“A voice cries out, “In the wilderness clear a way for the LORD; construct in the desert a road for our God. Every valley must be elevated, and every mountain and hill leveled. The rough terrain will become a level plain, the rugged landscape a wide valley. The splendor of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it at the same time. For the LORD has decreed it.”” (Isaiah 40:3–5, NET)
“John said, “I am the voice of one shouting in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”” (John 1:23, NET)
This blog is not intended to bring anything new, not any new revelation or information, but to take us back to the voices that have been crying in the wilderness for centuries. The same voices are still crying in the wilderness, hoping that a generation will hear and obey. The prophets have been speaking, not many different messages, not many different revelations out of dreams and visions, but a steady message of warning of judgments, a call to repentance, a call to change how we treat each other, and to end idolatry.
Today, the same voice is crying out in the wilderness. The scriptures continue to speak the same message, and it is not limited by time, geographical location, or any specific people. It is a voice crying for all that can hear and are willing to obey. “These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.” (1 Corinthians 10:11, NET)
The Bible is not only a historical account of things that happened in the past; it has been written for our instruction, to teach us, and to change our ways, if we study the examples from the past. One of the dangers of reading the Bible as a past history book is that we miss the present and current message and application for the Church today. In a real way, I think that the Church is following the same steps and patterns of the people of God in the Bible, the people of Israel. We should be going back to the Scriptures to be able to find our way back to where we all should be right now.
God chose to make a covenant with the people of Israel, but over and over again they were not able to keep their part of the covenant. God was faithful, and he kept sending prophets to call His people to repentance and out of idolatry, disobedience, and wrong relationships with each other. The voices that cried out in the past are still relevant and applicable to God’s people today. The message to end idolatry, repent of evil ways, and love our neighbors continues the same.
In the following blogs, I intend to continue a journey through the Scriptures to find messages of the prophets crying out in the wilderness across the centuries to find meaningful messages for us today.
A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
