Daily Devotional for Monday 4th December
Gospel Comfort
This week we are looking at Elizabeth and Zachariah, John the Baptist’s parents. But to do so we are taken back hundreds of years before the events leading to John’s birth, to a prophecy that has so much more fundamental and overarching meaning than the familiar story of John’s birth related at Christmas time.
Like other prophets, Isaiah was given visions (1:1), but he also received words. In this chapter a voice 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’s 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 and restoration based on the atonement and 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 New Testament, was prepared by God to be such a voice (John 1:19–23) and that 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.
God’s highway of comfort and restoration is based on atonement and forgiveness. This way 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 a strong voice of gladness and certainty.
Our passage answers how comfort can be offered to a sinful, ruined people. This response to the command of verse 1 ‘comfort my people’ 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 call and cause for encouragement is the coming of the Lord into the sphere of human activity. Neither Israel nor any other human agency is the cause of the comfort here extended to the world. 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. 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
The verb used here for “prepare” 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. The ‘rugged things’ (v 4) of oppression are to be made straight or smooth. Evil is to be forsaken and the deep harsh valley of human need is to be filled. Nothing of human power or devising can remove such obstacles. Only the Messiah can do this. He is the revelation of the glory of the Lord, the one that all people will see (v 5). Nothing can stand in the way of the coming of Christ, neither earthly powers nor the sin of our lives.
Time to reflect…
If we have confidence in God's word we will be able to proclaim the same truths as were declared by Isaiah and repeated by John the Baptist. This should bring us comfort, for the gospel brings us forgiveness of sin and the end of enmity with God.
Pause to pray…
Father, just as You sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus, help me to clear the path in my heart, too. Show me the distractions in my life that block me from all-out worship of You. This Advent I look toward the day when I will see You face to face. Give me a heart, Lord, that looks for Your coming on a daily basis. Help me to live my life where I'm constantly seeking Your presence. Give me the strength to ask for forgiveness and then change my ways. Amen
