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Isaiah 40:1-11
The Great Highway Builder
Divine Service
2nd Sunday in Advent
December 4, 2005
Dear Saints,
God is the great highway builder; He is the great way-preparer. When the children of Israel were in bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, the God of their father Abraham and Isaac and Jacob became their God and their champion and led them with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm [Deuteronomy 5:15] out of the house of bondage. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night. [Exodus 13:21]. O God, when You went forth before Your people, when You did march through the wilderness. [Psalm 68:7].
Like a great captain the LORD charges ahead of the people; He takes the lead, and the sea saw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like the lambs. What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you were driven back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. [Psalm 114] The Lord Himself made a straight path for the people of Israel; He lowered every mountain and hill and raised us every valley. God built a highway out of Egypt, out of bondage.
And this highway-building, way-preparing God does it again when His people are taken captive to Babylon and are held in Assyria. Isaiah promises: And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. [Isaiah 11:16] God made the way; He lead the people; He was their Captain, their Shepherd, their Champion. God is the great highway-builder, the great way-preparer.
And yet in our Old Testament text for this second Sunday in Advent, Isaiah preaches about one who would go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way [St Luke 1:76]. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” God needs no one to prepare His way; He is the great highway builder, the great way-preparer. And yet in our Lord Jesus’ humiliation, He is pleased to be lead, to be gone-before, to be championed by another.
And this other is St. John the Baptist. He goes before our Lord to prepare the way. He is born first, from the barren womb of Elizabeth. He is preaching first, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” [St Mark 1:15]. He is dying first, beheaded at Herod’s word.
As John the Baptist, so too Jesus. He is born; He is preaching, and He is dying, but the One who comes latter is greater [St John 1:27], for Jesus is not born of a barren womb, but a virgin womb. Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom was followed by signs and miracles [see St John 10:41] given from the Father, and Jesus increases while St. John decreases [St John 3:30]. Jesus' death is not a mere martyrdom, but the atonement for all the sins of the world.
Jesus far exceeds John the Baptist, and yet… He is pleased to have John go before Him, to preach and die. Jesus teaches His disciples, I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist. [St Matthew 17:12-13]. John prepared the way of the LORD, the highway for our God, and that way was the way of suffering, the way of death, the way of the cross.
On this way, this road, this highway, the glory of the LORD is revealed, for “Now,” says Jesus of His cross, “the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him,” [St John 14:31]. See how the great highway-builder follows the road set before Him. See how the Shepherd of Israel [Psalm 80:1] is led as a lamb to the slaughter [Isaiah 53:7]. See how the Lord of Life is led to death and hell in our place. See how our Lord Jesus follows John the Baptist, in His birth, in His preaching, and in His death to forgive us for all our sins…
But it is in His death that our Lord Jesus again becomes the great highway-builder, the champion and way-preparer, for He builds a highway out of the tomb. He champions the way out of death and the road out of hell. He destroys all the works of death and the devil [1 John 3:8]. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, [Isaiah 43:19].
As the Lord led Israel out of Egypt and Assyria, so He leads us out of sin and death and the kingdom of darkness [Colossians 1:13-14] of the devil. Now your grave is not a dead-end. There is a road out of the tomb, a highway out of death into life eternal. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. [St John 14:6] His way is the river in the desert, the river of water and Word, the river of body and blood, the river of His Holy Spirit poured out on us daily without measure in the forgiveness of our sins. He is our captain [Hebrews 12:1], being the first fruits of the resurrection [1 Corinthians 15, etc.].
The first fruits are only the beginning of the harvest. Jesus’ resurrection, His way out of death, means that you and I have the resurrection of the flesh awaiting us. The victory of the cross is given to us by faith, and the fruit of this faith is the sure hope of everlasting life. For our Lord has built a highway out of the tomb, and that way extends through this pulpit and this font and this altar to heaven itself…
The word of our God shall stand for ever [Isaiah 40:8], and here is His word and promise to you, the promise that your Lord Jesus goes before you and makes a way for you:
I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. [St John 14:2-3]. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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INJ, Pastor Wolfmueller