God’s people need God’s comfort. At least this one does. Many are facing situations and difficulties. In Isaiah 40 God’s command is simple: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”
Then God gives Isaiah a prophecy in verse 3 that has been applied to John the Baptist’s ministry. “Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, ‘Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God! Fill in the valleys and level the mountains and hills. Straighten the curves and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. The Lord has spoken!’” [40:3-5 NLT]
In Isaiah’s time when a King wished to travel to another country, he would send out people ahead of him. It was their job to make a road for him to travel on. They would prepare a highway for him, filling in the valleys, leveling the mountains and hills, straightening out the crooked places and making rough places smooth.
When we look at people around us, we can often see the same wilderness conditions. There are valleys of despair and sorrow, valleys so deep they cannot climb out on their own. In other lives, we see mountains; mountains of circumstances and problems, mountains that are completely insurmountable without help.
Then there are those who have crooked places; consciences that have been molded by this world, hearts and attitudes that have been bent by sin. And then there are the rough places. Each of us has rough places in our lives.
God’s comfort that we bring to people is often simply to build a highway just as John the Baptist did for Jesus the King of kings to come into a life so that He can reveal His glory.
