Isaiah 40:3-5 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.… Beyond this general preparation of the nations there was also a special preparation of a particular people. We are entitled to argue this from the condition of that people when the Saviour appeared. You find that nation scattered all over the world; though in it, yet not of it. It was disliked and despised. It was persecuted and down-trodden. In most places it was a mere handful. In no place had it the supreme authority. Numbers, educated opinion, popular prejudice, and state power were all against it and its distinctiveness. Yet it was never crushed, and it was never absorbed; it never ceased to exert power and influence. Low as its fortunes then were, none of any nation were so proud of their history, none were more hopeful of their future. Indeed, it might be said, with some truth, that at that time the Jews alone had hope. The nations were groaning in their pains. Old institutions and old religions were worn out. Men's hearts were failing them for fear, and for looking for those things which were coming upon the earth. The Jews alone hoped for the coming of new and better times. The Jews alone thought that the pains they were suffering were not pains of dissolution, but birth-pangs, the pains followed by new life and fresh joy. (F. Watson, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. |
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