Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
3 sermons cite this verse
… another is Genesis chapter 3 verse 18 where God says to Adam after he sinned, cursed is the ground because of you, because of your sin. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. So thorns are a mark of God's curse on the world because of human sin. Whenever you come across a thorn in your garden or in the park, that's a reminder. This world is cursed because of our sin. We share in that. And Isaiah's vision of the new earth, he sees there that instead of the thorn comes up the cypress. Instead of the briar, the myrtle. I don't know how good you are on your horticulture, but cypresses and myrtles are evergreens. They're beautiful trees. They're not weeds. It's the kind of trees you want. and the point is the greatness of our God just as thorns remind us of human sin so the replacing of those thorns with evergreens will display and show the glory of God who overcomes our sin and overcomes the curse because of our sin and God will remake the world, Isaiah says, to make a name for himself. …
… And the other's the curse after Adam and Eve sinned. Genesis 3.18, Cursed be the ground because of you, Adam. thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. So thorns are a mark of God's curse on the creation because of human sin. And in Isaiah's vision here of the new earth, he sees that instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle. Cypresses and myrtles are evergreens The vision is that thorns and thistles These marks of the curse Get in our way and poke us Might make us bleed Make life uncomfortable They will be replaced by evergreens And the point is not horticulture The point is it will show the greatness of God through the thriving of his people. The cursed creation is reflecting the state of the people. The renewed creation is supplementing, applauding the state of the people himself. That is to glorify himself. That's why he made the world to begin with. And that's why he will remake the world when Jesus returns. …
3. One cannot but observe, throughout this whole narration, the inexpressible tenderness and lenity of the almighty Creator, from whom they had revolted, the Sovereign against whom they had rebelled. “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” — thus graciously calling him to return, who would otherwise have eternally fled from God. “And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked.” Still here is no acknowledgment of his fault, no humiliation for it. But with what astonishing tenderness does God lead him to make that acknowledgment! “And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?” How camest thou to make this discovery? “Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?” “And the man said,” still unhumbled, yea, indirectly throwing the blame upon GOd himself, “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” “And the Lord God,” still in order to bring them to repentance, “said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done?” (Gen. 3:13.) “And the woman said,” nakedly declaring the thing as it was, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” “And the Lord God said unto the serpent,” to testify his utter abhorrence of sin, by a lasting monument of his displeasure, in punishing the creature that had been barely the instrument of it, “Thou art cursed above the cattle, and above every beast of the field. — And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Thus, in the midst of judgment hath God remembered mercy, from the beginning of the world; connecting the grand promise of salvation with the very sentence of condemnation! …