"A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of Jehovah! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God! Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be brought low: and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough places a smooth plain: And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together the salvation of our God: for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it." (Isaiah 40:3-5) "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways." (Psalm 119:1-3) "As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel." (Psalm 125:5) "He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." (Psalm 103:7) "The meek will He guide in judgment: the meek will He teach His way." (Psalm 25:9) "As for God, His way is perfect." (Psalm 18:30) "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works." (Psalm 145:17) "Jesus said unto Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) "Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?" (Psalm 77:13) "Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16) "And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Highest: for you shall go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; To give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high has visited us, To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. ... Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the Spirit and power of Elijah, toturn the hearts of the father to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." (Luke 1:76-79,16-17) "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse [or "utter destruction"]." (Malachi 4:5-6) "Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall make His footsteps a way to walk in." (Psalm 85:13,RV) "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." (Psalm 19:7-8)
Let us not forget, in studying this lesson, that while all Scripture is always true, and the Gospel is always applicable, this prophecy of Isaiah has special application in these last days. This message is one:
• to make ready a people prepared for the coming of the Lord in glory,
• to give reward to His servants, and
• to give every man according as his work shall be.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that because it was written twenty-five hundred years ago, it does not specially concern us. The Word of the Lord is living, and never loses any of its force. Its exhortations are more emphatic "as we see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)
Remember also what we have learned concerning the message of John the Baptist. It reaches till the coming of the Lord in glory, and all who love the Lord and His coming are commissioned to proclaim it. John the Baptist therefore stood not as a single individual, having a work to do that ended with his death, but as the type of a great movement embracing tens of thousands of people, and reaching till the end of time.
A People Prepared
The command to the voice is, "Prepare the way of Jehovah!" (Isaiah 40:3)
It is to prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Well, what hinders His coming now? Why could He not have come at any time in the past? Simply because the people were not prepared for His coming. The condition of His professed followers hindered His advent. The way of the Lord is in the sanctuary, (Psalm 77:13) and His sanctuary is His people, (Psalm 114:2) therefore we see that the way of the Lord is prepared only by the preparation of His people,--by the cleansing of the sanctuary. "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3)
The words "straight" and "right" are really the same. The Latin word rectus, from which we derive our word "right," as seen in the word "rectitude," the meaning of which everybody knows, means literally, "straight," as can be seen from the word "rectilinear." A "right" line is a straight line, just as a "rectangle" is a right or straight angle. To make the way of the Lord straight is therefore to make it right. But "[all] the ways of the Lord are right;" (Hosea 14:9) "His way is perfect." (Psalm 18:30)
Therefore there is nothing about the Lord that needs correcting. Everything with which He has to do is as good as it can be. But we have refused to allow the Lord to have His way, for: "We have turned everyone to his own way." (Isaiah 53:6)
His rightful way is in us, but we have kept Him back by our unrighteousness. (Romans 1:19-32) We have made our ways crooked. So the Lord sends His messengers to straighten us out--to make us right before Him, so that there may be nothing to hinder His complete possession of us.
Straight Lines
"Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." (Isaiah 40:4)
God is light. The characteristic of light is that it proceeds in straight lines. So with God, who is "the Father of lights, [there] can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning." (James 1:17,RV)
Consequently all in whom He has His way must be sincere, that is, clear and transparent, so that the beams of the Sun of righteousness may not be hindered in their course. The work of this Gospel message is to "give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." (Luke 1) "You were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light." (Ephesians 5:8) "He made known His ways to Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel." (Psalm 103:7)
Ways and acts are the same. When we say of a person that we do not like his ways, we mean that we do not like his habits, his actions. So the way of the Lord is His manner of life. He made His ways or acts known to Moses and the children of Israel, in revealing to them His law. "You came down also upon Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: And made known unto them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses your servant." (Nehemiah 9:13-14)
The law of the Lord is His way, as we learn from: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in His ways." (Psalm 119:1-3)
The way of the Lord is prepared, therefore, by putting His law into the hearts of the people.
The Glory of the Lord
"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together." (Isaiah 40:5)
When the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, it will be with glory. "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory." (Psalm 97:5-6)
Since God is light, and dwells in light, being clothed with light as a garment, it follows that wherever He goes the glory must be revealed. So we read that when the way of the Lord is prepared, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. This will be because that when His way is prepared, He himself will go in it.
The way of the Lord is in the sanctuary, (Psalm 77:13) and His sanctuary is His people. (Psalm 114:2) The idea prevails that the coming of the Lord is an arbitrary affair; that He will come when He is ready, regardless of the condition of people on this earth. That is a great mistake. The coming of the Lord is but the consummation, the crowning act, of a great work. It is the natural and inevitable result of what has preceded.
Christ came to reveal God to men, so that they might know His will concerning them. It is God's will that men shall be like Him, so as to be fit companions for Him, and to this end Christ was once manifested, to reveal God to men, in man; and the possibility of this was secured by His death. His coming to this earth was the emptying of himself, really His death, so that it is only by the death of Christ that God can be manifest in the flesh.
The whole work of the Gospel is to secure this revelation of God in man. It is the work that God began at the creation, when He made man in His own image; and to restore this image is the work of the Gospel. "The new man is after God created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4:24)
But the heavens must retain Christ, "until the times of restoration of all things." (Acts 3:21,RV)
His coming means the restoration of the earth; but this cannot be until the new man is made ready for it--until it has a ruler,--and so before the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, He must be fully revealed in His people. The shining forth of the Lord from heaven is but the fullness of His revelation. "He shall come to be glorified in His saints." (2 Thessalonians 1:10)
He cannot come, therefore, until in the church the ways of God are seen as perfectly as they were in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Whole World Lightened
"And all flesh shall see it together." (Isaiah 40:5)
When the way is prepared, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it. This is because as soon as the way is prepared, the Lord goes in it, and wherever He goes the glory must be revealed. But His way is in His people, therefore His glory is to be seen in them. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)
Why has God shined in our hearts? To give the light of the knowledge of His glory. To give the light of the knowledge of His glory to whom? To others, of course; for no candle shines for the purpose of giving light to itself. God shines in our hearts in order that others may take knowledge of His glory. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)
Good works are the light, according to these words of Christ. So again we see that God prepares the way by putting His law in our hearts by His Spirit; "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light." (Proverbs 6:23)
The preaching of the law of God as revealed in the life and character of Christ, must precede the coming of the Lord. When the last message shall have been completed, these words will be uttered: "Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." (Revelation 19:12)
When the glory is revealed, it will be seen. That will be the testimony to the saving power of our God. In the inanimate things that God has made, His power and Divinity are seen. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
Although man has proved unfaithful, and has even imposed his evil traits upon the creation that was given into his care, God has not left himself without witness. "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)
But that is not enough. Man, the highest creature of God, ought to give the most perfect testimony to His power and goodness, and this will be the case before the Lord comes. Not only must all the works of God praise Him, but His saints must bless Him.
When the voice in the wilderness has completed its message, then will the work for which Christ ascended to heaven, namely, "that He might fill all things," (Ephesians 4:10) be accomplished, and He will come. Then all creatures, animate and inanimate, will unite in saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." (Revelation 5:13)--Present Truth, August 31, 1899--Isaiah 40:3-5.