A voice cries out:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain.
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 

Isaiah 40:3-5

God is actively at work molding, directing, transforming us for our good and His glory.  He allows us to travel through darkness so we will stop relying on ourselves and trust Him.  He actively works through the darkness, in the wilderness, transforming our hearts.  What wilderness are you in now?  Please know that God is with you.  He is active.  You are not alone.

To the extent we are able to conjure a guess, how might Isaiah’s original audience have understood the word “wilderness”?  Looking at Old Testament uses of the word, we see that the wilderness is the place of chaos, evil, hardship and testing.  It is the place demons and evil spirits live.  It is the place of danger and destruction, where savages rule and civilized creatures go to die.  The wilderness is beyond the bounds of civilization, order, and control.  It is outside the limits where people expect to be safe.

Abram sent Hagar and Ishmael to the wilderness when Sarai wanted to do away with them (see Genesis 16:7).  As Moses cared for Midian’s sheep, he traveled through the wilderness, and when he had gone “beyond the wilderness” (Exodus 3:1) he reached God’s mountain.  Moses did not encounter God through the burning bush in the wilderness.  It was beyond the wilderness.

The wilderness is the place God led and provided for His people for forty years after the Exodus.  Moses described it as “great and terrible… an arid wasteland with poisonous snakes and scorpions” (Deuteronomy 8:15).  God led His people through the wilderness to prepare them to enter the Promised Land by humbling and testing them for their good (see Deuteronomy 8:16). 

The wilderness was the place priests sent the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, carrying the sins of the people away, out to the place of iniquity, the place demons roam.  God’s holy word instructs,

“Aaron shall offer the bull as a purification offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and offer it as a purification offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. 

…

 Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the Israelites, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region, and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.  Leviticus 16:6-10 and 21-22

Leviticus suggests the wilderness is the place sins belong.  It is a place of chaos, danger and demons.  Isaiah’s listeners likely envisioned the wilderness as a dangerous, chaotic place where evil roams.  If that was their understanding, Isaiah’s words turned their understanding upside down.  Suddenly, the wilderness is the place of hope.  It is where God prepares His way, where He builds His highway, where He is actively working for their benefit.

It is widely accepted among scholars that Isaiah 40 was written about 45 years after Babylon conquered Jerusalem and carried God’s people into exile.  The words were written to people who had been removed from their homes in the Promised Land, the place God promised would be theirs by ancestral right, and transported to Babylon, the big city and the center of civilization at the time.  King Nebuchadnezzar was the most powerful man on earth and his city was adorned with luxury.  The city had palaces, temples built to pagan gods, a water system fed by canals from the Euphrates, hanging gardens described as one of the wonders of the world, and more.  It was a place of luxury for the affluent, built by slaves.  The affluent rulers worshiped pagan gods and lived in luxury. 

In the wilderness of Babylon’s riches, God paved His way.  It may have been ornate and civilized by human standards, but it was the wilderness to God, and God allowed His people to be there for a time so that they might return to Him.  He actively levelled uneven ground, destroyed high places, raised low places, constructed a smooth highway for His people’s return to Him, and He promised that His glory would be revealed through it all. He humbled the proud and leveled the social order and economic status of His people.  Like their ancestors’ journey through the Sinai desert, it was all for their good and His glory. 

Centuries later, Matthew quoted Isaiah 40:3 explaining that God called John the Baptist to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, Christ Jesus (see Matthew 3:3).  John the Baptist lived, preached, and baptized in the wilderness.  He was a voice calling in the wilderness urging people to change, to repent, to return to God, and many responded to His message and were baptized.

As His final preparation for ministry, God led Jesus to the wilderness where He was tested (see Matthew 4:1-11).  Jesus was alone, fasting in the wilderness, interacting with the tempter, the devil, Satan – the text uses all three references to the evil one.  Jesus endured physical challenges – He was alone in the wilderness with no food for a long time.  He endured emotional and spiritual challenges, and He stood firmly on His faith.  The testing was not for God the Father, it was for Jesus.  It helped prepare Jesus for His ministry that would soon begin.

God uses the wilderness to humble, test, and prepare His people so that He might reveal His glory through them.

We should each ask ourselves, what is my wilderness?  What chaotic struggle am I facing?  What is God guiding you through so you might find humility and to be tested?  What darkness is God leading you through?  God allows suffering to humble us, to test us and prepare us to serve Him in ways we otherwise would not be able to do, and through it all, He is actively working.  He is with us, leading us, providing for us, paving His way.  No matter what you are going through, you are not alone.  Sovereign God is with you.

May you see Him and know Him intimately, with clarity surpassing understanding. Amen.