Isaiah 55:12
12 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.
A HAPPY EXODUS
‘For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.’
To the Jew in Isaiah’s time this promise doubtless bore reference to three things: the return from the seventy years’ captivity; their ultimate restoration, first to their own land, and then to Christ; and God’s way of dealing with each individual’s own soul. To us it stands only in the last reference; to us the words are simply spiritual.
I. The ‘going out’ appears to relate to that great moral exodus when a man emerges from a state of nature into a state of grace, from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light, from the world to Christ.—This is indeed to be with joy. The being led forth denotes the further experiences of the Christian.
II. What is joy?—(1) Novelty of perception. (2) Keenness of perception. (3) Sweetness of perception.
III. ‘And be led forth with peace.’—As we go on in the spiritual life the sense of sin grows deeper and deeper; and a deep sense of weakness, nothingness, and guilt, combining with a fuller sense of pardon and love, makes joy peace.
—Rev. James Vaughan.