What is the meaning of Isaiah 35:9? No lion will be there Isaiah 35 pictures the coming restoration of Zion, a literal future when God’s people live in perfect safety. Lions, apex predators of the ancient Near East, stood for immediate, tangible danger. Their absence promises: • Total removal of physical threats (see Isaiah 11:6; 65:25, where even natural predators are pacified). • End of spiritual stalking—Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8); in God’s redeemed realm his menace is gone. • Fulfillment of the covenant hope that God Himself becomes the protective wall around His people (Zechariah 2:5). and no vicious beast will go up on it The “it” is the “Highway of Holiness” described in Isaiah 35:8. God guarantees that no ferocious creature can even set foot on that road. • The route is divinely policed—nothing unclean or threatening may enter (Revelation 21:27). • Echoes of God’s promise to “banish wild beasts from the land” under His covenant blessings (Leviticus 26:6; Ezekiel 34:25). • For us, it underscores the certainty that nothing can ambush the pilgrim who travels under God’s covenant care (Psalm 91:9-13). Such will not be found there The phrase reinforces the absolute nature of the security. Not “few,” not “rare,” but “not be found.” • God’s future kingdom is not merely improved; it is completely cleansed (Isaiah 4:4). • The finality anticipates the day when “death will be no more” and every threat—physical, moral, or spiritual—is erased (Revelation 21:4). • The earth itself is transformed, undoing the curse that introduced violence into creation (Romans 8:19-21). but the redeemed will walk upon it Contrast completes the verse: what is excluded (predators) highlights who is included (the redeemed). • “Redeemed” points to those ransomed by the Lord’s own intervention (Isaiah 51:11; Titus 2:14). • They “walk,” not merely arrive; their journey is free, joyful, unhurried—life as it was meant to be (Micah 4:2-4). • The verse anticipates Jesus, the Way (John 14:6), whose atonement purchases safe passage for every believer into God’s restored world (Hebrews 10:19-22). summary Isaiah 35:9 promises a literal future in which God eradicates every threat, neutralizes all evil, and opens a perfectly secure highway for His redeemed people. No lions, no beasts, no lurking danger—only those bought by the Lord walking confidently in the fullness of His salvation. |
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