A voice of one calling:
Isaiah 40:3-5
“In the wilderness prepare
the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be raised up,
every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
From words of comfort we move to a voice calling. A voice calling for preparations to be made. For a road to be constructed. A road for Yahweh to travel on, a highway for our God. We often hear this call as directed to us, as if the voice is telling us to make a road ready for Yahweh, a highway for our God.
And there is obviously a rightness about us getting our hearts and minds in step with God, and ready for his ways. But that doesn’t quite seem to be what is being said here. Because here the next verse tells us that every valley will be raised up, and every mountain and hill made low – a verse that my 10 year old hopes is metaphorical (and so do I), because he loves nothing more than climbing mountains.
That valley raising and mountain lowering is not referring to human construction projects, or even human efforts to prepare the way for Yahweh to come. Isaiah 2 speaks of how God is against every human activity that exalts people above God, and that the day of Yahweh will bring these activities crashing down – leaving Yahweh alone exalted.
Isaiah 40 shows that God will make a way for God to come, that is utterly above and beyond any human undertaking. No civil engineering project of humanity can come close to God’s activity to bring God to this earth. The voice in the desert calling is declaring what Yahweh is about to do. Yahweh himself will make this way – because no-one else can.
When he does his glory will be revealed. His glory will shine forth. But impressive as this mountain lowering and valley raising is, it is not the supreme way that God shows his glory.
Glory is a difficult word in some ways. We think of glory often as majesty, as impressive power on display. And certainly God’s glory is the very essence of God, that which makes God be God, and gives God weight (the Hebrew for glory can also be used for weight) and substance in our world.
The twist in the story is that God displays his glory, not through dramatic displays of power, but through his own grace and mercy, in steadfast love and faithfulness displayed in a person who suffers to bring the life of God to this world. The idea that God’s glory is displayed in grace and mercy is already present in the Old Testament (Exodus 33-34), but is supremely seen in Jesus. We read in John 1 how the disciples saw God’s glory, a glory full of grace and truth (steadfast love and faithfulness in OT speak). God’s glory is seen in Jesus.
Jesus is where God’s glory is seen. In the babe of Bethlehem, laid in a manger. In the man who grew up as one of us, who lived with us, and for us. Who as a baby was “little, weak and helpless”. Who as a man “tears and smiles like us he knew”. He is the one who can genuinely feel for us in our sorrows. He became like us, that we might become like him.
God’s glory on display for all to see looks like Jesus. As we read on in Isaiah 40 we will see God’s glory and wonder spelt out for us in creation, in his power, and in his tender care. And in Advent we remember that all of that glory and wonder and splendour came to us wrapped up in the babe of Bethlehem. “Lo, within a manger lies, he who built the starry skies”
And so this advent let us look for glory in the small, in the insignificant and in the ordinary. As we go about our daily routine and work, may we look and be attentive to the glory that God has revealed to us. We so often want to do something to prepare the way for God to come. But perhaps this advent we need to stop our activity and pause. Perhaps we need to be still and silent to watch and see how God has made a way for God to come to us.
Joshua's Tree Rooted 