The Highway of Holiness

 

Isaiah 35:8  “A highway shall be there, and a road, an  it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.  The unclean shall not pass over it, but is shall be for others.  Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.  No Lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it; it shall not be found there.  But the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads.  They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and signing shall flee away.” (New King James Translation of the Bible)

 

The great prophets of the Old Testament spoke of things yet to come, but also of events current to their time.  In some cases, their prophecies had appropriate applications both immediate and in the far future.  This is one of the most notable examples of the prophet speaking to a current situation. 

If you compare Isaiah 36:1 through 39:8, and compare with 2 Kings 18:17 through 20:19, you find that they are almost verbatim, and you have a specific crisis in Israel’s history and God’s response to that crisis, which gives us insight in understanding how the other prophecies work. 

 

The context is, as always, very important.  The first 34 chapters of Isaiah are matters of woe and judgment and the doom of nations.  Chapter 35 begins to change the tone of the book.  Chapters 36-39 are the events of Assyria’s attempt to overtake Jerusalem after conquering the northern tribes of Israel and most of what was left save the city.  Chapters 40 and beyond speak of the future plans of the Kingdom of God.  In these pivotal chapters the envoy of Assyria terrifies the leaders of Judah with very real threats of invasion and the envoy blasphemes the God of Israel as weak and ineffective.  Isaiah prophecies and the threat evaporates, and the king of Assyria dies in his own land, killed by his own sons.

 

In the middle of this is the verse about the Highway of Holiness, and much could be said about this.  Suffice it to say that, based on the example of the crisis at hand, one example of appropriate behavior of someone on the Highway of Holiness is to turn to God in prayer first, not last, in a crisis.  To insure this one ought to make turning to God in prayer a habit, for a crisis of some sort will come to all of us, as life in this world is full of trials.  There is much more to the Highway that this, but the context indicates that this is an important part; turn to God in prayer habitually first and prepare to turn to Him quickly should trouble arise.