(#8) The Need for Preparation
(Isaiah 40:1-5, Malachi 3:1-4)
The past several articles have discussed how GOD initiates worship--by calling us, making himself known and opening the way for us to come to him.
The past three Compass articles have focused on God's solution to the problem of sinful human beings being able to meet with and worship a holy God. The central message of the gospel is that this is possible because God himself provides a way --a way in which the barrier of sin can be removed (atonement); and the One who is "the Way," the Mediator between God and humanity.
In a sense, though, "God's Provision" is but half the answer (though the chief half). There comes, with it, a call to the worshipers to be prepared to meet their God.
We have seen a piece of this need already in the procedures for ritual cleansing prior to meeting with God -- in the washing and three days of abstinence from sexual relations by the Israelites at Sinai (Exodus 19:10-11), and in the cleansing and clothing of the High Priest entering the Tabernacle to offer sacrifice and prayer for the people (e.g. Lev.16).
Highways and Hearts
The prophets say more about this need for being prepared to meet God. Perhaps nowhere is this more clearly stated than the opening words of Isaiah 40, and the call of Malachi 3.
The libretto to Handel's Messiah emphasizes the need for preparation before the Messiah's coming by placing these two texts at the beginning. But in fact, it is the opening of the Gospel of Mark which first pairs these calls to describe the ministry of John the Baptist in preparing the way for the Messiah.
The call of Isaiah 40 originally concerns the promised return of Judah from the Babylonian Exile, which it describes as a sort of "New Exodus" in which God will march through the desert again and carry his people to his holy city (vv.9-11)
Thus the image of the "desert" speaks of the actual physical return of the people. Further, the leveling of high places and filling in the valleys is appropriate to making a "highway in the desert" for the royal entourage to march upon.
But this is not all we are to see here. The prophets, and Scripture in general, frequently speak of another sort of "leveling" in the presence of God. Isaiah himself announces the toppling of the proud and mighty at God's coming ("the Day of the Lord" Isaiah 2:2,12-18), the day when God's mountain is raised to the highest place and every other exalted thing is brought low before the Lord.
At the same time "every valley shall be raised up" --what is lowly will be exalted. This is the other side of the reversal God often announces. He lifts up the humble and "seats them with princes" (Psalm 113:7-9, 1 Samuel 2:6-8).
Isaiah 57:14-15 echoes the call to prepare the road, and remove the obstacles before his people. Strikingly, the prophet immediately adds the promise "of the high and lofty One"
"I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit."
Thus the preparation for the Lord's coming must include the preparation of hearts... including the bringing down of the proud.
Likewise Mark 1, by adding the prophecy of Malachi to the call of Isaiah 40, emphasizes the need for "spiritual preparation" of the people for the One who is coming to them in glory. (Similarly, the final words of Malachi speak of Elijah's coming to "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.)
Preparation then involves a 'turning of the heart' back to God --repentance. This turning to God is and turning away from ourselves and everything else in which we boast or trust. In other words, in the act of repentance the lofty ARE humbled, "the mountains and hills are made low."
Hope in Humbling
In other words, there is hope for the proud and rebellious. The 'bringing down of the lofty' may speak of the final act of judgment, the destruction of proud rebels. But with the call to repentance it becomes something different. Those who are proud are called to humble themselves now, rather than be judged at the Lord's coming.
To those who do humble themselves comes the promise:
"Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up" James 4:6-10, 1 Peter 5:5-6
Who Humbles the Heart?
We are called to "prepare". And this we must do. But there is more going on than just our deciding to repent and "prepare ourselves" to meet with God.
First, it is God himself who sends messengers to turn his people back. The "voice that cries out" to us is from God.
But God does even more than that. When God's people return from the Babylonian captivity it is "everyone whose heart the Lord had moved" that goes to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:5). The humble, prepared heart is itself the work of God.
We who come to meet God in worship, by his grace are able to answer his call,
"Prepare your HEARTS for the coming of the Lord!"
Putting it into Practice
- If "preparation of the heart" is so important to meeting with God how should it be reflected in worship service?
- What is the difference between the "special" humbling of repentance from exposed sin, and "ongoing repentance"? How might this difference be reflected in worship times?
- Prepration is both individual and corporate (to make a people prepared for God). How do we reflect both sides of this?
- The goal of preparation is the display of God's glory. How do we connect these? (For instance, how do we keep God's glory in focus during times of confession and repentance?)
- How does our worship reflect both the command of God to "be prepared"/"repent" and the truth that our preparation results from his work in our hearts?