John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 40:3

"The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God." — Isaiah 40:3 (ASV)

A voice crying in the wilderness. He develops the subject that he had begun and declares more explicitly that he will send to the people, though apparently ruined, ministers of consolation. At the same time, he anticipates an objection that might have been raised: “You do indeed promise consolation, but where are the prophets? For we shall be ‘in a wilderness,’ and from where shall this consolation come to us?” He therefore testifies that “the wilderness” shall not hinder them from enjoying that consolation.

The wilderness is used metaphorically to denote the desolation that then existed; though I do not deny that the Prophet alludes to the intermediate journey, for the roughness of the wilderness seemed to forbid their return. He promises, therefore, that although every road were shut up, and not a chink were open, the Lord will easily cleave a path through the most impassable tracts for himself and his people.

Prepare the way of Jehovah. Some connect the words “in the wilderness” with this clause and explain it this way: “Prepare the way of Jehovah in the wilderness.” But the Prophet seems rather to represent a voice that shall gather together those who had wandered and had, as it were, been banished from the habitable globe. “Though you see nothing but a frightful desert, yet this voice of consolation shall be heard from the mouth of the prophets.” These words relate to the hard bondage that they would undergo in Babylon.

But to whom is that voice addressed? Is it to believers? No, but to Cyrus, to the Persians, and to the Medes, who held that people in captivity. Being alienated from obedience to God, they are constrained to deliver the people. Therefore, they are commanded to “prepare and pave the way,” so that the people of God may be brought back to Judea, as if he had said, “Make passable what was impassable.”

The power and efficacy of this prediction is thus presented for our admiration. For when God invests his servants with authority to command men who were cruel and addicted to plunder, and who at that time were the conquerors of Babylon, to “prepare the way” for the return of his people, he means that nothing shall hinder the fulfillment of his promise, because he will employ them all as hired servants. From this we obtain an excellent consolation, when we see that God makes use of irreligious men for our salvation and employs all the creatures, when the case demands it, for that end.

A highway for our God. When it is said that the way shall be prepared not for the Jews, but for God himself, we have here a remarkable proof of his love towards us, for he applies to himself what related to the salvation of his chosen people. The Lord had nothing to do with walking and had no need of a road; but he shows that we are so closely united to him that what is done on our account he reckons to be done to himself. This mode of expression is frequently used elsewhere, as when it is said that God went forth into battle with his anointed (Habakkuk 3:13), and that he rode through the midst of Egypt (Exodus 11:4), and that he lifted up his standard and led his people through the wilderness (Isaiah 63:13).

This passage is quoted by the Evangelists (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:3; Luke 3:4), and applied to John the Baptist, as if these things had been foretold concerning him, and not unjustly; for he held the highest rank among the messengers and heralds of our redemption, of which the deliverance from Babylon was only a type.

And, indeed, at the time when the Church arose out of her wretched and miserable condition, her humble appearance bore a stronger resemblance than the Babylonian captivity to a “wilderness;” but God wished that they should see plainly, in the wilderness in which John taught, the image and likeness of that miserably ruinous condition by which the whole beauty of the Church was injured and almost destroyed.

What is here described metaphorically by the Prophet was at that time actually fulfilled, for at an exceedingly disordered and ruinous crisis John lifted up the banner of joy. True, indeed, the same voice had been previously uttered by Daniel, Zechariah, and others; but the nearer the redemption approached, the more impressively could it be proclaimed by John, who also pointed out Christ with his finger (John 1:29).

But because, in the midst of a nation that was ignorant and almost sunk in stupidity, there were few who sincerely grieved for their ruinous condition, John sought a wilderness, so that the very sight of the place might arouse careless persons to hope for and desire the promised deliverance.

As to his denying that he was a Prophet (John 1:21), this depends on the purpose of his calling and the substance of his doctrine. For he was not sent to discharge a separate and continuing office but, as a herald, to gain an audience for Christ his Master and Lord. What is said here about removing obstructions, he skilfully applies to individuals, on the grounds that the depravity of our nature, the windings of a crooked mind, and obstinacy of heart, shut up the way of the Lord and hinder them from preparing, by true self-denial, to yield obedience.