Someone was pleading in the wasteland, ‘Clear a path so that the King can reach us!

#AdventUs “Someone was pleading in the wasteland, ‘Clear a path so that the King can reach us!'” Mark 1:3 (paraphrased)

I didn’t get this verse at all at first. Mostly because I kept hearing “Behold he comes, riding on the clouds” over and over in my head. It’s one of those earworms of a song that’s just chock full of Christianese that not many people really truly understand. 

So I tried to figure out what the passage was really about. 

The first section of that chapter in Mark is talking all about John the Baptist, and how he came to pave the way for Jesus. Sounds good.
However, Mark is actually quoting Isaiah 40:3 in this particular verse (and quotes Malachi in the previous verse).

So what was Isaiah talking about?
Isaiah 40 is all about comfort; support, and help from God. This is the chapter that we get lines about giving strength to the weary, soaring on wings like eagles, running and not getting tired, etc etc etc.
So why in the world is there a stretch in the middle of the beginning  that sounds like a landscaper’s handbook? I mean, look at it:

“…Prepare in the desert
    the way for the Lord.
Make a straight road in the dry lands
    for our God.
⁴ Every valley should be raised up,
    and every mountain and hill should be made flat.
The rough ground should be made level,
    and the rugged ground should be made smooth.” Isaiah 40, verses 3 & 4, New Century Version

Here’s that I figured out. In ancient times (modern times too) when an important dignitary would visit from another country, or if a King was returning home from battle, infrastructure would get major overhaul. Bridges would be repaired. Potholes filled. Walls fixed.
People didn’t want anything to be in the way of the person of importance coming to them.

In the original Hebrew, the word that we use for “desert” (as in, a voice in the desert crying) or “wilderness” is actually the same word. It essentially means a torn up, destroyed place where nothing grows and nobody lives. So, what’s happening in the verses is that someone is pleading inside that no-mans-land, begging that the area be cleaned up and made suitable for the King of Kings to pass through.

And that’s what the verse is calling us to do to, prepare a clear path through the brambles in our own lives. Not so God can reach us (because He can), but so that we’re more ready for Him.