Devotion 12.11.23

Isaiah 40

3 A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

    the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

    a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be raised up,

    every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

    the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

    and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

There are two movie trailers out right now that have my attention. One is titled "The Shift" and is supposed to be based on the book of Job. It is coming out soon, or may even be in theaters now. The other is a biopic on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It's scheduled for Nov 2024. 

Trailers whet the appetite. They give us a sense of anticipation, and sometimes they are on target while other times they set us up for a really bad movie. 

God uses John the Baptist to make the way of His Son Christ known in advance. John, whose birth is documented in the gospels along with Christ's, goes into the wilderness and teaches a message of baptism and repentance. Mark 1 cites Isaiah as he references John's work:

1 The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, 2 as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:

“I will send my messenger ahead of you,

    who will prepare your way”—

3 “a voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

    make straight paths for him.’”

4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

Far more substantive than a movie trailer, John prepares the people of that day for a baptism that will quench the thirst of all who believe, a baptism in the Holy Spirit provided the Son for the creation of faith for all. Christ will be baptized as an act of obedience to the Father by John, who will declare his unworthiness to baptize the Son of God.

The good news is we are not worthy either, but God's love does the impossible. It forgives us and makes us new creations in Christ Jesus. For that, we are thankful and ask for that good news to be shared as we wait for Christ's return.