Second Sunday of Advent: Prepare the way for the Lord
Isaiah 40:3-5 - The glory of the Lord is revealed to all with prepared hearts — “all people will see it together” — not just people of a particular nation
Photo © 2023, Barbara Sande
“A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.””
Isaiah 40:3-5 NIV
For the second Sunday of Advent, we have another prophecy from Isaiah (if you’re new to Heaven On Wheels or missed the first Sunday of Advent post, it is available here).
These verses from Isaiah are important for one very big reason — they are the verses chosen by John the Baptist to define his mission (Luke 3:3-6). John worked in the wilderness (Luke 3:2) where he prepared the way for the Lord by “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3).
The next part of Isaiah 40:3-5 sounds like an order to a present-day civil engineer — “make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.” In the days of the prophet, a king returning to his country with an army after an exile or years of battle would order that a way home be prepared — this often meant that workers would be sent ahead to clear brush and rubble from disused roads, find passable fords in rivers, construct causeways, and even chop down forests to ease the sovereign’s return.
Isaiah foresaw two future events; the return of the people of Jerusalem to their home from their exile in Babylon, and the coming of the Messiah. The Jews returning to Jerusalem would probably want the roads home made clear for the multitudes traveling back to Judah. However, the prophecy makes much more sense in the context of John the Baptist and Jesus, as it begins with “prepare the way for the Lord” and “make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Matthew Henry made this observation:
The prophet had some reference to the return of the Jews from Babylon. But this is a small event, compared with that pointed out by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament, when John the Baptist proclaimed the approach of Christ. When eastern princes marched through desert countries, ways were prepared for them, and hinderances removed. And may the Lord prepare our hearts by the teaching of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, that high and proud thoughts may be brought down, good desires planted, crooked and rugged tempers made straight and softened, and every hinderance removed, that we may be ready for his will on earth, and prepared for his heavenly kingdom.
Likewise, Joseph Benson’s Commentary of the Old and New Testaments includes this
“At the same time it is as clear, I apprehend, that the prophet was inspired to use language, of design, which should appropriately express a more important event, the coming of the forerunner of the Messiah, and the work which he should perform as preparatory to his advent. There was such a striking similarity in the two events, that they could be grouped together in the same part of the prophetic vision or picture the mind would naturally, by the laws of prophetic suggestion, glance from one to the other, and the same language would appropriately and accurately express both. Both could be described as the coming of Yahweh to bless and save his people; both occurred after a long state of desolation and bondage - the one a bondage in Babylon, the other in sin and national declension. The pathless desert was literally to be passed through in the one instance; in the other, the condition of the Jews was that which was not unaptly likened to a desert - a condition in regard to real piety not unlike the state of a vast desert in comparison with fruitful fields. 'It was,' says Lowth, 'in this desert country, destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, in true piety and works unfruitful, that John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord by preaching repentance.’”
The glory of the Lord is revealed to all with prepared hearts — “all people will see it together” — not just people of a particular nation. That preparation comes through confession, repentance, and faith in our Lord and Savior. We know this with assurance as “the mouth of the lord has spoken.”
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father, I thank You for the prophets that proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, and that by grace through faith I believe their testimony, becoming a new person in Christ. Teach me to be a voice that calls out in this wilderness of sin, to proclaim God’s message of reconciliation to those who need a Savior and to testify to the truth of Your Word — that Jesus came into the world to save sinners through His death and resurrection, and that by faith in His name, we can be forgiven of our sin and declared righteous. I pray this in Jesus’ name, AMEN.