Isaiah 40:3 - Exposition

The voice of him that crieth ; rather, the voice of one that crieth. A voice sounds in the prophet's ear, crying to repentance. For God to come down on earth, for his glory to be revealed in any signal way, by the restoration of a nation, or the revelation of himself in Christ, or the final establishment of his kingdom, the "way" must be first "prepared" for him. The hearts of the disobedient must be turned to the wisdom of the just. In the wilderness; either, "the wilderness of this world" (Kay), or "the wilderness separating Babylonia from Palestine" (Delitzsch), in a part of which John the Baptist afterwards preached. Prepare ye the way of the Lord . The "way of the Lord" is "the way of holiness" ( Isaiah 35:8 ). There is one only mode of "preparing" it—the mode adopted by John Baptist ( Matthew 3:2-12 ), the mode pointed out by the angel who announced him ( Luke 1:17 ), the mode insisted on in the Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent. The voice enjoins on the prophets of the captive nation to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming manifestation of God.