Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 2 Study # 4
September 25, 2018
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(014)
1901 ASV
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight;
4 John came, who baptized in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance unto remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the country of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem; and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
6 And John was clothed with camel's hair, and [
had] a leathern girdle about his loins, and did eat locusts and wild honey.
7 And he preached, saying, There cometh after me he that is mightier than I, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.
8 I baptized you in water; but he shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit.
- I. The Preparation For the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- A. The Old Testament prophecies indicate a powerful need for "preparation" before men will be "ready" for the coming of the Lord.
- 1. Isaiah 40:3 declares that a "voice" would cry out a summons for people to get ready for the coming of the Lord.
- 2. In chronological order, Malachi 3:1 returns to this long-standing, written prophecy regarding "the coming of the Lord to His temple" and then describes the greatness, and the tragedy, of the "need".
- B. The issues of "preparation" are, at once, both extraordinarily simple, and complex beyond imagination.
- 1. The word used in Malachi 3:1 regarding "preparation" is used in ten New Testament texts.
- a. Four of these texts identify John the Baptizer as a "spirit and power" fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah and Malachi (Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 1:17; and 7:27) which all address the need for "preparation".
- b. The remaining six of these texts are used in contexts where the force of the word used is identified as "a meticulous process of putting first one thing in place and then another, and another, until the preparation has been accomplished" (Hebrews 3:3; 3:4; 9:2; 9:6; 11:7 and 1 Peter 3:20).
- 1) It is this meticulous process that makes "preparation" complex beyond imagination.
- 2) Yet, and this is to be seen in Mark 1:4, the "preparation" has an exceedingly simple beginning point that is, then, followed with specific "issues" that are complex as a group but simple when taken one at a time.
- c. The Malachi 3:1 text is set within the context of the perversion of the temple worship and the treachery of divorce.
- 1) This perversion consisted of a primary "T"heological perversion: "Wherein have You loved us?" (Malachi 1:1).
- 2) From that perversion the priests and the people moved to a primary perversion of worship: dishonor (Malachi 1:6), turning "worship" into offering to God what would offend even a human being if offered to him (Malachi 1:8), and, ultimately, turning service to God into a "weariness" that is to be "snuffed" at as a remarkable level of dishonor (Malachi 1:13-14).
- 3) And from that perversion the people moved to a most basic "treachery"; "divorce" (Malachi 2:16).
- 4) And from that the degeneracy moved to a refusal to be deliberately committed to the provisioning of the temple for true worship (Malachi 3:8-10).
- 2. The word used in Isaiah 40:3 is a different word than Malachi's, but it has a similar field of meaning (as can be seen in Matthew 22:4 and multiple other texts) consisting of a process of getting things ready [it is the word Jesus used in John 14:2-3 regarding His "interim" labors between His departure after His first coming and His return in a second coming]. Luke 12:20 gives us a bit of insight into the difference in these two words. Malachi's word has the focus upon the details of the task as the task is broken down into many lesser tasks. Isaiah's word, as given in the New Testament, seems to focus upon the "provision" that is required for the large task and the "provisions" required for each of the lesser tasks. In other words, Malachi focuses upon the process of the task and Isaiah focuses upon the provisions that will be necessary for the process to go forward. The difference seems to be the difference in "preparing" by "building a railroad" and "preparing" by assembling the grader, the gravel, the ties, the spikes, the rails, the hammers, and whatever else is needed for the process.
- a. The specifics of the Isaiah 40:3 command arise out of the imagery of getting a "road" ready for the coming of a highly valued person.
- b. This "getting a road ready" is specifically "making His paths straight".
- 1) Isaiah 40:4 declares the particulars: leveling, straightening, and smoothing. This is both an enormous task as well as a particularly tedious daily task.
- 2) These particulars reveal just what is required by the term "prepare".
- C. The "bottom line": "preparation" is necessary because what the coming of the Lord will do is force the issues of a "Kingdom of Righteousness" to the fore in a way that will press human beings to the highest degrees of "loyalty choice".
- 1. The coming of the Lord will ferret out those whose commitments in life boil down to self-preservation as opposed to those whose commitments in life boil down to the essential character of the "Servant-Lord": self-sacrifice.
- 2. The necessary "preparation" involves laying the groundwork for people to come to the table with their hearts ready to enter into "Life" with its fundamental requirement of ultimate sacrifice.
- a. The beginning of this preparation involves the Malachi 1:2 issue dominating the conversation: the "Lord's" coming to die for us and in our stead as the demonstration of His love for us.
- b. The culmination of this preparation involves the Revelation 14:8-11 issue dominating the conversation: the "Lord's" coming to wreak vengeance upon everyone who, coming to the ultimate issue of ultimate loyalty, chooses loyalty to the principle of self-preservation over self-sacrifice.