread, and does not return void but accomplishes what He pleases and prospers where He sends it, with the promise of going out with joy and being led forth with peace, while mountains and hills break into singing and trees of the field clap their hands, and with the fir tree growing up in place of the thorn and the myrtle tree in place of the brier, to the Lord for a name, for a lasting sign that will never be cut off. It crowns God's free call to the thirsty to come without price, to hear so the soul lives, to seek the Lord, to forsake wicked ways and thoughts, and to receive abundant pardon under the everlasting covenant. This is because His thoughts and ways are higher than human thoughts and ways, and because His spoken word waters like rain and snow and unfailingly accomplishes what He sends it to do, so that those who answer go out with joy and are led with peace amid rejoicing creation, and their lives are remade from worthless growth to good trees as a lasting memorial to the Lord that will never be removed.

When people seek the Lord on the gospel's terms, God brings a joyful change in which what was thorn and brier is replaced by fir and myrtle. When people seek the Lord and forsake their sinful ways, the thornlike and brierlike traits in their character can be rooted out and replaced by qualities pictured as the fir tree and the myrtle. This transformation becomes a lasting sign that honors the Lord and will not be cut off, bringing joy and peace.

The passage from verse 8 to verse 13 is a blessed promise that gives comfort and encouragement. It shows an open door where a person can enter to meet with God, to seek Him earnestly, and to find Him. Entering in requires the meekness Christ showed in His life and character, humbling the heart before God and standing in right relation to Him. The passages that include verses 8-13 set conditions for receiving what God offers, and those conditions include seeking righteousness and putting away distractions from serving God.

Service and Daily Application

Faithful work for perishing souls bears fruit as transformed lives, where thorn-like and brier-like character gives way to fir-like and myrtle-like growth through the worker's faith and the help of God's angels. That visible change in hearts and lives, with evil passions cast out and the sweet graces of the Holy Spirit developed, stands as an everlasting sign to the Lord that will not be cut off. Seeing this evidence of the power of grace encourages workers for others and strengthens their faith.

The lasting result of God's word, bringing joy and peace to those He leads, is applied to supporting work that sends out the gospel. Resources directed toward building a house of worship in Nashville that sends out the message fulfill the reversal of desolation, where useful and beautiful trees grow instead of thorns and briers for the Lord's name. Those who labor go forth with full assurance that angels of God will make impressions upon the minds of those for whom they labor.

Fellow workers must hold up one another's hands and never speak discouragement, but refuse complaint, perverseness, darkness and discouragement, and speak light. They are to rejoice in the Lord even when work is hindered and experience is hard and grievous, trusting that God's word will accomplish His pleasure and that He will work everything out to His glory. This confidence rests on going out with joy and being led forth with peace while mountains and hills break into singing and trees clap their hands, with thorns and briers replaced by fir trees and myrtle trees as an everlasting memorial to His name.

Isaiah 55 stands with Isaiah 50 through 58 as the Lord's reproof to His people that those in high positions carrying great responsibilities must study and heed instead of accepting only chosen words and doing no thorough work. They are charged to receive great light and follow on to know the Lord, to warn God's people so they understand what is truth and souls who have not heard the reasons of faith may hear them. They must stop complaining and evil working, put away the evil of their works, come nigh, repent and be converted because their ways are not accepted of God, so that through a reformation going through the congregation the Lord will appear to the conviction and conversion of souls and Isaiah 60 and 61 will be understood.

Greater responsibility does not make anyone superior to fellow workers, and those in responsible positions must seek wisdom and power from God as Daniel did. They are to represent truth in righteousness rather than themselves or selfish and fraudulent practices, and be free of pride and self-importance, filled with wisdom from God.

The promise applies to present experience while time is passing rapidly, calling for understanding of what needs to be done in right lines. Isaiah 55-58 are to be diligently studied to arouse pastors and people from spiritual stupidity. Those in the cities who profess to believe present truth are called to wake up and give to others what the Lord has given them, to arise and shine for their light is come, to give the precious light of the gospel message to others and see the glory of God.