Isaiah 40:3
A voice of one calling: "Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
A voice of one calling
This phrase introduces a prophetic voice, often understood as a herald or messenger. In the Hebrew text, the word for "voice" is "qol," which signifies a sound or proclamation. Historically, this has been associated with John the Baptist, as referenced in the New Testament (Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4, John 1:23), who prepared the way for Jesus Christ. The imagery of a voice calling out in the wilderness evokes the idea of divine communication breaking into the silence, a call to attention and action.

In the wilderness
The wilderness, or "midbar" in Hebrew, is a significant biblical motif. It represents a place of testing, transformation, and encounter with God. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, and it was in the wilderness that they received the Law. The wilderness is both a literal and metaphorical space where God prepares His people for new beginnings. In the context of Isaiah, it symbolizes the spiritual barrenness of Israel and the need for renewal and repentance.

Prepare the way for the LORD
The call to "prepare" (Hebrew: "panah") suggests making ready or clearing obstacles. This preparation is not merely physical but spiritual, calling for repentance and a return to righteousness. The "way" (Hebrew: "derek") refers to a path or road, symbolizing the journey of faith and obedience. The "LORD" (Yahweh) is the covenant name of God, emphasizing His eternal presence and faithfulness. This preparation is for the coming of God Himself, highlighting the anticipation of divine intervention and salvation.

Make straight in the desert
The command to "make straight" (Hebrew: "yashar") implies leveling and removing hindrances. In ancient times, roads were prepared for the arrival of kings, ensuring a smooth and direct path. The "desert" (Hebrew: "arabah") is a dry, barren place, yet it is here that the path is to be made straight. This signifies that even in desolation, God's way can be established, bringing hope and restoration.

A highway for our God
The "highway" (Hebrew: "mesillah") is a raised road, indicating a prominent and accessible route. This imagery conveys the majesty and authority of God, who is coming to redeem His people. The phrase "for our God" personalizes the relationship, affirming that this is not just any deity, but the God of Israel, who is intimately involved with His people. The highway symbolizes the readiness and openness required to receive God's presence and blessings.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Voice
This refers to a prophetic figure who calls for preparation for the coming of the LORD. In the New Testament, this is identified with John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus Christ.

2. The LORD
The central figure for whom the way is being prepared. In the context of Isaiah, this refers to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and in the New Testament, it is understood as Jesus Christ.

3. The Wilderness
A symbolic place representing spiritual barrenness or desolation. It is where the preparation for the LORD's coming is to occur.

4. The Highway
Symbolizes the removal of obstacles and the creation of a direct path for God's arrival, indicating readiness and repentance.

5. The Desert
Represents a place of testing and purification, where God's people are called to prepare for His coming.
Teaching Points
Preparation for the Lord
Just as the Israelites were called to prepare for God's coming, Christians today are called to prepare their hearts for Christ's return. This involves repentance, spiritual renewal, and removing obstacles that hinder our relationship with God.

Role of the Messenger
John the Baptist's role as the forerunner of Christ serves as a model for believers to be messengers of the Gospel, preparing others to receive Christ.

Spiritual Wilderness
The wilderness represents times of spiritual dryness or challenge. Believers are encouraged to seek God earnestly during these times, trusting that He is preparing them for greater things.

Straight Paths
Making straight paths involves aligning our lives with God's will, removing sin, and living in obedience to His Word.

Anticipation of Christ's Return
Just as the people of Isaiah's time anticipated the coming of the LORD, Christians are called to live in anticipation of Christ's second coming, maintaining a posture of readiness and hope.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the concept of "preparing the way" in Isaiah 40:3 apply to your personal spiritual life today?

2. In what ways can you act as a "voice in the wilderness" in your community, sharing the message of Christ?

3. Reflect on a time when you experienced a "spiritual wilderness." How did God use that time to prepare you for future growth?

4. What obstacles currently exist in your life that may hinder your relationship with God, and how can you work to remove them?

5. How does the anticipation of Christ's return influence your daily decisions and priorities?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Malachi 3:1
This verse speaks of a messenger who prepares the way before the LORD, connecting to the role of John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ.

Matthew 3:1-3
This passage identifies John the Baptist as the voice crying in the wilderness, directly linking Isaiah 40:3 to the New Testament fulfillment.

Mark 1:2-3
Reinforces the connection between Isaiah's prophecy and John the Baptist's ministry, emphasizing the preparation for Jesus' ministry.

Luke 3:4-6
Expands on the theme of preparation, highlighting the call to repentance and the leveling of paths for the LORD's coming.
Needed Preparations for ChristR. Tuck Isaiah 40:3
The Baptist a Pattern PreacherD. D. Stewart, M. A.Isaiah 40:3
The HarbingerJohn Newton Isaiah 40:3
The Prophet's CommissionE. Johnson Isaiah 40:1-11
A Great Work Requires PreparationF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
A Highway in the WildernessJ. Service, D. D.Isaiah 40:3-5
Christ Requires a Straight RoadA. T. Pierson, D. D.Isaiah 40:3-5
Comfort for the Afflicted ChurchBp. Horne.Isaiah 40:3-5
Israel's Preparation for the Coming of ChristF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparation Among the Heathen for the Reception of ChristianityF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparation for the Advent MessiahD. Wayland, LL. D.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparation for the Coming of ChristF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
Prepare Ye the Way of the LordS. P. Jose, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
Prepare Ye the Way of the LordC. Garrett.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparing the Way of the LordG. Redford, LL. D.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparing the Way of the LordW. Williams.Isaiah 40:3-5
Preparing the Way of the LordW. H. G. Temple.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Appealing VoiceF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Divine Glory Revealed in ChristR. Watson.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Gnostic GospelF. Watson, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Golden AgeW.M. Statham Isaiah 40:3-5
The King's HighwayF. W. Macdonald, M. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Road MakerW. H. Williams.Isaiah 40:3-5
The Way of the Lord PreparedJ. B. Brown, B. A.Isaiah 40:3-5
Vox ClamantisJ. P. Gledstone.Isaiah 40:3-5
Vox ClamantisJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 40:3-5
Human Preparation for the Divine AdventW. Clarkson Isaiah 40:3-6
People
Isaiah, Jacob
Places
Jerusalem, Lebanon, Zion
Topics
Calleth, Calling, Calls, Clear, Cries, Crieth, Crying, Desert, Hark, Highway, Level, Lowland, Plain, Prepare, Ready, Smooth, Straight, Voice, Waste, Wilderness
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 40:3

     1429   prophecy, OT fulfilment
     2018   Christ, divinity
     4230   desert
     5098   John the Baptist
     5335   herald
     5505   roads
     5624   witnesses, to Christ
     7740   missionaries, call

Isaiah 40:1-5

     7725   evangelists, identity

Isaiah 40:1-8

     4112   angels, messengers

Isaiah 40:3-4

     4290   valleys
     5336   highway

Isaiah 40:3-5

     1320   God, as Saviour
     4020   life, of faith
     4299   wilderness

Library
April 18. "They Shall Mount up with Wings" (Isa. Xl. 31).
"They shall mount up with wings" (Isa. xl. 31). "They shall mount up with wings as eagles," is God's preliminary; for the next promise is, "They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." Hours of holy exultation are necessary for hours of patient plodding, waiting and working. Nature has its springs, and so has grace. Let us rejoice in the Lord evermore, and again we say, rejoice. And let us take Him to be our continual joy, whose heart is a fountain of blessedness, and who
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

'Have Ye Not? Hast Thou Not?'
'Have ye not known, have ye not heard? hath it not been told yon from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?... Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard?'--ISAIAH xl. 21 and 28. The recurrence of the same form of interrogation in these two verses is remarkable. In the first case the plural is used, in the second the singular, and we may reasonably conclude that as Israel is addressed in the latter, the nations outside the sphere illumined by Revelation are appealed
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Unfailing Stabs and Fainting Men
'...For that He is strong in power; not one faileth.... He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.'-- ISAIAH xl. 26 and 29. These two verses set forth two widely different operations of the divine power as exercised in two sadly different fields, the starry heavens and this weary world. They are interlocked, as it were, by the recurrence in the latter of the emphatic words of the former. The one verse says, 'He is strong in power'; the other, 'He giveth
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

O Thou that Bringest Good Tidings
'O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain: O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!'--ISAIAH xl. 9. There is something very grand in these august and mysterious voices which call one to another in the opening verses of this chapter. First, the purged ear of the prophet hears the divine command to him and to his brethren--Comfort Jerusalem with the message of the
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Shepherd and the Fold
... Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.' EXODUS XV. 13. What a grand triumphal ode! The picture of Moses and the children of Israel singing, and Miriam and the women answering: a gush of national pride and of worship! We belong to a better time, but still we can feel its grandeur. The deliverance has made the singer look forward to the end, and his confidence in the issue is confirmed. I. The guiding God: or the picture of the leading. The original is 'lead gently.' Cf.
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Secret of Immortal Youth
'Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.'--ISAIAH xl. 30, 31. I remember a sunset at sea, where the bosom of each wavelet that fronted the west was aglow with fiery gold, and the back of each turned eastward was cold green; so that, looking on the one hand all was glory, and on the other
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Salvation Published from the Mountains
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid: say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! I t would be improper to propose an alteration, though a slight one, in the reading of a text, without bearing my testimony to the great value of our English version, which I believe, in point of simplicity, strength, and fidelity, is not likely to be excelled by a new translation
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Consolation
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received at the LORD 's hand double for all her sins. T he particulars of the great "mystery of godliness," as enumerated by the Apostle Paul, constitute the grand and inexhaustible theme of the Gospel ministry, "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Harbinger
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD , make straight in the desert a high-way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. T he general style of the prophecies is poetical. The inimitable simplicity which characterizes every
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

The Withering Work of the Spirit
THE passage in Isaiah which I have just read in your hearing may be used as a very eloquent description of our mortality, and if a sermon should be preached from it upon the frailty of human nature, the brevity of life, and the certainty of death, no one could dispute the appropriateness of the text. Yet I venture to question whether such a discourse would strike the central teaching of the prophet. Something more than the decay of our material flesh is intended here; the carnal mind, the flesh in
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

This Sermon was Originally Printed
"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God."--Isaiah 40:1. WHAT A SWEET TITLE: "My people!" What a cheering revelation: "Your God!" How much of meaning is couched in those two words, "My people!" Here is speciality. The whole world is God's; the heaven, even the heaven of heavens are the Lord's and he reigneth among the children of men. But he saith of a certain number, "My people." Of those whom he hath chosen, whom he hath purchased to himself, he saith what he saith not of others. While
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

8Th Day. Reviving Grace.
"He is Faithful that Promised." "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint."--ISAIAH xl. 31. Reviving Grace. "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord?" My soul! art thou conscious of thy declining state? Is thy walk less with God, thy frame less heavenly? Hast thou less conscious nearness to the mercy-seat,--diminished communion with thy Saviour? Is prayer less a privilege than it has
John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

"And the Redeemer Shall Come unto Zion, and unto them that Turn,"
Isaiah lix. 20.--"And the Redeemer shall come unto Zion, and unto them that turn," &c. Doctrines, as things, have their seasons and times. Every thing is beautiful in its season. So there is no word of truth, but it hath a season and time in which it is beautiful. And indeed that is a great part of wisdom, to bring forth everything in its season, to discern when and where, and to whom it is pertinent and edifying, to speak such and such truths. But there is one doctrine that is never out of season,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Hillis -- God the Unwearied Guide
Newell Dwight Hillis was born at Magnolia, Iowa, in 1858. He first became known as a preacher of the first rank during his pastorate over the large Presbyterian church in Evanston, Illinois. This reputation led to his being called to the Central Church, Chicago, in which he succeeded Dr. David Swing, and where from the first he attracted audiences completely filling one of the largest auditoriums in Chicago. In 1899 he was called to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, to succeed Dr. Lyman Abbott in the pulpit
Various—The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10

Of Loving Jesus Above all Things
Blessed is he who understandeth what it is to love Jesus, and to despise himself for Jesus' sake. He must give up all that he loveth for his Beloved, for Jesus will be loved alone above all things. The love of created things is deceiving and unstable, but the love of Jesus is faithful and lasting. He who cleaveth to created things will fall with their slipperiness; but he who embraceth Jesus will stand upright for ever. Love Him and hold Him for thy friend, for He will not forsake thee when all
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Prayer and Devotion
"Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly had been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God. As near as I can judge, this continued about an hour; and kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud.. I felt an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated; to love
Edward M. Bounds—The Essentials of Prayer

The God of all Comfort
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulations, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." Among all the names that reveal God, this, the "God of all comfort," seems to me one of the loveliest and the most absolutely comforting. The words all comfort admit of no limitation and no deductions; and one would suppose that,
Hannah Whitall Smith—The God of All Comfort

Appendix xi. On the Prophecy, Is. Xl. 3
ACCORDING to the Synoptic Gospels, the public appearance and preaching of John was the fulfilment of the prediction with which the second part of the prophecies of Isaiah opens, called by the Rabbis, the book of consolations.' After a brief general preface (Is. xl. 1, 2), the words occur which are quoted by St. Matthew and St. Mark (Is. xl. 3), and more fully by St. Luke (Is. xl. 3-5). A more appropriate beginning of the book of consolations' could scarcely be conceived. The quotation of Is. xl.
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

Justification.
Among all the doctrines of our holy Christian faith, the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, stands most prominent. Luther calls it: "The doctrine of a standing or a falling church," i.e., as a church holds fast and appropriates this doctrine she remains pure and firm, and as she departs from it, she becomes corrupt and falls. This doctrine was the turning point of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. It was the experience of its necessity and efficacy that made Luther what he was, and
G. H. Gerberding—The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church

The Humble Worship of Heaven.
1 Father, I long, I faint to see The place of thine abode, I'd leave thy earthly courts and flee Up to thy seat, my God! 2 Here I behold thy distant face, And 'tis a pleasing sight; But to abide in thine embrace Is infinite delight. 3 I'd part with all the joys of sense To gaze upon thy throne; Pleasure springs fresh for ever thence, Unspeakable, unknown. 4 [There all the heavenly hosts are seen, In shining ranks they move, And drink immortal vigour in, With wonder and with love. 5 Then at thy feet
Isaac Watts—Hymns and Spiritual Songs

At Rest
Gerhard Ter Steegen Is. xl. 11 O God, a world of empty show, Dark wilds of restless, fruitless quest Lie round me wheresoe'er I go: Within, with Thee, is rest. And sated with the weary sum Of all men think, and hear, and see, O more than mother's heart, I come, A tired child to Thee. Sweet childhood of eternal life! Whilst troubled days and years go by, In stillness hushed from stir and strife, Within Thine Arms I lie. Thine Arms, to whom I turn and cling With thirsting soul that longs for Thee;
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

His Schools and Schoolmasters.
(LUKE 1.) "Oh to have watched thee through the vineyards wander, Pluck the ripe ears, and into evening roam!-- Followed, and known that in the twilight yonder Legions of angels shone about thy home!" F. W. H. MYERS. Home-Life--Preparing for his Life-Work--The Vow of Separation--A Child of the Desert Zacharias and Elisabeth had probably almost ceased to pray for a child, or to urge the matter. It seemed useless to pray further. There had been no heaven-sent sign to assure them that there was any
F. B. Meyer—John the Baptist

Impiety of Attributing a visible Form to God. --The Setting up of Idols a Defection from the True God.
1. God is opposed to idols, that all may know he is the only fit witness to himself. He expressly forbids any attempt to represent him by a bodily shape. 2. Reasons for this prohibition from Moses, Isaiah, and Paul. The complaint of a heathen. It should put the worshipers of idols to shame. 3. Consideration of an objection taken from various passages in Moses. The Cherubim and Seraphim show that images are not fit to represent divine mysteries. The Cherubim belonged to the tutelage of the Law. 4.
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

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