October 9

Read: Isaiah 35:8-10

And a highway shall be there; and it shall be called The way of holiness.., he himself shall be with them, walking in the way (Isaiah 35:8, Bishop Lowth).

Way Of Divine Companionship

Often our struggles with the difficulties in life bring rewards of unusual blessing. The clause in verse 8, “but it shall be for those,” is a difficult spot for Bible translators. For this clause there are about as many translations as there are translators. But the difficulty has also brought its blessings.

One of the revised versions has a marginal reading, “He shall be with them.” Bishop Lowth reinforces that truth when he translates our text, “He himself shall be with them, walking in the way.”

Here Isaiah foreshadows the most glorious truth of this experience of Christian holiness. God sends His Holy Spirit to be the intimate Companion of our earthly journeys. Yea, He is more than a Companion. Jesus promised, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17).

The way of holiness is “the way of the Holy One.” This way is a holy way because all who travel the road have intimate fellowship with God himself in the person of His Holy Spirit. Jesus walked with two disciples in intimate fellowship along the road to Emmaus. Dr. E. Stanley Jones has reminded us that our Lord could not remain here in His physical presence to walk your road and mine. So He sent the Holy Spirit to be “the Christ of every road.”

What a fellowship, what a joy divine, Leaning on the everlasting arms! What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, Leaning on the everlasting arms!

— Elisha Hoffman