The voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight in the desert a highway for our God!
Isaiah's book turns here from warning to comfort. The first sound in that comfort is one voice in empty country, telling a nation to clear a road for its God. Two questions follow. Who is the traveller? And why does the herald stand in a desert instead of the capital?
The verse never names the speaker. It names only a sound. When men pressed John the Baptist to say who he was, that sound was his whole answer.
They were determined to have an answer, and he gives them one. They would compel him to speak of himself, and he does so. But look at his answer! Who or what was he? Nobody. He was only "a voice." This is morally lovely. The self-emptiness of this most honoured servant is beautiful… Here was a man of real power and dignity, one of Christ's most outstanding servants, in the very highest position. His preaching had stirred the hearts of thousands. Angels had announced his birth. Prophets had foretold his ministry. He was the herald of the kingdom, the friend of the King. Yet when this remarkable man was forced to speak of himself, all he would say was, "I am a voice." Not even a man, but only a voice.
Another writer traces that emptiness back to its cause, and then to the words themselves.
What makes him morally great is that he is less than nothing in his own eyes. This is not because he tries to hide himself, but because for him Christ fills heaven, earth, eternity, and his own heart… He might have said, "I am the mouthpiece of God"; but no, an instrument might even think itself something. "I am the voice of one crying" — that, so to speak, takes away his personality. "Crying in the wilderness" — a voice that wakes an echo, worth nothing in the hearing of men.
The New Testament reads the line as "the voice of one crying in the wilderness." That desert is not just where John lived. It describes the state of the people, and it changes what he could preach.
This is why John the Baptist does not appeal to the people as a whole, like the prophets who came before him. He says, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness." Israel was a wilderness for God. From now on his appeal rests on their ruin beyond repair. The older prophets always assumed the nation could still return to Jehovah… Like them, John the Baptist had preached repentance, but a repentance founded on ruin without remedy.
The road is prepared for "the LORD" — Jehovah, God's own name in the Old Testament. The New Testament applies two prophecies about that road to Jesus.
Jehovah's word to Malachi is, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me." The Spirit applies these words to Christ… Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. The second quotation from Isaiah speaks of preparing the way of the LORD. So again it is Jehovah whose way is prepared — for Jesus is Jehovah.
The same reasoning is used elsewhere as direct evidence for the deity of Christ, alongside passages such as Micah 5:2 and Zechariah 13:7:
All Scripture confirms the truth that Jesus is Jehovah. John the Baptist was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord" — that is, Jehovah (Isa. 40).
The road-building language is moral, not literal. Straightening the path means dealing honestly with what is crooked.
Repentance was certainly a first necessity in this preparation. It meant facing honestly the sin that had dishonoured God. The Lord's paths had to be made straight. He would allow no twisting deceit in men's minds. They could not come to Him while they were dishonest.
John's ministry fulfilled the verse. But the road was never finished, because Israel refused the message.
It was not the person nor the work of Israel's hope in power. For Israel as a whole was blind and deaf; the testimony was interrupted, the Messiah refused. So there was only a partial application… The way of Jehovah was not yet prepared. There was no straight highway in the desert for God. God put man on his own responsibility, and man heard the cry only to sin the more. But in time God will make it all good in grace by His own power.
The Gospel writers do not all quote this passage to the same length.
Only the Spirit of God in Luke takes care to give it the fullest breadth… We do not have this anywhere else. In Matthew, Mark, and John the quotation stops short of it. But Luke, though he begins with the Jew, does not end with him; he clearly goes out to all the nations. So the Spirit adds expressions here that give largeness and breadth.
- Voice — The herald keeps no name of his own. Asked who he was, he said only, "I am a voice."
- Wilderness — The desert pictures the nation's state, so the call is repentance that owns ruin beyond repair.
- The LORD — The road is prepared for Jehovah, and the New Testament gives that name to Jesus.
- Straight — The preparing is moral: face sin honestly, with nothing crooked left in the way you come to God.
- Glory — The herald came and was refused, so the highway still waits. God will yet make it good by His own power, and His reach goes out to all the nations.
Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places a plain.
Isaiah 40 opens with comfort for Jerusalem, and this verse pictures the road-work that comes before the LORD arrives — valleys raised, heights flattened, rough ground made smooth. So is this a landscape or a picture of people, and did John the Baptist finish it, or is it still ahead?
The levelling prepares for a Person, not just for a message. One writer sets the verse inside Jehovah's own announcement that He has come to comfort His people:
In this chapter Jehovah steps in and announces that He has come to comfort His people... Verse 3 opens the warning that prepares the way, but it is about Jehovah showing Himself... The Eternal presents Himself to His people, and this is how the remnant becomes known.
The uneven ground stands for the way human society works now. Each clause of the verse answers a specific wrong. Older translations read the third clause as "the crooked shall be made straight," and writers often quote it that way:
The world as we see it today is only a barren wilderness. Nothing in it satisfies the heart of God or meets the need of man. In it the lowly are oppressed, the proud are lifted up, and unrighteousness prevails... When the glory of the LORD is revealed, He will deliver His downtrodden people, for He will lift up those of humble position — "every valley shall be lifted up." He will humble all the pride of man — He will bring down the mighty from their thrones — "every mountain and hill be made low." He will rebuke unrighteousness, for "the uneven ground shall become level." And He will end the time of suffering, for He will feed the hungry with good things, and so make "the rough places a plain."
Another writer reads the same figures and adds what the rough ways stand for:
The crooked (perverted principles commonly accepted) would be made straight, and rough ways (the paths in which sin has caused trouble and sorrow) would be made smooth, for sin would be judged.
John the Baptist started this levelling with words. Three groups came to him with the same question. His three answers match the three clauses of Isaiah's road-work:
The people asked him, "What shall we do then?" He answered, "Whoever has two coats must share with him who has none, and whoever has food must do the same." So the mountain and the hill were made low and the valley lifted up. Next, tax collectors came and asked the same question. He said, "Collect no more than you are authorised to." Here we see how the crooked were to be made straight. Then the soldiers asked too, and he said, "Do not use violence or false accusation against anyone, and be content with your wages." So we see the rough places made smooth.
But the work stopped short. One writer explains why, and why nothing is finally lost:
John's testimony was a call to repentance, because the Messiah was coming... But Israel as a whole was blind and deaf. The testimony was interrupted and the Messiah refused. So there was only a partial application. The people's unbelief cut off the thread of God's ways, while His purposes stand unbreakable... God left man under his own responsibility, and man heard the cry only to sin the more. But in time God will make it all good in grace by His own power.
The flattening comes first, then the glory. One writer gives the reason:
The everlasting kingdom of Christ can only be established when all evil has been judged. To set up this kingdom, unrighteousness must disappear. Everything that lifts itself up against the Ruler of the whole earth must be cast down and brought low. The way of the Lord can only be prepared by bringing low every high mountain. Then the whole world will know the glory of the Lord and be filled with it.
If hills are going to be flattened, the safe place to stand is low. One writer draws the lesson from Christ's own path:
These were words of encouragement to everyone to take a low place now. Those who exalt themselves now will be brought low in the day of judgement. The Bible is full of this sentiment. The Lord Jesus "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name" (Philippians 2:8,9). Paul says to us all: "Have this mind among yourselves." The lesson from the valley is humility.
- Level. The road-work is moral, not physical. Proud heights come down. The oppressed are lifted. Crooked dealing is straightened, and hard roads are made smooth.
- Low. The valley is the safe place. God raises those who take the low place now. Those who lift themselves up are the hills marked for flattening.
- Voice. John the Baptist began the levelling with plain instructions. Share your coat. Stop overcharging. Stop bullying. He gave one answer for each clause of the verse.
- Delayed. The nation refused God's messenger and the Messiah too. So the levelling was only partly applied. God's purpose was not cancelled, only postponed.
- Glory. The flattening exists for an arrival. Every rival height must fall before the glory of the LORD is revealed and the whole world is filled with it.
And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [it] together for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken.
Isaiah 40 opens with God comforting Jerusalem. A voice calls for a road through the desert, and verse 5 says what that road leads to. Two questions follow: when is this glory revealed, and how far does "all flesh" reach?
John the Baptist was the voice in the wilderness. But verse 5 looks past him. One writer separates the two comings:
The reference to John is plain. Yet verse 5 carries us on to what Christ will fulfil at His second coming. The glory of the Lord was indeed revealed at His first coming. It proved to be "glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14). But the same verse says, "we have seen his glory." The context shows that most of the people did not see it. The disciples were the exception to the rule. Not until His second coming will "all flesh" see it. Revelation 1:7 declares how public that coming will be. So the prophecy here, as often in the Old Testament, has both comings in view... A single star shines in our night sky, but through a telescope it proves to be two. In the clearer light of the New Testament, this promised coming of Jehovah in the person of the Messiah proves to be two comings.
(Hole quoted an older translation here: "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.")
This promise is for the earth, and for people still alive on it. It cannot mean the final judgment of the dead:
Every difficulty — depths, heights, rough or crooked — must disappear, for God still means to make this earth the scene of His glory. It is a most blessed prospect. The sin, misery, and weakness of man, the groaning of all creation around, the schemes and power and presence of Satan must all vanish. They do not give place to the grace of God revealed in Christ, which has already shone (we know) in the despised man from Nazareth. They give place to the revealed glory of Jehovah, when all flesh shall see it together. It cannot refer to the day when the dead are judged. Then it will not be "all flesh," nor any flesh at all, but the dead raised before the great white throne. Here it is a question of man living in his natural body on the earth.
This glory does more than shine. It overturns the way things now stand:
When the glory of the LORD is revealed, He will deliver His down-trodden people, for He will lift up the lowly. He will humble all the pride of man. He will rebuke unrighteousness, and He will bring the time of suffering to an end... The pride and unrighteousness of man are not going to triumph for ever. The godly will not always be a downtrodden and suffering people. Humility ends in exaltation, and suffering leads to glory.
Luke quotes more of this passage than Matthew does. The extra line is about reach:
In Luke you will find the prophecy carried further... "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." The range of Luke is wider... His task was to show the grace of God that brings salvation, and that has appeared to all men. So the Holy Spirit leads him to fasten on the words that show how wide God's goodness to man reaches.
Commentators differ on the source of that closing line. One traces it not to verse 5 but further on in Isaiah:
Luke connects the testimony with the moral preparation for the way of the Lord, which Isaiah had foretold as the object of John's mission, adding, as suited to the character of the Gospel, from a later passage in the prophet (Isa. 52:10), "All flesh shall see the salvation of God."
The verse does not end with the glory but with the speaker. That closing clause is where the certainty rests:
But how do we know this? What guarantee do we have that it will come to pass? "The mouth of the LORD has spoken." We rest in the unchangeable word of God. Here is our comfort and hope. "The word of our God will stand forever." Not the smallest part of His word will fail. God will be faithful to His spoken word, and we who believe wait patiently for it to be fulfilled. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." How do we do that? By turning them again to the word of God, which is completely reliable.
The verses just after this one call all flesh grass. One writer draws a principle from that order:
Before God begins, He must cause it to be understood that all flesh is as grass.
- Levelled. The glory does not come into the world as it stands. First He brings pride down, lifts the lowly, and rebukes wrongdoing.
- Withered. Before God begins, He makes one thing clear: all flesh is grass. Nothing in man survives to share the credit.
- Revealed. The glory was there at Christ's first coming, but only the disciples saw it. The public showing waits for His return.
- Seen. "All flesh" means people alive on earth, not the dead before the great white throne. Luke widens the same words: salvation reaches everyone.
- Spoken. The mouth of the LORD has said it. That is the guarantee, and the comfort we pass on to others.