Day Nine : 6th December

Isaiah 35

3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees.

4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart,
"Be strong, do not fear! here is your God.
He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.
He will come and save you."

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,
and streams in the desert;

Mary Grey (3) in chapter two, writes about "how to keep hope alive when the dream has ended." On verse 5 Brueggemann (1) writes:

p 277-8 'The power of death and dysfunction will be broken! It is no wonder that God's recompense is received as transformative compassion. We may suggest three lines of fruitful interpretation.

First, the reference to blind, deaf, and dumb may, within the larger context of Isaiah, allude back to the disabling verdict of 6:9-10. If such a connection is made, then we are here in Isaiah's "second stage", when the judgement motif is overcome in grace.

Second, if this text is situated among exiles, then these several disabilities may be a large metaphor for the life-denying situation that is now broken for the resumption of life.

Third, it is important to notice the linkage made in Luke to the ministry of Jesus. Thus it is attested, that where Jesus is present: "The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news preached to them." (Lk 7:22) The claim is made that in the ministry of Jesus, God's new governance is effected, the new governance for which Judaism has long waited.'