A Voice in the Wilderness

December 26                                                                  

Scripture Reading
Read Isaiah 40:3-5 and reflect on the passage.

Matthew 3:3 clearly identifies John the Baptist as "The voice of one calling" in our reading for today.  When Isaiah wrote this passage, it was common practice for eastern monarchs who were making an extended trip, to send servants before them to prepare for their passage. This included improving roads and removing all impediments to the safe travel and arrival  of the monarch. John fulfilled this role by calling the Jews to repentance, baptizing them, and ultimately preparing them for the coming of King Jesus.

During this Advent season, we have been preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus, and in many ways His coming into our individual lives to save us. We have had, and continue to have, an opportunity to heed Isaiah's words and John's actions as we examine ourselves and "make straight in the wilderness a highway for our  God". We also have an opportunity to put these same words and actions into place as we interact with others – both believers and non-believers. The King has come! Let us continue to prepare the way for His presence in our hearts and lives and in those who don't know Him.

Questions

What areas in the wilderness of our lives should we ask God to help us "make straight" as we contemplate the miracle of Christmas?

How can we help "prepare the way" for non-believers to hear the true message of Christmas and receive the gift of Jesus into their lives?

Prayer

Father, thanks for Christmas. Help us to be voices that "prepare the way" for Christ's  presence in our lives and the lives of others. Amen.

                                                                                                                        Tom Richards

High Comfort for Hill Climbers

In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness 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.
(Isaiah 40:3, 4)

When it comes to running, I’m a flat-lander if there ever was one—a bona fide “hill wimp.” Mentally and physically, hills wear me out. What some might dismiss as a slight grade, I curse as a steep climb. Good thing I live in central Ohio.

We have a natural inclination to reach God by our own route in our own strength, don’t we? We strain to scale the steepest of hills by our own efforts, only to sink into valleys of despair and doubt. The distance is immeasurable; the terrain is impossible. “Rugged” doesn't even begin to describe this run.

Isaiah foretold a day when the distance between God and humankind would be closed, but it would be God’s doing, not ours. He would come to us on a highway made straight, over valleys raised up, hills made low, and rough ground leveled. It happened, He has visited us; the prophecy is fulfilled.

In the process, God established for us a highway, “the Way of Holiness” (Isaiah 35:8), which we travel to Him. This “Way” has a name, Jesus, the One who proclaimed Himself to be “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6). In Christ, there are no hills of self-righteous toil, and we need not despair our shortcomings, for He has reconciled us to God. So we run the path of His leveling; we traverse the gap of His closing; we stride the route of His relief. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned . . .” (Isaiah 40:1 ESV)

“Comfort, comfort” is good news to people who know no alternative to the torturous trails of toil. Truth is, the world is full of hill-climbers—gasping for breath, clutching cramped sides, and longing to run like flat-landers on the leveled Way of Holiness. So we call out to those still struggling down these impassible roads, “‘Here is your God!’ (Isaiah 40:9). In Him, and Him alone, I have found comfort. So can you. Come, and run with me.”

Father, give me a heart for those who still long to run the Way of Holiness. Give me the words to speak to them and the deeds to perform for them. And be glorified in those who discover everlasting comfort in your Son. In His name I pray.

[See today's Scripture in Isaiah:40:1-11.]