Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling in the wilderness: “Prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert 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. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, Here is your God!”
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9

PREPARING THE WAY 
One of the memorable events of my last year of high school was a visit from the president. When the news reached the small African town where I was living as a boarding school student, there was a thrill of excitement. The first sign of the upcoming visit was that crews of men began working on the road that made trips to town so bumpy and slow. The bumps were broken up and shoveled away and the potholes were filled.

This preparation for the president’s visit (along with Handel’s Messiah) is what comes to my mind when I read Isaiah’s joyful words “In the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low” (Isa. 40:3-4). The bumps in the road will be leveled and the potholes will be filled.

The significance of the roadwork in preparation for the coming of the Lord became clearer in the ministry and message of John the Baptist. As he prepared the way for the coming of the Lord in the person of Jesus, the Messiah, people asked him what they should do to be ready. John answered, ““He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise” (Luke 3:11). As a road is leveled by breaking up the bumps and using the residue to fill the potholes, the way of the Lord is prepared when those who have more than they need give to those who have less than they need. This is one reason why the giving of gifts—especially gifts that meet the needs of the poor—is appropriate in the season of Advent, when we turn our thoughts to the coming of the Lord.

Although preparing the way is an appropriate response to hearing the “good news” (40:9), we have to remember that it’s not the good news itself. As happy as the townspeople might have been to have an improved road, their attention was fixed on who was coming down that road. Our hope in Advent, and at all times, is that “the sovereign Lord will come in power” (40:10) and “the Glory of the Lord will be revealed” (40:5).

We rejoice in the coming of the Lord with a joy that finds expression in the Welsh boys choir exuberantly singing Prepare ye the Way of the Lord. The text of their song (its rhythm and choreography are not that different from the songs that greeted the president in my African town) weaves in Psalm 103: “He will not always chide, nor will he keep His wrath forever,” because “the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  The Lord will come to His people because He is not content to leave them in their sin and exile. Our hope is not in what we can accomplish for Him, but that He has come and will come to us. And yet, “all who have this hope in Him purify themselves” (I John 3:3): they prepare the way of the Lord in a style not too different from the songs that greeted the president in my African town.
Joe Henderson, Assistant Professor of Torrey Honors institute

LORD, may we cast down anything that lifts itself up against knowing you, and may we lift up our drooping hands for service and lift up our eyes in anticipation as we eagerly await your coming. Amen