Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
- Isaiah 40:4, 5
In ancient times there were no roads or highways, when the Monarchs intended to visit some distant province, they sent messengers before hand to announce their approach and pioneers were sent to remove all impediments to their progress. The Holy Spirit adopting this Eastern practice as a scriptural figure represents thereby the obstacles that were to be removed for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Orders were given to preach and publish the glad tidings of redemption (Isaiah 40:1, 2). These glad tiding introduced by a voice in the wilderness, gives assurance that all obstructions shall be removed and that though all creatures fail and fade, the words of the Lord shall be established and accomplished. A joyful prospect given to the people of God, of the happiness which this redemption should bring along with it. The sovereignty and power of God who undertakes to work out this redemption.
The preaching of John the Baptist (Matt 3:1-3) in the wilderness prepared a way for the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. Such who are depressed and down with the guilt of sin and were low and humble in their own eyes should be raised up and comforted and that such who were elated with themselves, and their own righteousness should be humbled, their pride and haughtiness should be brought down, and they treated with neglect and contempt, while great notice was taken of lowly minded ones.(Luke 14:17, Luke 18:14) What before was dark and intricate in prophecy should now become clear and such doctrines as were not well understood should now become plain and easy.
The words of the text are applicable not only to the first manifestation of the Son of God in the flesh, and the preparations made for it by the preaching of John in the wilderness but to the removal also of those obstacles which precede the inward revelation of Christ to the soul; ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Before Christ comes to fill up every void, there is a preparing of the way for him by the promises and invitations of the gospel, when all our sins are brought to light by the holy law of God and set before our eyes- our conscience crying out under guilt and fear, we are led to see the necessity for repentance. As repentance and Godly sorrow for sin are necessary to salvation. It is Christ who can give us both repentance and remission of sins. The solid truths of the divine revelation through the Word which raises the sinking soul to a firm hope and comforted, making way for a clear, full manifestation of the Lord himself. Then all stumbling blocks are removed in a moment, unbelief is silenced, Satan slinks away confounded: our reasoning mind bows to the force of the Sprit’s inward witness, what was difficult to understand becomes easy to believe. Nothing can stand in the Lord’s presence and power; all obstacles have to give way.
”The glory of God was seen in the coming of Christ in the flesh, when Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh, it was the manifestation of the glory of God. His glory can only be made known in the person of a mediator, who, as his only begotten Son is the brightness of his glory and express image of his person.(Heb 1:3) It was the view of this glory which drew his disciples to his feet. “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. (John1:14) This glory is true, the world never saw, as the Apostles declare, which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Cor 2:8) for, it was a spiritual glory, only revealed to the saints of God.
The glory of Christ in his first appearance in the flesh was to be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His humiliation veiled his glory, but his Person was in itself glorious as God-Man. His work was glorious-seen in the miracles wrought and in the doctrines taught by him, his suffering were glorious, as endured, in obedience to the will of God; His death was glorious, though in outward aspect so humiliating as thereby destroying death and him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. (Heb 2:14) His resurrection was glorious, as he was declared to be the Son of God with power. (Rom 1:4) His ascension and sitting at the right hand of God the Father was glorious,(Luke 24:26) and his second coming will be glorious, for then he and his saints will appear together in glory.(Col 3:4)
The revelation of Christ in the flesh in itself was glorious but when Christ is spiritually and inwardly revealed by the power of God to the soul, is infinitely glorious.(Gal 1:15,16) as the experience of all believers, ‘For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.(2Cor 4:6) When we have some manifestation of the beauty and blessedness, the blood, love and salvation of the great and glorious incarnate God, then the glory of the Lord, is revealed inwardly in the soul, as well as outwardly in the Person of Christ and the word of his grace. Now this only fully and thoroughly exalts the valley and lays low the mountain and hill and makes every crooked place straight and every rough places plain.
We may be pressed down at times with the power of unbelief, or sunk down at times in despondency as to both our present and future state, but that makes us the more to desire to have a good hope through grace, which is Christ himself the author and finisher of our faith as an anchor of our soul both sure and steadfast. We may feel the guilt and the deadly power of sin sometimes but that only makes us long for more of the manifestations of pardon and peace and that no sin may have dominion over us. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it: that his glory should be revealed and be visible to all, and therefore sure and certain, for what he has said he does and what he has spoken he makes good.
Every needful blessing, the mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain, and our eyes shall see the glory of the Lord. Christ shall be made precious in our heart-our soul and manifest himself as our Lord and God. So we keep hoping and looking up until he appears for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, that His glory shall be revealed and be visible to all, and therefore sure and certain, for what he has said he does and what he has spoken he makes good. “For by the Word of the Lord it is so decreed”, therefore shall be fulfilled.