Walking With Christ

19 days until Christmas.

Isaiah 40:3-5 (3) A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (4)Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. (5)And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”(ESV)

John the Baptist was the herald that announced the coming of Christ. Even his coming was announced by prophecy as we see in Isaiah 40. This is confirmed by Matthew in 3:3. The book of Isaiah had been filled with doom and despair until chapter forty where it shifts from judgement to hope. The imagery of the straight highway is used in several places in the bible (below). The messenger is saying to get ready because God is coming. In the time when this was written, the people of Judah would have understood it to be a call to make a clean, straight, even path for the coming dignitary to show them proper respect and love in advance of their visit. To prepare a highway required effort to make sure that it was level, straight, and free of obstacles that might trip the visitor. For Jews, it could also have been a call for repentance (read the message from yesterday). The wilderness was understood as a wild place of testing and purification.

The voice coming from the wilderness is in stark contrast to the settled and stable norm found in settled places where most people live. The voice beckons people to step out of their comfort zone and into the wilderness to a place where they will be tested, cleaned, and purified before they have a radically life changing encounter with God. The wilderness is where many of the heroes of the bible found God. Moses on Mount Sanai, Elijah on Mount Horeb (Sanai), the Israelites after leaving Egypt, Jesus, Paul, David and many more spent their own time in the wilderness. It’s when we step out of our comfort zone and into the wilderness that we are given the opportunity to re-examine many aspects of our lives and to strip away the chains we have picked up along the way. It’s only in the wilderness where we cannot afford the luxury of distractions.

Just like Isaiah 40 was the prophetic announcement for the end of exile when God paved the way for the restoration of Jerusalem after the children of Israel had spent so long in the wilderness of captivity, John the Baptist was the prophetic announcement of the arrival of Jesus who paves the way for all of mankind to return from the wilderness of our sins. If we pave the way (prepare the way) to our hearts for Jesus to come in, the He will pave our way to the Father for all of eternity.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (5)Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. (6)In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.(ESV)
Proverbs 11:5 The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight, but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.(ESV)
Proverbs 15:19 The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.(ESV)
Hebrews 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.(ESV)