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Advent · Third Sunday in Advent · Year A

Isaiah 35:1-10

The Desert Shall Rejoice and Blossom

December 14, 2025

Almond Blossom, Vincent van Gogh
Almond Blossom, Vincent van Gogh, 1890Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Painted as a present for his newborn nephew, the branches cut off by the frame against flat blue, in the Japanese manner he had been studying.The desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly. Isaiah 35 is about things flowering where they should not.Vincent van GoghVan Gogh (1853-1890) trained first for the ministry and preached in a Belgian mining district before taking up painting, which he did seriously for only the last decade of his life.Van Gogh Museum, AmsterdamBuilt around the pictures Van Gogh's brother kept, and so the only place to follow his ten working years in order.Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
LSB Three-Year Lectionary
GospelMatt. 11:2-15Mt 11:2-15
EpistleJas. 5:7-11Jas 5:7-11
Old TestamentIsa. 35:1-10Is 35:1-10
PsalterPs. 146Ps 146

Overview & Insights

“Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.” (Isaiah 35:5)

Isaiah 35 closes the first half of the book and reads like a summary of chapters 40 to 55 placed in front of them; its vocabulary of highway, return and ransomed has long suggested the same hand. The chapter answers 34, a poem in which Edom is reduced to waste, so blossoming desert and ruined land are set deliberately opposite one another. Verses 5-6 supply the list Jesus sends back to John in the Gospel appointed with this reading, which is why the two stand together: the healings there are not evidence attached to a claim but the terms of this oracle being met. The Way of Holiness in v. 8 is a road reserved for one kind of traveler, and its oddity, that even fools will not lose their way on it, makes it a road that carries rather than tests. Verse 10 recurs almost word for word at Isaiah 51:11.

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Commentary

Isaiah 35:1-10 Commentary by Anathea Portier-YoungIs 35:1-10 Commentary by Anathea Portier-Young workingpreacher.org

Reads Isaiah 35 as both God's coming in Christ and our own coming home, tracing the transformation of wilderness into highway as literal and spiritual homecoming.

Isaiah 35:1-10 CommentaryIs 35:1-10 Commentary cepreaching.org

Treats Isaiah 35 as a vision of reversal, where the desert's transformation previews the healing miracles Jesus points to in Matthew 11.

Isaiah 35 Commentary: Israel's Happy FutureIs 35 Commentary: Israel's Happy Future enduringword.com

Verse-by-verse commentary on Isaiah 35 emphasizing the wilderness blossoming and the 'Highway of Holiness' as pictures of restored Zion.

Isaiah 35 CommentaryIs 35 Commentary preceptaustin.org

Compiles multiple classic commentators (Guzik, Teed, Walvoord) on Isaiah 35, framing it as Israel's promised millennial restoration.

Advent 3 • Isaiah 35:1–10 • December 15, 2013Advent 3 • Is 35:1–10 • December 15, 2013 concordiatheology.org

Jeffrey Gibbs' Concordia Seminary homiletical help walks through Isaiah 35:1-10 verse by verse for the LSB Advent 3 Old Testament reading.

Background & Word Study

Isaiah 35Is 35 sefaria.org

Hebrew text with Jewish translation and commentary for Isaiah 35, including the 'Sacred Way' (derekh ha-qodesh) highway imagery.

Isaiah 35:1-7 - Here Is Your God-Who Restores All ThingsIs 35:1-7 - Here Is Your God-Who Restores All Things enterthebible.org

Word study on Isaiah 35:1-7 tracing how God's coming strengthens hands, firms up knees, and restores creation itself, not just people.

The Church Fathers

Isaiah 35 CatenaIs 35 Catena catenabible.com

Patristic comment on Isaiah 35 gathered verse-by-verse, including how the fathers read its healing imagery as messianic prophecy.

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