First comes the invitation:
Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7)
And then the prophet explains what God says the result will be for those who accept Him:
You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure forever.” (Isaiah 55:12-13)
This sounds like a Disney Princess movie, doesn’t it? “The mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” Can you imagine walking through the beautiful outdoors, and all the trees start applauding you? After you picked yourself up from the rock you dove behind, it would probably be pretty cool…
Or is this where “The Sound of Music” got inspiration? Do you remember this? “The hills are alive with the sound of music…” Could be…I mean, if you’re looking for inspiration, the Word of God is a good place to start!
This prophecy appears to be describing the New Earth that will come in the Last Days after this one is wiped clean. And look, I do understand that not everything is literal (like when Paul says he has a “thorn in his flesh” – it wasn’t an actual thorn, that’s just an expression). I also recognize that trees probably will never have actual hands (unless you’re in the Wizard of Oz, and then it’ s just a stagehand in a tree costume).
But Isaiah continues - talking about junipers instead of thorns, and myrtle instead of briers. This, I believe, is a literal statement on what the New Earth will be like, and also what our Earth was like before the Fall. Remember, it was upon Adam’s sin that God cursed the ground:
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.” (Genesis 3:17-18)
So the implication here is - before we screwed up everything through our choices to try and do things our way, instead of God’s way - there were no thorns or briers….and after God straightens things out once and for all, we will return to an Earth like this.
So why can’t we imagine the mountains ‘singing’? Sure, they may not sound like Julie Andrews, but Paul tells us that currently the earth is groaning, so once the God-sized "Easy" button is pushed, why not switch from groaning to singing?
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. (Romans 8:22)
So it makes sense to me that this broken world groans, and the New Earth sings! Just as it makes sense to me that in this life, we often groan through our brokenness.
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to walking through the singing hills and clapping trees! I just hope that God gives me a voice in the New Earth that will be as pleasing to the ears as the one He gives the mountains…then I can join them as we sing!
“The hills are alive, with the sound of music!”