Highway of Hope

We are captives to sin, and the desert that surround our lives in captivity can dominate us

The New International Version Chapter 40

Comfort, comfort my people,

says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the LORD’s hand

double for all her sins.

Isaiah, looking forward and seeing God’s people taken into exile for their sin, speaks of the “hard service” of their exilic state (v.2)

And he speaks to the fact that, even if the Jews could escape the clutches of their captors, a vast expanse of desert lay between them and their homeland.

Walls and fences serve as physical boundaries, but if you’re serious about keeping people captive you need deterents on the other side of those walls, between where your prisoners are, and where they want to be.

That’s why on the first maximum security prison in this country, Moreton Bay’s own Saint Helena Island, the guards fed the sharks that lived in the water around the island. That’s why it was in Moreton Bay in the first place—1000kms from Botany Bay.

For Israel’s exiles, the wadis and high mountains, the wild animals and the bandits, the vast dry expanse of the desert kept them trapped in Babylon as much as their chains, or the walls around them. Because, in a very real sense, to choose to leave captivity in Babylon and go into the desert was to choose death.

It’s like this for us, when we are exiles from God’s promised plan for our lives, and captive to sin. It’s not just that we are bound in our sins, but that there is such vast expanse between where we are and where we should be, and we’re often not even sure if there is anything on the other side of that desert.

When God calls us to leave the things that we are in bondage to it can be frightening. Often the things that bind us actually give shape to our lives. Leaving them can mean leaving what security, purpose or meaning our lives do have. We might be afraid to leave our captivity because we fear that our life would be empty. That we might find ourselves out in the desert with no known way to a better life. And that we might actually be choosing, like the exiles in Babylon would ave been, death in the desert. That destructive relationship, that unhealthy habit, that particular ungodly pursuit, pasttime, or that false purpose-giver (whatever it is) is what we know, and it can seem like we have to choose between it, and the desert. Which can seem like, at the very least, no kind of life.

Have you ever felt God call you to give up something that was a significant part of your life? How did it feel? If you could leave it behind, are you glad you did?

We are captives to sin, and the deserts that surround our lives in captivity dominate us

God has conquered and now dominates the desert through Jesus, and through the Holy Spirit leads us into the Life promised in Scripture

The New International Version Chapter 40

3 A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

the way for the LORD;

make straight in the desert

a highway for our God. b

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.”

While Isaiah can foresee the exile of his people, with all the challenges that it represents, his eyes are fixed on the revelation of God’s glory. Because he also foresees God liberating his people, and delivering back to their homeland, the land he has promised them.

The New International Version Chapter 40

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.”

This passage, Isaiah 40:1-11, is often read at this time of year because it is quoted in the nativity story of all four gospels.

For example, Mark 1:2-3:

The New International Version Chapter 1

2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,

who will prepare your way” b—

3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’ ”

And the reason that gospel writers quote Isaiah here is because they see in Isaiah’s words something that goes beyond the context he foresees regarding the restoration of Israel, and point to an even greater fulfillment of prophecy:

CSB Study Bible: Notes Chapter 40

The fulfillment most immediately in view is the return of Jewish people after the end of the exile, but the ultimate fulfillment of these verses is in the work of Jesus Christ

In the same way that God went before the exiles and prepared a way for them to be liberated from their captors in Babylon and restored to the Promised Land, he goes before us, liberating us from our captivity to sin and making way for us to come home to the life that he has intended for us, a life in community with him, a life that scripture promises us. A type ‘Promised Land’ life, or the Promised life, if you will.

Have you had that experience of not only leaving behind a life of captivity sin, but being brought through into a life that is better and more fulfilling than your old life was, a life in relationship with God?

While we can be dominated by the desert that lays around our captivity to sin, God has conquered this desert through Jesus Christ, who makes away for us to pass through it into the true and eternal life that God has promised us.

By God’s grace, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we need to get digging as members of a road crew building a highway through the desert

The New International Version Chapter 40

6 A voice says, “Cry out.”

And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the LORD blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God endures forever.”

9 You who bring good news to Zion,

go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem, r

lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,

and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

and his recompense accompanies him.

11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.

I love this section of the passage. The way that it speaks of the tender care that God, as a shepherd, has for His people, gathering us in His arms like lambs. Holding us close to His heart. Gently leading us. But it also speaks of the shortness of our lives, of the temporal nature of so much that we could spend our lives in pursuit of. Our lives are like grass that withers. But, says Isaiah, “the word of our God endures forever.” And that “word” as we read it here in Isaiah is a message of good news that God is saving His people. That He is freeing them from captivity, and that he is expediting them through the desert to a life of Promise, to the fulness of life, eternal life. And so for Isaiah the thing that we can do with our lives that is of eternal significance, that won’t wither and die like grass, is to be bringers of that good news, to go up high on a mountain and shout it (v.9). By doing this we become “doers of the word”, taking up the call of Isaiah and John the Baptist who echoes him to “prepare the way for the Lord”. To be a part of making a highway through the wastelands of death and destruction by which liberated captives can come in to the true, full and eternal life that God promises.

You know there is something remarkable about the word “highway” that Isaiah uses here. The suggestion of historians is that no such structures existed where Isaiah lived (the land we would call Israel or Palestine). This word mesilah refers to the kind of built up stone roads of the surrounding empires which dominated smaller nations like Israel. These roads were most likely built by slaves, they enabled the strong to efficiently dominate the weak. To lead them off into captivity and servitude. There is something profound then, about Isaiah using this symbol to paint a picture of captives being speedily and efficiently returned to their home, the Promised Land.

I’m aware that as someone who has been a Christian for a long time, someone who grapples with some fo the difficulties of faith, the complexity of Scripture and theology, that I can sometimes make this Jesus thing more complicated than it needs to be. This Advent I am challenged to be someone who hears what this passage is saying, and makes straight paths for people. Like a member of the roadcrew building a highway through the desert, I want people to be able to come quickly and easily home to God.

I want to have the effect for people of getting out of city traffic on the first day of holidays, being able to put their foot down, to feel the weight and stress of life lift off them, and to feel rest and peace and joy begin to settle on them. As they anticipate very soon arriving somewhere that will bring them so much fulfillment.

Have you ever felt that feeling of stress lifting off you as finally get on the road to somewhere you’ve really been looking forward to going? Can you imagine a spiritual parallel to this kind of highway experience? What might it mean to help people have this highway experience of going quickly and easily througthe desert from death to promised eternal life?

Let me pray for you:

God of hope, you call us from the exile of our sin with the good news of restoration; you build a highway through the wilderness; you come to us and bring us home. Comfort us with the expectation of your saving power, made known to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.