Music Coming Soon…

Devotional by Joseph A. Kohm.

Image: The Judean Desert provided refuge for King David, John the Baptist, and Jesus during His 40 days in the wilderness.

This Old Testament passage from the book of Isaiah was directed to a people in Babylonian exile. After spending much of the previous 39 chapters focused on confrontation, the author switches gears, realizing that a defeated people living under worldly dominance need to be consoled with a message of assurance and comfort. The desert wilderness was a barren place, reflecting the inner spiritual and emotional state of God’s people. Yet the book of Isaiah is telling them they need to prepare to see God work.

More than 600 years later, gospel writer John Mark began his account of the life of Jesus with this passage from Isaiah. God’s people are still living under worldly dominance, but this time it’s the Roman Empire. By introducing his gospel with these words from Isaiah, Mark, like Isaiah, is telling us to get ready to watch God at work through the incarnation, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Mark also tells us that the loudest voice pointing us to God’s impending work is that of John the Baptist, who prepared the way of the Lord by calling people to repentance.

Both Scripture verses mention the need for straightening. Why the term straightening? Because the Hebrew word for “iniquity” means that which is twisted or bent. Perhaps this is why C.S.Lewis names the evil Oyarsa (Satan) of Thulcandra (Earth) the “Bent One” in his Ransom Trilogy novel Out of the Silent Planet. Ultimately, God’s work in our lives, that process of conviction, confession and repentance, requires working out those kinked and crooked areas in our hearts so that directionally we are always pointed straight to Christ.