A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Those who came to John were called, not to a public works project, but to an interior preparation. They whose ways had been crooked were called to embrace uprightness and integrity. Crookedness was seen as akin to deceptiveness and treachery whether in speech or in act. It was as though people thought such crookedness could even be so clever as to escape the scrutiny of God. But although for the pure God himself dealt purely, with the crooked he made himself seem tortuous (meaning full of twists and turns) (see Second Samuel 22:27). Individuals were free to follow a crooked way but by insisting on it they would force the Lord to deal with them differently than he would have preferred. Only the straight path of the Lord would manifest salvation. We can see something of how this worked when the generation exiled from Egypt took forty years to make what should have been an eleven day journey. At the time of the preaching of John the Baptist, about which we read this morning, God desired to manifest his salvation to the world in a new way. He didn't want to leave anyone in exile. Thus this call, through John, for people to prepare their hearts for his coming. Those who who had been in exile, whether physical or spiritual, he desired to lead home "borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones" as Isaiah wrote. Why did people insist on putting obstacles in this path for the Lord? Why do we?
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth
God invited his people through the prophets to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord into the world. This meant that there was a need for them to get on board with the plan that his coming was going to perfectly accomplish. In Jesus, God was going to cast down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly (see Luke 1:46-55). The first were going to become last and the last would be made first. This was the ultimate leveling of mountains and valleys that Jesus would accomplish. But the invitation was to prepare our own hearts for this transformation, which would eventually extend to the whole world. Those mountains of pride, vanity, and desire for power needed to be leveled. Those valleys of self-pity, despair, and hopeless, needed to be raised up. None were so exulted that they could do without the salvation of God. None were so desperate that they could not be saved.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
However, lest we become too overwhelmed by the call of God, we ought first remember that it was his idea and remains ever his own project. Ultimately he is the one who fills in valleys and lays mountains low. Our call is to cooperate, or hopefully at least to consent. In this season when we tend to get caught up in many secular and spiritual things we believe we ought to do it is comforting to know that God himself is so invested in seeing the project that is our salvation through to the end.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
No comments:
Post a Comment