Isaiah 41:18

18 I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters.

Isaiah 41:18 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 41:18

I will open rivers in high places
Which is not usual; but God will change the course of nature, and work miracles, rather than his people shall want what is necessary for them; thus he opens to them his everlasting and unchangeable love, and makes it manifest, and shows it to them, and their interest in it, which is a broad river, that cannot be passed over; this is in high places, it flows from the throne of God, and of the Lamb; and of this river of pleasure he makes his people to drink, the streams whereof make glad the city of our God; likewise the fulness of grace in his Son, whose grace is as rivers of water in a dry land, exceeding abundant, and very refreshing; also the graces of his Spirit, which he gives in great abundance, and are those rivers of water he causes to flow forth from them that believe in Christ, in the comfortable exercise of them; see ( Psalms 36:8 ) ( 46:4 ) ( Revelation 22:1 ) ( Isaiah 32:2 ) ( John 7:37 John 7:38 ) , and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
God himself is the fountain of life, and of living waters; Christ is the fountain of gardens, and in him are wells of salvation; the grace of the Spirit is a well of living water, springing up unto eternal life; and of these, humble souls, comparable to the lowly valleys, are partakers, ( Psalms 36:9 ) ( Song of Solomon 4:15 ) ( Isaiah 12:3 ) ( James 4:6 ) : I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of
water;
respecting either the Gentile world, which was like a wilderness and dry land before the Gospel came into it, but by that was watered and made fruitful; or the state and case of the people of God being in a wilderness condition, when the Lord takes notice of them, and supplies them with everything necessary, so that they are like a watered garden, whose springs fail not, ( Revelation 12:14 ) . This passage is applied by the Jews to the times of the Messiah F23.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 1. 4. fol. 212. 3.

Isaiah 41:18 In-Context

16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel thou shalt be joyful.
17 The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst. I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in the high hills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive tree: I will set in the desert the fir tree, the elm, and the box tree together:
20 That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
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