It sounds symbolic, merely symbolic! But then again these things are said to happen when Jesus comes again to earth!
“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Isaiah 55:12-13
The verb “brought forth” evokes pictures of a shepherd leading his sheep! Jesus is that Millennial Shepherd, too. (It is also the Bible verb used several times for man being “brought forth” from life to death. Sort of parallel to: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. FOR THOU ART WITH ME.” Psalm 23:4, Hallelujah!)
But mountains and hills and trees … rejoicing?
Well, rocks can “cry out,” Jesus believed. (Luke 19:14)
And if nature is now “groaning” under the weight of sin … as Paul taught us in Romans 8:22 … why can she not “rejoice” when Jesus removes all the curse?
Try this Passage: “Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the LORD, because he cometh to judge the earth.” 1st Chronicles 16:32-33, now they’re singing!
Who is to say there is not some type of “praise” music embedded in the wood of trees, hitherto undiscovered?
Remember any of the Bible Passages that liken men to trees? Several do exist. Then surely this is possible … “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” Psalm 47:1, now we have trees and people engaged in the same activity!
I believe that creation so happily glorifying the Lord (during the Millennium) will probably be a literal occurrence! Note: the “Spring of the year,” with all those “hints” of resurrection … is literal as well! (Though now with some scientific principle being the “reason” for each glorious phenomenon. Robbing us of the Power of God’s Hand in it all, I fear.) There is such a thing as “science falsely so called.”
But there’s even more in today’s Bible Text … “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” Good growth instead of not-as-good growth! “Thorns” often imply the “curse” or “sin” in the Bible. And often “briars” are to be burned! But now … much more useful forests!
Here read Ezekiel 28:24 … “And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD.” Wow, why am I not more familiar with this verse? (Again, trees and men!)
Vegetation patterns reversed, forestry revised, revived! (Maybe a little like zoology’s: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb.” Isaiah 11:6!)
Jesus as Emancipator, Liberator, Redeemer!
The whole earth made right again (as in the days prior to Adam’s sin) … by the Last Adam’s (Jesus) Presence!
Thus Isaiah 55 ends: “And it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” Just another way of saying … “All these things will happen to the Glory of God!”
The Millennium, what a time it will be!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
No wonder we so often discuss “the Blessed Hope!”
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