A Voice Of Coming Series

ISAIAH 40: 3-5. [ADVENT I SERIES PART II]

A VOICE OF COMING

[Matthew 3:1-3, John 1:19–23]

Like other prophets, Isaiah was given visions (1:1), but he also received words. In our text an unidentified voice or voices calls out with Good News (v.3). This Good News must be announced, and a herald and forerunner of the coming King has been called upon to express God ultimate hope for mankind. Though humanity continues to pass away, there is hope for something eternal. That hope is the Word of God which not only will be fulfilled but will stand forever. That Word here is comfort & restoration based on the atonement & forgiveness provided when the Glory of the Lord is revealed.

It is the ultimate origin and the content of the word of God that matters, not its messenger. Yet John the Baptist, to whom the words are applied in the NT, was prepared by God to be such an unidentified voice (John 1:19–23) that through the proclaiming of the word of God would prepare the way for God’s arrival. This prepared way is here made clearer; and, because it represents God’s purpose for His people, it is called His highway. [Isaiah 35:8–10 also speaks of a highway for the returning exiles, implying perhaps that it would traverse the desert (35:1).]

God’s highway of comfort and restoration is based on atonement and forgiveness. This way [derekh] will be prepared and God will come. Frail humanity will be visited by the eternal God who will indwell His people. We are told to proclaim these glad tidings with the strong voice of gladness and certainty.

This second Sunday in advent we will look at the voice’s second word or perhaps it is a second voice. It is A WORD or VOICE OF COMING, found in verses 3-5 of Isaiah 40. Our passage answers how comfort can be offered to a sinful, ruined people. This response to the climatic command of verse 1 which began a new section of Isaiah’s book is found in verse 3. ‘A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God.”’

The abrupt bursting in of an unnamed second voice, again calls for our attention. The call and cause for encouragement is the coming the Lord into the sphere of human activity. Neither Israel nor any other human agency is the cause of the comfort here extended. It is the coming of God, the revelation of Him to human sight.

It calls for faith on the part of the people. They do not yet see the King, but they dare to believe that He is coming. It also asks for some form of activity on the part of those who had formerly been paralyzed by discouragement and hopelessness (as in v. 27).

The emphatic, reverberating call is to prepare “the way for the Lord in the wilderness.” What is determined in heaven is to be executed on earth. The highway for our God is to be built in preparation for His coming by what originally would be thought to be mysterious celestial agents. God Himself is preparing a route by which God will arrive to lead them on their journey home from the land of captivity.

The verb “prepare” (pannû) introduces the idea of the removal of obstructions. The obvious obstacle to the coming of the Lord is human sin. Mankind has been broken down by transgressions and cast-down by sorrows and regrets. Lofty thoughts of pride need to be humbled and self-sufficiency subdued by self-renunciation, the ‘crooked things’ or better ‘the rugged things’ of oppression are to be made straight or smooth. Evil is to be forsaken and the deep harsh valley of human need is be filled. Nothing of human power or devising can remove such obstacles or fill such lacking.

The matter or means of preparation is further spelled out in verse 4. “Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;”

The voice announces that there will be a way made across “the wilderness” that separates them from their homeland. The whole concept is, of course, figurative, declaring in dramatic fashion that the Lord will let nothing stand in the way of the exiles’ return. Some might see it as the valleys and hills as representing the numerous physical difficulties for the refuges and the uneven and rough places as political or even psychological forebodings as to their release or journey [Coffin, Henry. The Interpreter’s Bible. Vol V. Isaiah Chapters 40-66. Abingdon Press, Nashville. 1956. P 426.]. Dr. Young interprets it as the people’s repentance rather than their journey home to Zion [Young, New International Com. Book of Isaiah, Vol III. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1972.]. No doubt coming back often has dual significance in Isaiah, combining the physical and the spiritual [(7:3), though the verb “to return” does not occur in our present image.] John the Baptist’s command is to call for repentance [yet the NT fulfillment of an OT passage often moves the concept from the physical to the spiritual. Still the passage seems to prophesy a future physical return along with one of spiritual dimensions.]