Pastor Scott Jonas
Prepare the Royal Highway
12/13/17
“Prepare
the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
Our text for our
Wednesday services is Isaiah 40. Turn to
the page in your bulletin or find it on your phone or Bible. Last week, we heard the situation of King
Hezekiah of Judah and the prophet Isaiah in the year 750 BC. King Hezekiah initiated treaties with more
powerful nations rather than trust in the Lord’s might. First, he bent the knee to Assyria. When that became too demeaning, he asked
Babylon to be Judah’s Savior. Babylon
complied. Now the people of God were at Babylon’s
mercy.
The
prophet Isaiah sees these political moves and asks, “How is God going to
restore his kingdom?” Judah is the last
nation that follows Yahweh. Israel is
gone. It’s a mess. There is a remnant of families who know the
word of God, but they will soon be forced to live in the four corners of the
Babylon empire. The temple will be
defiled. Jerusalem will be in
ruins. Judah will have kings after Hezekiah
but they will be impotent and faithless.
Yet
God tells Isaiah,
“In the wilderness prepare the way
of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
What
is going on here?
We think of
Highways as a modern invention, but they had a primative version of it in the ancient
World Before Christ. Highways were
frequently traveled roads between major cities.
They were essential for empire building.
They were useful in military campaigns, communication between government
officials and trade.
Good
roads were rare. Who remembers what
America was like before the 50s when our nations’ Interstate highways were
built? You had to go on a lot of poorly
paved, gravel and even dirt roads to go from a big city to a big city. In the ancient world, ordinary roads were no
better than tracks. These tracks could
be impeded by Rocky surfaces, abandoned broken down carts, mudslides, fallen
trees, and overgrown foliage. An Eastern
proverb said , “There are three states of misery- sickness, fasting and
travel.” Before a traveler set out upon
a journey he was advised to pay all debts, provide for dependents, give parting
gifts, return all articles under trust, take money and good temper for the
journey; then bid farewell to all.” They
were not surfaced at all because the soil of Palestine is hard and will bear
the traffic of mules and donkeys and oxen and carts. A journey along such a “road”, if you could
call it that, was frustrating at best and impossible at worst.
There
were a few surfaced and artificially made roads. Josephus, for instance, tells us that Solomon
laid a causeway of black basalt stone, along the roads that lead to Jerusalem
to make them easier for pilgrims and to “manifest the grandeur of his riches
and government.” All such surfaces were
originally built by the king and for the king’s use. They were called the Kings Highway. They were kept in repair only as the king
needed them for any journey he might make.
Before the king was due to arrive in any area, a message was sent out to
the people to get the king’s roads in order.
How embarrassing for a king to be postponed by hazards on the
roadway? The King has power of Life and
death, yet he can be stalled by one rotting ox carcass in his way.
When
royalty was coming you prepared the highway.
Remove the barriers to smooth travel:
Use man and animal power to clear mudslides and boulders, cut overgrown
branches and grasses, push away dead trees.
Make sure wheels can get move easily. The King cannot be kept waiting.
But the only Kings
in Isaiah’s time, were the weakling Judah King and the merciless Babylonian
Kings. Why is God telling Isaiah to get
the King’s road in order?
Because
The Lord is coming to town.
It
wouldn’t happen in Isiah’s lifetime but the Father was sending his son. Jesus deserves the Royal Highway to be
cleared.
“In the wilderness prepare the way
of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become
level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
We learn from the
Gospel of John that John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus.
And this is the
testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask
him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not
the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am
not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him,
“Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say
about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the
wilderness, ‘Make straight[h] the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah
said.”
Now John the
Baptist was an earthy guy, but he didn’t have a pick and shovel. He didn’t work with the physical Highways
between cities. The Romans took care of
that. Instead, John the Baptist prepared
hearts, starting with his own. There are
three ways John prepared the royal highway to our hearts.
First
Highway preparation, John allowed God to work on his heart through
repentance. Repentance is recognizing
that your heart is clogged with sin.
Worldly philosophies lay across the road to your heart. Pride slowly oozes across it. Selfishness grows like wild branches in the
way. John repented and asked God to
clean away all the sin that gets in the way.
John the Baptist knew the scriptures, knew the law, knew his own
capacity for evil and asked God to make him clean.
Isaiah
did this as well. He asked God to purify
his lips because he came from a culture of unclean lips.
The
second Highway preparation is that the Baptist called others to repentance. He wanted to clear the road for the returning
exiles. That is why he called Jews to
Baptism. In order for them to return to
God, they needed to by Baptized as if they were a Gentile. Non-Jews got baptized into the family of
God. Before John the Baptist, it was
unheard of for a son of Abraham to go through the rite of Baptism. Circumcision was enough to label them as
belonging to Yahweh. But John was sent
by God to show the Jews that God is with them in a new way. They need to be the first to repent. The Lord and Savior of the World is on his
way. The Royal Highway needs to be
cleared first by the Jew and then by the Gentile. The Sadducces and Pharisees need to repent,
but so does Herod, the centurions and Pilate.
John calls all to repentance. He
learned this from Isaiah who called Kings and common man to turn to God. Isaiah called out the nation of Judah as well
as the nations of Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.
The
Third Highway Preparation is that John pointed beyond himself to Jesus. “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the
sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks
before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but for
this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32 And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove,
and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to
baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and
remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and
have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
Some
people call the book of Isaiah the fifth Gospel because it points so strongly
to the coming Messiah.
It’s a miracle
that the royal road of Salvation went through Judah to Babylon to Rome to
Glendale, USA. God had a plan and it is
working. Jesus came at a time when Rome was
at it’s peak in many ways. One of the
ways was that Rome built an incredible Highway infrastructure. They actually were often stone-paved and
metaled, cambered for drainage, and were flanked by footpaths, bridleways and
drainage ditches. The Gospels say that
Jesus came at the Fullness of Time. It
was the perfect time. Part of that is
that the Roman Royal Highways were perfect for the early church to travel
throughout the known world with the Good News of Jesus. The disciples traveled on these cleared,
clean roads that eventually got to you.
Prepare
the Royal highway for Christ this Advent Season. Allow God to prepare your heart through
repentance and the word. Allow God to
remove the barriers of pride, judgementalism, and selfishness. Call others to repentance. Not because you are better, you’re not, but
because you want others to see the coming King.
How do you prepare the Royal Highway?
Point to Jesus.