December 7 2010    Reading:  Matthew 3.1-12, Luke 3.1-6

Second Sunday of Advent

Text: “the rough country will be made smooth” Luke 3.5

IN Matthew chapter 3 and, in particular, Luke chapter 3 we have these words about the beginning of John the Baptist’s work.............

A voice cries out, "Prepare in the wilderness a road for

the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!

Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will

become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all

mankind will see it. The Lord himself has promised this."

To our ears, these may seem strange words, difficult for us to understand perhaps, and we might wonder what they mean............

- the voice of one calling in the desert, straight paths, valleys filled in, mountains made low, the crooked roads made straight, rough ground made smooth, all the earth seeing the salvation of God.

Yet, when we begin to look at the situation behind these words, when we realise that these words are the Word of the Lord for His people in an extreme situation, then we begin to grasp something of the full power, force and hope of this message for its own times ! and we will come to understand why Matthew uses these same words to speak of the coming of the Lord Jesus !

So, first, what is the situation from which these words of Isaiah come ? What is the situation to which the Word of the Lord came, proclaiming straight paths, valleys filled in, mountains made low, crooked roads made straight, rough ground made smooth, and all the earth seeing the salvation of God ?

Well, these words come from one of the most difficult, desperate times for the people of Israel. In the 9th. year of King Zedekiah’s reign on the 10th. day of the 10th. month of 586BC the city of Jerusalem was surrounded by the Babylonian army under King Nebuchadnezzar. After long months of seige, and unmentionable suffering in the city, the commander of the Imperial Guard of the Babylonian army and his men broke through the walls and into Jerusalem. During the following days they started indiscriminate slaughter of many of the citizens, they set fire to the Temple, to the palace, and began breaking down the walls of the city. Then the Babylonian forces rounded up and took away all the leading citizens of Israel, nearly 5000 of them, on a forced march into Exile in Babylon. With the immense power they have at their disposal this is a common thing for Empires to do, to move peoples around, to reshape the map. Hitler had similar plans to move the nations of Europe round. The Dutch people were to be moved into exile on lands in the Ukraine and Russia. Some of the men in Ellen’s home village were transported by the Nazis to the edge of the Ukraine to work on farms there. After the war one of them walked all the way back - it took him 8 months to walk across war torn Europe, and he made it home in late 1946. This is what Empires do, they move peoples around.

So, the people of Israel, were moved to Babylon. Once a people they were now slaves living at the heart of a huge Empire. As exiles they had no status, nothing. They only thing they possessed was a sense of loss and a longing to return to their beloved homeland. Psalm 74, written in exile in Babylon: “Why have you abandoned us like this, O God? Will you be angry with your own people for ever? Remember your people, whom you chose for yourself long ago, whom you brought out of slavery to be your own tribe. Remember Mount Zion, where once you lived. total ruins; our enemies have destroyed everything in the Temple.”

this is their condition: they are slaves, they are 600 miles journey from home, with 400 miles of desolate wilderness and desert between themselves and Jerusalem, without power of any kind, locked in at the heart of a vast empire........

This is their situation, and it is into this situation that a Word, the Word of the Lord comes, breaks through. A message for them, from the Lord, through the prophet Isaiah.

For, there is no situation, no place on earth, which is beyond the Lord’s care, or the power of His Word, or beyond the hope and power of the gospel....... there will be always a Word for us, in whatever condition or situation we are in.

Now, into this desperate situation comes the Word of the Lord.

It’s important to pause here and ask: What does the Word of the Lord say ?

The message from the living God ?

Because this matters......... Does the Word say: don’t you’ll work a way out for yourselves ! you’ll find a way out ! keep working, keep labouring, and, perhaps you’ll get home again.........

No ! a message like that would bring crushing despair ! how can they find a way out ? they are slaves ! how can they force their way out of Babylon when they have no power of their own ? how can they get themselves home - there are 400 miles of desert and mountain between them and Jerusalem ! work a way out for yourselves ? a message like that would only bring crushing despair !

No..........Read through Isaiah, and you will discover in awe and wonder that the Word of the Lord to His people in exile in Babylon declares this: that God in His power will come, He will break their chains, He will guide them out of Babylon, and through the desert ? Now do you see how amazing the Word of the Lord is: it is about a highway, through valleys made level and hills brought low, with fresh streams of water flowing so none are thirsty ! About a journey His people will make rejoicing, because every step they take will be a step away from Babylon, and a step nearer the land that He has given them ! a step nearer home............. Here’s the Word in Isaiah 43

I am the Lord, your holy God. I created you, Israel,

and I am your king."

Long ago, to bring you out of Egypt, the Lord made a road through the sea, a path through the swirling waters. He led the mighty army of the Egyptians to destruction, an army of chariots and horses. But the Lord says, "Do not cling to these events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already- you can see it now! I will make a road for you

through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.

And in the power and grace and love and might of the living God, in the year 538, . as His Word had declared leaving Babylon - and crossing the great desert places - Israel came home. The nations around were stunned, amazed..........

Now this is the background, the situation to those words in Matthew’s gospel

"Prepare in the wilderness a road for

the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!

Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will

become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all

the earth will see it. The Lord himself has promised this."

And we can understand now a little more of what they mean.........

the gospel declares to us that God is about to do something.......... for His people ?

What will it be ? Well, just as we have looked at the situation of the people of Israel in exile in Babylon, we need to know what our situation, what our condition is.

And it’s this: that like the people of Israel, we are in exile from God, cut off,

far from home, because we are all sinners, that’s the human condition,

like Israel of old in Babylon our human situation is desperate.

We are all sinners, all of us fall short of the glory of God !

as Israel of old in Babylon.......... we are slaves, slaves to sin,

and like that great trackless waste, between Israel and home,

there is a trackless waste, a gulf between ourselves and God,

and we stumble in the wilderness, with no path, no highway, no road

a wilderness we cannot cross...... this is how far we are from Him in our sinfulness.

Exiled from God and far away from Him !

But now, here is the Word of the Lord in the gospel ! This is the Gospel !

"Prepare in the wilderness a road for

the Lord! Clear the way in the desert for our God!

Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will

become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all

the earth will see it. The Lord himself has promised this."

The declaration of the living God is that He Himself will come near,

In His might and power He Himself will fill the valleys, level the mountains between ourselves and Him, so that we can approach. So that we are brought close, not by our own arduous efforts, not by something of our own making......... but His grace and love and power in Jesus Christ......

In Jesus Christ God has come near............

He makes the highway,

He straightens the road for us,

levels valleys and lowers the hills, He puts a path at our feet so that we can come,

He makes a safe way through the wilderness of life for us, so that all of us can come

And so all the earth will, in wonder and awe see God’s salvation

because He has made it possible He has taken away every barrier..............

opened up the way through Jesus Christ and the power of His dear, radiant, life giving, Cross and resurrection............

the absolutely new thing that the gospel proclaims is that the living God has come seeking us in His Son, in Jesus Christ

we are those who were sought, looked for and found........

for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him will not die but have everlasting life......

As of old, as He promised, God has acted, in His Son, Jesus, the Good Shepherd

who has come looking for us...

Jesus has crossed the wilderness, the gulf from beyond and has come into our world........... our exile...... to find us.......

This is why the gospel in Matthew 3, looking to the coming of Jesus,

declares, cries, exults:

Fill every valley; level every mountain. The hills will

become a plain, and the rough country will be made smooth.

Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all

the earth will see it. The Lord himself has promised this:

the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ !

AMEN