The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the LORD;
Make straight in the desert
A highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3)
Too often, we allow the “holiday season” overwhelm us. What starts out with happy anticipation of joyful gatherings and peaceful worship, instead ends up covered with anxious shopping and distracting office parties. This is not to say that gifts and office parties are bad, but our culture allows the evil spirits to push us into thinking more about the correct celebration of Christmans than about what is being celebrated.
I call this “Holiday Pandemonium,” the craziness that distracts us from what we really would rather be doing, enjoying friends and family and the peaceful holiness that surrounds us. “Pandemonium” has taken on the meaning of “wild, lawless confusion” but originally was the name John Milton used in Paradise Lost for the capital city of hell (from the Greek “Pan-” meaning “all” and the Latin “demonium” meaning “evil spirit”). Both of these senses are meant in “Holiday Pandemonium”.
How do we prepare ourselves for the Holiday Pandemonium so that we might avoid the chaos and anxiety as much as possible? The prophecy in Isaiah, repeated in the New Testament, tells us to prepare the way of the Lord, or more literally, to “sweep” the path of the Lord. We start the beginning work of repentance by reading the Word and thinking about our lives and what we really want. By doing the preparation work ahead of time, before the Pandemonium sets in, we allow the Lord ino our lives in ways that, though unseen, are powerful. It is like a baptism before the work of regeneration takes place.
To see that this is true, read Isaiah 40:1-8, John 1:19-27, and True Christian Religion 531, then listen to the full audio version of today’s sermon, and then try putting it into practice.
“Comfort, comfort my people,”
Says your God.
“Speak comfortably to Jerusalem; and call out to her
That her warfare is accomplished,
That her iniquity is pardoned,
That she has received of Yahweh’s hand
Double for all her sins.”The voice of one who calls out,
“Prepare the way of Yahweh in the wilderness!
Make a level highway in the desert for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted,
And every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The uneven shall be made level,
And the rough places a plain.
The glory of Yahweh shall be revealed,
And all flesh shall see it together;
For the mouth of Yahweh has spoken it.”The voice of one saying, “Cry!”
One said, “What shall I cry?”“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
Because Yahweh’s breath blows on it.
Surely the people are like grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades;
But the word of our God stands forever.”
John 1:19-27
This is John’s testimony, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”
He declared, and didn’t deny, but he declared, “I am not the Christ.”
They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”
He said, “I am not.”
“Are you the prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
They said therefore to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
He said, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
The ones who had been sent were from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?”
John answered them, “I baptize in water, but among you stands one whom you don’t know. He is the one who comes after me, who is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I’m not worthy to loosen.”
True Christian Religion 531
This may be illustrated by the following comparisons. Before repentance man is like a desert where there are terrible wild beasts, dragons, owls of various kinds, vipers and poisonous serpents, and in the thickets are the ochim and the tziim, and there satyrs dance. But when these have been cast out by the industry and labor of man, that desert may be ploughed and made ready for planting, and sown first with oats, beans, and flax, and afterward with barley and wheat. Man before repentance may also be compared to the wickedness that reigns so largely among men where the wicked are not corrected according to law and punished by stripes or death, in which case no city, nor any kingdom even, could continue. Man is like a miniature society; unless he deals with himself in a spiritual manner, as the wicked in society at large are dealt with in a natural manner, after death he will be corrected and punished until he ceases to do evil for fear of the penalty, although he can never be brought to do good from the love of good.
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