A voice of one calling:
"In the desert prepare
the way for the LORD;
make straight in the wilderness
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah40:3-5
Again we see Isaiah's prophecy being true on two levels...
In the immediate context, Isaiah is predicting the return of the Israelites from their exile in Babylon. He is picturing a second "Exodus", this time from Babylon instead of Egypt. He is seeing God's people cross the wastelands from Babylon to return to Israel and he sees himself as the voice calling to them.
But this passage was taken up by John the Baptist as the explanation and purpose of his work which was to announce how the Jesus the Messiah would lead us out of darkness and sin.
The imagery is beautiful:
- in the desert-wilderness (the place of struggle and loneliness)
- a straight highway (not a crooked pathway but one of righteousness)
- the pathway flattened out (all obstacles removed)
Seventy years after their exile began, Cyrus King of Persia (who Isaiah named many years previously) defeated the Babylonians and released the exiles. Five centuries after Isaiah penned this promise Jesus defeated sin and death and pronounced our forgiveness.
And the glory of God is revealed!!!
But there is another angle to this passage...
Not only does this passage describe what God did for Israel and what He did at the cross, it also describes what God does in our lives...
Again and again I can tell you about how God has met me (and others) in the wilderness, straightening our paths and flattening the obstacles. He is the highway-making, mountain-flattening, glorious God who rescues and delivers!
Let's give Him Glory!!!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
