John's Encouragement

Isaiah 35:3-8 [ESV]

3 Strengthen the weak hands,
and make firm the feeble knees.
4 Say to those who have an anxious heart,
“Be strong; fear not!
Behold, your God
will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
He will come and save you.”

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
For waters break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.

8 And a highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Way of Holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
It shall belong to those who walk on the way;
even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.

The text God led me to for encouragement last night when I was feeling so incredibly freaked out was verse four in this passage. This morning, I went back to it, kind of to remember that whatever I will face today will be something that God can help me through.

I read the verses around it, and something hit me pretty hard. I thought of John the Baptist, and his question for Jesus - are you the one I was told to expect, or is there someone else? - and I thought about my stress in light of John's. I guess what he was going through was probably a little harder, being in prison for being a good person.

And I thought of Jesus' reply to John and how much it sounds like this passage. Look at his reply and compare it to verses 5 and 6 in Isaiah 35. Here are Jesus words:

Matthew 11:4-5 [ESV]

4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

See the similarity? I wonder if Jesus did that on purpose. I wonder if Jesus meant for John to think of Isaiah 35 in light of his reply. Because John certainly knew the prophet Isaiah - he understood his whole life in light of Isaiah's prophecy! He believed he was the voice crying out in the wilderness to "prepare a way for the Lord and make his path straight!" Isn't it interesting that verse eight talks about a prepared way? Was Jesus telling John - "You did it, buddy! You fulfilled your life purpose. You may not understand everything I'm doing or how things are working out, but you can know this - you have done the job God put in front of you! Good job, John."

And in the midst of that hope, is the promise of salvation. Maybe not deliverance from prison ('cause that didn't happen), but that God would save him. And I suppose in eternity, John will certainly be among the saved. In a sense, knowing that your life has purpose and that you've lived it is part of salvation.

Anyway, I think about how Jesus took care of John, even though he didn't rescue him from his distressing situation. I think of that, and I think - he'll take care of me too. All I have to do is trust him.