Isaiah 40:3

"HIGHWAY 180"

קוֹל קוֹרֵא בַּמִּדְבָּר פַּנּוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה יַשְּׁרוּ בָּעֲרָבָה מְסִלָּה לֵאלֹהֵינוּ 

3 A voice of one calling, "In the desert, prepare the way of the LORD. Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God."

קוֹל קוֹרֵא A voice of one calling, the qal participle describes the person at first glance: Who was it/who is it? A guy calling out. The question, "Who is it?" is part of the drama of the text. We know that it will be John the Baptist, but our knowing only adds more excitement to the passage. This, like everything else in the Bible, has been fulfilled. The Mp note tells us that there are ten occurrences of the form קוֹרֵא written out fully (plene). There isn't a handy Mm list, but the following ten passages are all marked with the same Mp note and are plene forms of this participle, some like this, some with waw, and some with the definite article heh: Judges 15:19; Isaiah 6:4; 40:3; 45:3; 64:6; Amos 5:8; Habakkuk 2:2; Psalm 42:8; 1 Chron. 9:19 and 2 Chron. 31:14.

בַּמִּדְבָּר  in the desert, What does this word go with? It is either one calling us to make this way which is in the desert ready for God, or else the one calling is himself in the desert. The Masoretes and the LXX seem to be on opposite sides of this question; although we should remember that all of our copies of the LXX are post-New Testament, Christian manuscripts of the LXX, and could perhaps have been influenced by the New Testament quotations. It wouldn't be wrong or inappropriate to allow the word to look both ways. However, the masoretic accent of the word prepare (פַּנּוּ) is the slash-shaped tipha, a fairly strong disjunctive accent that generally marks the close of the second-to-last clause before a stronger accent like atnach or silluq. Therefore, the tipha breaks "in the desert, prepare" apart from "the way of the Lord." The words "calling" and "in the desert" are both set off with zaqef accents, giving the passage a choppy feel. In fact, the accents do nothing to resolve the question but only perpetuate it. And so the Evangelists are on perfectly safe ground quoting the verse as they do: The voice was the one out in the wilderness.

פַּנּוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה  prepare the way of the LORD. פַּנּוּ is a piel imperative, "prepare!." The way of the Lord is the path by which he comes to us. Will my path for him be rough a strewn with the boulders of my sin, my prejudice, my impenitence, and other shame? How do I smooth out this way? Through repentance. By letting God's law convict my heart and by letting the gospel of his forgiveness turn me around 180 degrees, the path is level, the way is prepared. Come, Lord Jesus.

יַשְּׁרוּ בָּעֲרָבָה מְסִלָּה לֵאלֹהֵינוּ  Make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Another piel imperative (יַשְּׁרוּ) describes more of our repentance, straightening out our crooked sins. There might be a relationship between the word mesilah "highway" and the mysterious selah of the Psalms, a "lifted up thing," but this isn't the place to pursue that. John preached repentance, and we must never forget that repentance is something that we do because the law and gospel of God have been preached to us; here the picture is of God coming to us on this highway, "Highway 180," the highway of repentant turn-arounds and the new direction of the gospel-motivated life.

This is the only prophecy that the Evangelist Mark quotes by name in his Gospel (Mark 1:2-3). It is a call to smooth out the rough places in our lives, and to fill in the gaps; to make a path for God, because he is coming. He himself will come again, to judge the world, and we prepare our hearts for him in repentance for our sins--intentional, and unintentional--and we ask him to forgive us. What do I need to change in my life today? I want to change, and I need to change. Lord, you are the one who changes me.