These weeks we’re getting into the second part of the crystallization-study of Isaiah, especially going through Isaiah chapters 40-66.
In this last section of Isaiah we see the kind word of Jehovah being spoken to the heart of Israel, His beloved people, which unveils the prophet’s vision concerning the redeeming and saving Christ as the Servant of Jehovah and the all-inclusive salvation brought in by Him to Israel and the nations, with the full restoration of all things, consummating in the new heaven and the new earth!
I love the way Isaiah 40 starts,
1. Comfort, O comfort My people, Says your God.
2. Speak unto the heart of Jerusalem, And cry out to her, That her warfare has finished, That the penalty for her iniquity has been accepted; For she has received from the hand of Jehovah double For all her sins.
3. The voice of one who cries In the wilderness: Make clear The way of Jehovah; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.
First of all, this word is to comfort the people of God – God wants our heart to be comforted, since all our sins have been forgiven and we have been reconciled to God! The Lord God is not a Forever-Judging God – He judged Christ on the cross for our iniquities, and now we need to come to Him to confess our sins and we are forgiven! This is a word from His heart to our heart… so personal!
And this word continues with this “voice crying in the wilderness” – typifying John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, the one who introduced and ushered in the incarnated God to His people. The fact that in Isaiah it says, Make clear the way of Jehovah… – and in the New Testament John the Baptist applied this word to the Lord Jesus means that – Jesus is the New Testament Jehovah!
Jesus and Jehovah are one person, and He needs an entrance, a before-preparation! He desires to come into our spirit, but before He can get into our spirit He needs to pass through our heart! Firstly He comforts our heart, but then He needs a “paved way”, a “highway”, to enter in!
What does it mean to prepare the way of Jehovah? On His way to come into our spirit, He passes through our heart, so He needs to have our heart “paved” and dealt with! Our heart – composed of our mind, emotion, will, and the conscience – is full of all kinds of valleys, mountains, hills, crooked places, and rough places.
Before we were saved we had all these crooked places, rough places, hills, valleys – in our heart. When the Lord reached out to us and shined on us, we opened and allowed Him in our heart – and He began to straighten out the rough places and high / low places in our heart.
Furthermore, even now we need to admit that our heart is not that level, not that straight, not that proper, for the Lord to come in! We need to have the gospel preached to us again and again, and we need to read the Word of God to be exposed and see how rough and crooked things are in our heart.
The highway is a paved heart – every part of our heart and every avenue in our heart needs to be straightened by the Lord through repentance, so that the Lord may enter into us to be our life and to take possession of us (Luke 1:17).
O, Lord, our mind… is so full of crooked places, not thinking straight, and not even thinking about God or the things of God! Our emotion – very rough or very touchy, not in accordance to God’s desires and emotions. We may be cold towards the Lord and open towards the world…. and our will is so rebellious, strong like a mountain in the way of the Lord.
How much we need to hear the Word spoken to us and return to the Lord in repentance again and again – that He may straighten our heart and make a high way in us for His coming! Our heart needs to become straight, level, without any valleys of hills, with no crooked places or “dark corners”, without any rough places… [enjoyment from the Life-Study of Isaiah, message 7, by bro. Lee]
Lord, we just give You our heart! Come in as the King of Glory – have a way in us, Lord! Continue to shine on us and expose us, Lord, that we may see what in our heart and repent! Cause a turn in our heart towards You! May we agree with the shining and exposing of the light, Lord! Make straight a pathway for Your coming in us! Straighten out any crooked way, any rough place, or anything that stands in Your way! Lord, continue to speak to us and continue to bring us on with You! We want our heart to be a highway for You – that You may have the full ground in us!
