A Wild Cry

Isaiah 40:3-5
A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
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.
And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
+
A Wild Cry
Through Isaiah, the Lord promises His people comfort and rescue from their oppressors. This promise is fulfilled to a lesser extent when they were returned from exile in Babylon, and greater yet as Jesus stepped into the muddy waters of the Jordan River, and the voice of John the Baptist cried out in the wilderness of Judea, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
God sends His prophets Isaiah and John the Baptist to make way for His Son, to be voices of grace and comfort in a world broken by sin and deaf to that voice. And though sin, death, and the devil do their utmost to silence Him, they cannot mute our Savior. The Father’s will is done through the Son, and His promises of salvation are accomplished in Him.
For us Christians, this is of great comfort for we know our Lord keeps His promises – we see it in the Bethlehem manger, on Calvary, and at the empty tomb. And we will see it again when Christ returns for the faithful on that last day of history, when every tear will be wiped away, and death shall be no more.