Bible Commentaries

Isaiah 35:8

The way of holiness is (1) a high way; (2) a strait and narrow way; (3) a plain and obvious way; (4) a safe way.

J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 399.

Reference: Isaiah 35:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1912.

Isaiah 35:10

I. "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away." (1) The sorrow of bodily disease shall pass away. (2) The sorrow of dying will pass away. (3) The sorrow of bereavement will pass away. (4) The sorrow of poverty will flee away. (5) The sorrows caused by the sins of others will flee away. (6) The sorrows produced by the fear of evil, by dark imaginations, and by blighted hopes, shall flee away. (7) The sorrows of this life's illusions and delusions shall all pass away. (8) The sorrows of sin will pass away. (9) The bitterness of the heart shall flee away.

II. When shall this be? (1) It shall be to the individual saint when his earthly career terminates. (2) To the saints as a body this will be realised at the times of the restitution of all things.

III. By what signs may we be assured that our sorrows will flee away? (1) The first sign is personal faith. (2) A second sign is acknowledged and avowed citizenship in the kingdom of the Saviour. (3) A third sign is the fleeing away of sin—the being cleansed from sin. (4) Another sign is the present good effect of sorrow. (5) A fifth sign is a living hope—hope, born of faith—hope, the child of God's promises—the hope which is the anchor of the soul. When these five signs exist—personal faith in Jesus, avowed citizenship in His kingdom, the fleeing away of sin, the present good effect of sorrow, and a living hope—then we have good reason to expect that our sorrows shall flee away, and that our sighings shall for ever subside.

S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, No. 2.

References: Isaiah 36:5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 646; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 283.