Isaiah 35: 5-7 (NLT)
“And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf. The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland. The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.”
Opening the eyes of the blind, unplugging the ears of the deaf, making the lame walk… That sounds an awful lot like Jesus. We now know that he in fact did these things very literally. But imagine if the Messiah had not yet come. You could read this as a figure of speech, focusing more on a spiritual meaning: people who are blind to God or are not listening to him will see and obey. As we consider this metaphorical interpretation, it actually makes sense too. Reading the Bible often requires multiple interpretations, and sometimes all of them are correct in their own way.
This passage reminds me of another prophecy in Ezekiel 37, in which a valley of dry bones comes to life. The Bible has a lot of examples of dry things growing again, or thirsty people getting water. Even Jesus used an example of living water as a metaphor for himself in John 4. When God speaks to us in contrasts such as dry versus overflowing or dead versus alive, he is drawing attention to the differences between his Kingdom and Satan’s world. He wants us to remember that anything we see around us that is rotting, decaying, dried up, or dead is not his intention nor his eternal plan. He is in the restoration business.
God will heal you, he will give you water, he will cause you to flourish. These are eternal promises, which are a guarantee because Satan cannot touch God’s Kingdom. Satan can mess with our physical bodies while we remain on earth, but God will be handing you a brand new one for all of eternity. Satan can destroy things that we care about, but God will take that destruction and turn it into something beautiful. God will fulfill you. He will restore you. He will give you back everything that has ever been stolen from you and more. Cling to hope as you wait for his coming, and bring about a small corner of the Kingdom of God in your own world by meeting a need for someone else.