Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 3:4
As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4. Esaias the prophet ] Isa 40:3.
saying ] This word should be omitted with , B, D, L, &c.
The voice ] Rather, A voice. The Hebrew original may be rendered “Hark one crieth.”
of one crying in the wilderness ] Hence comes the common expression for hopeless warnings, vox clamantis in deserto. Probably, however, the “in the wilderness” should be attached to the words uttered by the voice, as is required by the parallelism of Hebrew poetry:
“Prepare ye in the wilderness a way for Jehovah,
Lay even in the desert a highway for our God.”
The wilderness is metaphorically the barren waste of the Jewish life in that day (Isa 35:1).
the way of the Lord ] Comp. Isa 35:8-10, “And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness: the unclean shall not pass over it And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 3:4
The voice of one crying in the wilderness
Self-effacement
John Baptist is a type of those who resolve, at all risks, to discharge their duty and to deliver the message entrusted to them by God, without one single thought of self, without one transient wish to appear themselves in the matter.
There is no indolence here, nor cowardice. There is simply an absence of any ambition to be prominent, and of any desire to hear their name whispered among the crowd. It is enough to be a voice–to preach Gods Word, and not their own; to pursue some truth which is not to enhance their own reputation; to advocate some cause which is not to redound to their own advantage. Alas 1 how few are such persons; but how precious in proportion to their rarity I If any of us, then, be on the way to the attainment of this high grace, let us be supremely careful that our own selfeffacement be both genuine in itself and be a sacrifice offered to a worthy cause. For if I merely surrender to the first comer, or abdicate in favour of some worse person than myself, the very humility that should have been for my wealth, becomes to me an occasion of falling. Instances are not uncommon, in every ones circle of acquaintance, where a man has surrendered not his pleasures, or his advantages, but his principles, to some other persons opinion. But if a single persons private opinion be sometimes thus overpowering, what must the combined force of a thousand peoples opinion, of public opinion, be! Every one, it is obvious, has a visual horizon of his own, in the centre of which he lives and moves and has his being; and just so every one has a social circle–a world (as the Bible calls it) of his own, amid which he lives, and which reacts too often with fatal influence upon his character. We must, by prayer and watchful circumspection, safeguard this precious grace of humble self-effacement, lest we expend it on unworthy objects. (Canon G. H. Curteis.)
Admission to the kingdom
I. 1. The one thing that is essential in order that we may enter the kingdom of God is that we should be sincere. It was the evident sincerity of John the Baptist which drew around him the sinners of Judea, even rough soldiers and mercenary tax-gatherers. He demands sincerity in return. He could not do with professions unless they were accompanied by fruits worthy of repentance.
2. But there were those who came out to Johns baptism in insincerity.
II. It is not necessarily a proof of sincerity that we are keenly interested in the religious movements which are agitating mens minds. It is a better test when we are willing, in all simplicity, to put away those special sins which are hindering us from surrendering ourselves to the rule of God. (Canon Vernon Hutton, M. A.)
The voice in the wilderness
When the tale of bricks is doubled, then comes Moses: this is an apothegm familiar among the Jews even to the present day, and rehearsed in their stories of the past. But Moses came twice; and, the first time, he was abruptly rejected. The Prophet like unto Moses, promised and at last announced to our sin-enslaved race as the Redeemer, was introduced by a forerunner, who was not accepted any more than his Master. John the Baptist was ultimately beheaded for his reward of fidelity; and the Lord Jesus was crucified. Thus it comes about that Christs sad history strikes back on Johns, and gives it an unexpected interpretation. Very true have proved those words of Heinrich Heine: Wheresoever a great soul in this world has uttered its thoughts, there always has been Golgotha. Affairs had now reached the last crisis. Pontius Pilate was misgoverning Judea, filling history with extortions and infamies of crime. A new Herod, worthy of the name, was shaming the people with villainous lusts and defections in faith, his desperate morals fitly keeping pace with his downward career in apostasy. Suddenly was heard a voice in the wilderness. There was singular pathos in it, as there is in all human tones that have power. But it had, besides that, a sort of vibrating ring in it which intimated a challenge. Experts say that idiots, even in the midst of a gibbering frolic, will pause abruptly to listen to the sound of a musical instrument; perhaps some vague recollection of primal harmonies in a healthy nature before it was shattered may be awakened at the stir near by; the soul seems seeking to render answer, but only succeeds in giving wistful attention. That was not a loud voice in those days down by the Dead Sea, but all Judea heard it, and up the Jordan it rushed with more than the usual celerity; it certainly in due time reached the villagers in the land of Gennesareth, for some of them journeyed at once towards it–notably, Simon son of Jonas, and John, and James, and Andrew, who were destined to figure in the train of Jesus Christ. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The reality of the Baptist
John the Baptist was a reality. This poor world of ours has been so often trifled with, that it has learned to be satisfied thoroughly only with what is honest and true. There could be no ordinary possibility of mistaking such a man; he was genuine. And he shook that miserable generation of hypocrites as might have been expected. Virgil tells us that when AEneas descended into Hades to visit his father, he came to Charons ferry across the dark river; as he stepped into the light boat, accustomed to carry only spirits, so heavy a burden of a real and living man made the craft tremble and creek dismally through all the length of its sewed seams. We can presume that the hollow forms of social life in those wretched days were writhed and strained, if not shattered, by an uncompromising reality of manhood like that of John the Baptist at the Jordan. He was a man among the shadows of men. He had an actual idea. He shook off the shams of religion, and told souls a great deal more about religion itself than they ever knew before. He put himself within the reach of living people, and down on their planes of existence. Only he shred away the veils and tinsels and mockeries of an outward show, and with an unsparing hand tore up the traditions and mere commandments of Pharisees. (C. S. Robinson, D. D. )
Repentance is not alike in all
Let every man come to God in his own way. God made you on purpose, and me on purpose, and He does not say to you, Repent, and feel as Deacon A. feels, or, Repent, and feel as your minister feels, but, Come just as you are, with your mind and heart and education and circumstances. You are too apt to feel that your religious experience must be the same as others have; but where will you find analogies for this? Certainly not in nature. Gods works do not come from His hand like coins from the mint. It seems as if it were a necessity that each one should be in some sort distinct from every other. No two leaves on the same tree are precisely alike; no two buds on one bush have the same unfolding, nor do they seek to have. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Baptists gospel
John, too, had a gospel to preach, though at the first sounding of it there was terribleness enough in the tone. John preached the baptism of repentance, but, behold, it was repentance with hope, repentance and the remission of sins. John the Baptist is not a mere historic figure; his ministry represents a great fact which has a prominent place in the spiritual transformation and progress of mankind; his voice of repentance must always be first heard; his call to humiliation must always, in the first instance, bow down the soul; and after the thunder and fire of his ministry will come the still small voice of redeeming and welcoming love. John did not appear before his contemporaries without connection with all the solemn and beautiful past of Jewish history. Though he came from the wilderness, yet, as to the spiritual aspects of his ministry, he came up from the region of holy prophecy, and upon him there rested the benediction of holy men of old. It is something, after all, to feel that, as preachers of repentance and grace, we are not speaking in our own name, or clothing our words with the petty authority of merely personal position; the ages repeat their demands in our voices; the prophets are heard again when we speak in the name of Jesus Christ. Johns speech seemed to be regulated by the music of prophecy. This quotation from the Book of Isaiah is like the sounding of a military march, the anthem of those who move on to momentary battle, followed by everlasting triumph. In this prophecy it will be observed that there is the same combination of the human and Divine which is found throughout the whole of the gospel scheme: men are called upon to make straight paths for the Lord, and they are also called upon to work out their own salvation; they are exhorted to prepare the way, as they were commanded to roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre; and when they have done their little part, there comes the full outflow of the Divine sympathy, power, and love. Nothing can exceed in minuteness and completeness the description which is given in verses 5 and 6. The sixth verse contains the grandest utterance that can possibly be put into human words, All flesh shall see the salvation of God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Character and mission of the Baptist
These words, quoted by John the Baptist, had been spoken seven hundred years before by Isaiah. Nearly three hundred years after that, Malachi closed the course of Scripture with these remarkable words: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, &c. Then intervened a period of four hundred years, during which the voice of prophecy was mute, and all that was left to guide the Israelite was that of which Malachi reminded him in the previous verses: Remember ye the law of Moses My servant. And then, when these four hundred years were closed, suddenly, immediately before the Messiahs advent, there appeared in the wilderness a wonderful man, living a life like that of Isaiah and Elias, applying to himself this prophecy of Isaiah, and having applied to him by Christ that of Malachi concerning Elijah. I propose to endeavour to answer these two questions.
1. By what right, and in what sense, are these two prophecies, the one originally spoken by Isaiah of himself, and the other distinctly marking out a particular man Elias, referred to John the Baptist? And–
2. In what sense was John the forerunner of the Redeemer, preparing His way before Him?
I. Now, to understand on what principle these words are applicable to John, we must carry along with us the leading principle of prophecy. It is not merely a prediction of separate events, but far rather an announcement of principles; through the interpretation of the present the prophets predicted the future; for the announcement of every principle connected with a fact is a prediction of all future events that shall occur under similar circumstances. For instance, the astronomer, in the announcement of the eclipse, has so plainly discovered the principles that regulate it as to be able to foretell without a doubt the very moment of its return. Thus it was that our Lord and the prophets applied their prophecy. The prophet Malachi uses the name of Elijah, and says, Before another great and dreadful day come, another man shall rise up in the same spirit as Elijah. Our blessed Lord applies this prophecy to John the Baptist. He told men that Elias truly shall first come and restore all things, but that the Elias that was to come was not the Elias they had expected, but one in the spirit and power of Elias, who should turn the hearts of the fathers, &c. He thus reminded them that what the prophet meant was not a resurrection of the man, but of his spirit.
II. In the next place we return an answer to the second question proposed–In what sense was John the forerunner, &c. The expression of theprophet a figurative one. In Eastern countries, when a monarch desired to pay a visit to a distant part of his dominions, he was accustomed to send his messengers before him to demand of the inhabitants of every part through which he was to pass that they should make his road easy by filling valleys and cutting through hills. Precisely in the same way was John the Baptist to prepare the way for Christ. He came proclaiming a King, declaring the conditions without which the kingdom could not come, and without which the King could not reign. The first of these conditions was this: he prepared the way for Christ by declaring private righteousness preparatory to public reformation. Change yourselves, or to you at least no kingdom of God can come.
2. John prepared the way for the advent of the Messiah by a simple assertion that right is right, and wrong, wrong.
3. The Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah by teaching simple truths, falling back upon first principles. Observe that all this was to prepare the way for Christ–it was not Christ. Yet in all ages the baptism of John in the laver of duty must precede the baptism of Christ in the laver of self-sacrifice. (F. W. Robertson, M. A)
JOHN THE BAPTIST.
Also of John a calling and a crying
Rang in Bethabara till strength was spent,
Cared not for counsel, stayed not for replying,
John had one message for the world–REPENT.
John, than which man a sadder or a greater
Not till this day has been of woman born;
John, like some iron peak by the Creator
Fired with the red glow of the rushing morn.
Thus, when the sun shall rise and overcome it,
Stands in his shining desolate and bare,
Yet not the less the inexorable summit
Flamed him his signal to the upper air.
(F. W. H. Myers.)
Preparing the way of the Lord in worship
The way of the Lord should be prepared in our hearts. If we would have the Lord come to us in our Sabbath worship, we must think of Him in our week-day work. As it often is now, when the Sabbath comes, the gathered rubbish of a whole week must be cleared away. The way of the Lord is blocked up by the remembrance of the weeks cares, h man brings his business right up to the borders of the Sabbath, and, of course, the Sabbath itself is full of it. Boxes and barrels, bales, dry goods, groceries and hardware, remain over in the mind from the weeks work and worry. Now, a man has no more right to take these things with him in his thoughts, than to leave his goods exposed for display and sale in his store. If it were not for disturbing others, he might just as well take his ledgers and invoices with him to church, and be making out his bills and checking off his goods while there, as to be doing these things in his thought all day. He might just as well wheel his boxes and bales right into the aisle, as to have them present to mental vision all the time. Jesus drove out the traders from the temple with a scourge of cords. But if He should come into our modern churches and drive out all who in their thoughts have brought money, and merchandise, and trade into the house of God, He would leave some very small congregations. If all the business that is planned in church were really transacted there, it would make that a busier place than ever the Jewish Temple was in the days of the Passover. If we would enjoy the Sabbath as a day of rest and communion with God, we must drive these money-changers of our thought out from the sacred temple of our hearts, and let those hearts be again the temples of the Holy Ghost. We must prepare for the day, not merely by laying aside our work, but by excluding it from our hearts, that God may come and dwell there. Thus, in all things, we must prepare for Gods work. We must lay our plans for it, and shape our affairs for it. The Lord comes to reign, if He comes at all. We must so prepare the way that He can come and can reign. There must be forethought as well as good will; preparation as well as diligence. It is true the Lord sometimes comes suddenly to His temple. But when He thus comes, Who shall abide the day of His coming? for He shall be like a refiners fire.
All may assist in preparing the way of the Lord
Not one little brown and withered leaf falls to the ground on one of the November days but the shape of the plant is changed; so there is not one little act of yours, one whispered prayer that His kingdom may come, but becomes a factor in the worlds redemption. If I can only place one little golden brick in the pavement of the Lords highway, I will place it there, that coming generations may walk thereon to the heavenly city. (Phillips Brooks, D. D.)
Various ways in which the way of the Lord has been prepared
Strangely, too, the movements of science, art, and commerce seem to wait on ministerial life. Printing had just been invented in time to give the Bible to the people in the period of the Reformation. The magnetic needle was applied to navigation to send that Bible and its preachers to all lands. The spirit of exploration, which has sought out every island, and is now engaged in revealing the character of Central Africa and the steppes of Asia; the study of all languages; the preparation of grammars and lexicons; the knowledge of the currents of the air and the water, of the powers of steam and electricity–all these are so many voices crying, Prepare ye the way of the Lord! They are so many indications that when man will carry Gods message all the power of Omnipotence waits on his service. (M. Simpson, D. D.)
St. John the Baptist
How shall we picture John the Baptist to ourselves? Great painters, greater than the world seems likely to see again, have exercised their fancy upon his face, his figure, his actions. We must put out of our minds, I fear, at once, many of the loveliest of them all; those in which Raffaelle and others have depicted the child John, in his camels hair raiments, with a childs cross in his hand, worshipping the Infant Christ. There is also one exquisite picture, by Annibale Caracci, if I recollect rightly, in which the blessed Babe is lying asleep, and the blessed virgin signs to St. John, pressing forward to adore Him, not to waken his sleeping Lord and God. But such imaginations, beautiful as they are, and true in a heavenly and spiritual sense, are not historic fact. For St. John the Baptist said himself, I knew Him not. The best picture of him which I can recollect is the great one by Guido, of the magnificent lad sitting on the rock, half clad in his camels-hair robe, his stalwart hand lifted up to denounce he hardly knows what, save that things are going all wrong, utterly wrong to him; his beautiful mouth open to preach he hardly knows what, save that he has a message from God, of which he is half conscious as yet–that he is a forerunner, a prophet, a foreteller of something and some one which is to come, and which yet is very near at hand. The wild rocks are around him, the clear sky is over him, and nothing more. There, aloft and in the mountains, alone with nature and with God, he preaches to a generation sunk in covetousness, superstition, party-spirit, and the rest of the seven devils which brought on the fall of his native land, and which will bring on the fall of every land on earth, preaches to them, I say, what? The most common, let me say boldly, the most vulgar–in the good sense of the old word–the most vulgar morality. He tells them that an awful ruin was coming unless they repented and mended. How fearfully true his words were the next fifty years proved. The axe, he said, was laid to the root of the tree; and the axe was the heathen Roman, even them master of the land. But God, not the Roman Caesar only, was laying the axe. The people, the farming class, came to him with, What shall we do? : He has nothing but plain morality for them. The publicans, the renegades who were farming the taxes of the Roman conquerers, and making their base profit out of their countrymens slavery, came to him, Master, what shall we do? He does not tell them not to be publicans. He does not tell his countrymen to rebel, though he must have been sorely tempted to do it. All he says is, Make the bad and base arrangement as good as you can; exact no more, &c. The soldiers, poor fellows, came to him. Whether they were Herods mercenaries, or real gallant Roman soldiers, we are not told. Either had unlimited power under a military despotism, in an anarchic and half-enslaved country; but whichever they were, he has the same answer to them of common morality, You are what you are; you are where you are.
Do what you have to do as well as you can. Do no violence to any man, &c. Ah, wise politician, ah, clear and rational spirit, who knows and tells others to do the duty which lies nearest them; who sees (as old Greek Hesiod says) how much bigger the half is than the whole; who, in the hour of his countrys deepest degradation, had Divine courage to say, Our deliverance lies, not in rebellion, but in doing right. But he has sterner words. Pharisees, the separatists, the religious men, who think themselves holier than any one else; and Sadducees, materialist men of the world, who sneer at the unseen, the unknown, the heroic, came to him. And for Pharisee and Sadducee–for the man who prides himself on believing more than his neighbours, and for the man who prides himself on believing less–he has the same answer. Both are exclusive, inhuman, while they are pretending to be more than human. He knew them well, for he was born and bred among them, and he forestalls our Lords words to them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (Charles Kingsley, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. Prepare ye the way] It was customary for the Hindoo kings, when on journeys, to send a certain class of the people two or three days before them, to command the inhabitants to clear the ways. A very necessary precaution where there are no public roads. – WARD.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
All four of the evangelists apply that prophecy, Isa 40:3-5, to John the Baptist. Luke only repeats what is Luk 3:5,6 and in Isa 40:4,5, and he doth but shortly repeat what is in the prophet, Luk 3:5; the prophet saith, And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. But there is nothing more usual than for the writers in the New Testament, in their quotations out of the Old Testament, to repeat the sum of the sense, not the words strictly. For the understanding of that prophecy, we must know, that there the prophet Isaiah was sent to comfort those amongst the Jews who feared God, partly with the assurance of them that they should return from Babylon, their warfare should have an end, Cyrus should deliver them; partly with the assurance of them of a far greater deliverance, in and by the coming of the Messiah (of whom Cyrus was but a type): to this purpose the prophet sets out both Cyrus, and in that type Christs coming, as if both were present and at hand. Kings and great princes coming (especially with armies) have usually some coming before them, as pioneers, to prepare their way, by levelling rough places, and removing whatsoever is in the way of their motions, and filling up holes and ditches, &c.; nor are they far off when once their harbingers and pioneers are arrived, or are seen coming. John is here set out as a harbinger to Christ, to prepare his way, or a pioneer, to fill up ditches, throw down hills, to make rough ways smooth, and every way to prepare the way for him: that all flesh might see the salvation of God. And as princes that have wildernesses to pass through have more need of their pioneers to prepare and smooth their ways; so the state of the Jews being now confused, as a wilderness, and corrupt above measure, John the Baptist was sent before to cry in the wilderness, &c. This I take to be the true sense of the prophecy, and that it is mighty vain to strain these metaphorical phrases, and inquire what is meant by valleys, mountains, and crooked ways; they all most certainly signify the same thing, viz. whatsoever might be a hinderance to peoples receiving of Christ; and to philosophize further about them, is but to show the luxury of our wit, rather than any solidity of judgment. The whole scope of these three verses is but to show, that as kings, and princes, and governors of armies, have used to have harbingers and pioneers, or other officers, to go before them, to remove things out of the way of them and their retinue, and to prepare their way; so had Christ, and John the Baptist was the man whom the Lord pitched upon for that purpose, by his preaching to bring men to it sense of their sins, and off from their wicked courses, and to show them their need of a Saviour; that so when Christ came himself forth to preach, people might not be wholly ignorant, but in some measure prepared to receive the joyful tidings of the gospel, which he brought unto them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet,…. Isa 40:3
saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight; [See comments on Mt 3:3].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As it is written ( ). The regular formula for quotation, perfect passive indicative of .
Isaiah the prophet ( ). The same phrase in Mr 1:2 (correct text) and Mt 3:3. Mark, as we have seen, adds a quotation from Mal 3:1 and Luke gives verses 4 and 5 of Isa. 40 not in Matthew or Mark (Luke 3:5; Luke 3:6). See Matt 3:3; Mark 1:3 for discussion of Luke 4:4.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Isaiah. In this prophetic citation Mark adds to Isaiah Mal 3:1, which does not appear in either Matthew or Luke. Luke adds vv. 4, 5 of Isaiah 40, which do not appear in the others.
Paths [] . From tribw, to rub or wear. Hence beaten tracks.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “As it is written in the book,” (hos gegrapta en biblo) “As it has been and is written in the book, roll, or scroll,” giving credence to the trustworthiness and accuracy of the Old Testament Scriptures, as claimed by David, Psa 119:160.
2) “Of the words of Esaias the prophet,” (logon Esaiou tou prophetou) “Of Esaias the prophet, of the saying, or affirming the saying of Isaiah,” Joh 5:39; Though some believe this alludes to the return of the Jews from captivity, it certainly had its primary fulfillment in the preaching of John.
3) “Saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,” (phone boontos en te eremo) “There shall be a voice of one bellowing or crying aloud in the wilderness,” or in the little populated area, Isa 40:3; Mat 3:3; Mar 1:3.
4) “Prepare ye the way of the Lord,” (hetoimaste ten hodon kuriou) “You all prepare or make ready (for) the way of the Lord,” Isa 40:3-5; Joh 2:23.
5) “Make his paths straight.” (eutheias poieite tas tribous autou) “Make his paths to be straight ones,” well trodden ones, moral and ethical paths, in harmony with the principles of truth and holiness of heart and life, as set forth in the law of the Lord, in preparation for receiving Him. Remove the crooks and turns and rough places that would be offensive to the Christ (Messiah) of glory, Mal 3:1-3.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(4) The voice of one crying in the wilderness.See Note on Mat. 3:3.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(4) From David to Abraham there is a general agreement, the only variation being that, in some MSS., the names of Arni and Admei in St. Luke (Luk. 3:33) replace the Aram of St. Matthew.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
(4) The comparative slight variation here is such as may easily have arisen in the process of transcription from an Aramaic document into Greek. The received reading, Aram, was probably a correction in order to bring the genealogy into agreement with St. Matthews.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet.
a “The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
b Make you ready the way of the Lord,
c Make his paths straight.
d Every valley shall be filled,
d And every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
c And the crooked shall become straight,
b And the rough ways smooth.
a And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Note the chiastic structure here. In ‘b’ and parallel we have the play on ‘way’, in ‘c’ and parallel on ‘smooth’, while ‘d’ and parallel are identical but contrasting thoughts. This is as well as the parallels of the poetic rhythm.
The above is fairly similar to (but not the same as) Isa 40:3-5 LXX, ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God, every valley will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low, and all the crooked ways will become straight, and the rough places plains, and the glory of the Lord will appear, and all flesh will see the salvation of God, for the Lord has spoken’. But as findings at Qumran remind us, the differences probably indicate that it was not a direct citation from there, and could easily rather be a translation from an original Hebrew text. (This is true wherever there is a similarity to LXX but with differences). Luke, however, like us, would use any suitable versions that were available.
It will be noted that ‘and all flesh will see the salvation of God’ is not present in the Hebrew text, which reads ‘and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it (the glory of the Lord) together’. But the whole of the remainder of Isaiah 40 demonstrates that the revealing of the glory of the Lord there is in fact for the purpose of salvation (Luk 3:10-11; Luk 3:28-31), and thus that those who see His glory will see His salvation, for His glory will be revealed in salvation. Thus the significance is the same.
Luke is here following the example of Mar 1:3, but expanding on it, and cites with regard to John the words of Isaiah in Isa 40:3-5. These words referred to one who was to prepare the way for God to act. (The community at Qumran applied this verse to their task of studying the law in the wilderness). It was normal in Isaiah’s day for the approach of great kings to be prepared for by smoothing the way before them. There were to be no ups and downs for a great king. The valleys would be filled in, the mountains levelled, the road would be made straight and all obstacles and unevenness removed. And both Isaiah and John saw this in spiritual terms, the removal of the obstacles of men’s sins and the preparation of men’s hearts ready for God to act.
We can compare how later men are to be ‘brought low’ (Luk 14:11; Luk 18:14), for good or bad, and the crooked will be made straight (Luk 13:10-17, the Greek terms are different but have the same significance) which was itself a picture of what Christ had come to do. For the mountains being levelled we can compare Zec 4:7 where such an event is connected with the Spirit and refers to the removal of all obstacles on behalf of Zerubbabel. And we can compare how today we speak of the removal of a person’s rough edges in order (in our view) to make him a more fulfilled person. The word used for ‘crooked’ occurs in a moral sense in Act 2:40; Php 2:15; 1Pe 2:18, where the idea is of perverseness, or of being overbearing. The word for ‘smooth’ is used of walking morally in Pro 2:20 LXX where the way for the righteous man is to be smoothed. Thus the words are indicating the total transformation of men and women as explained in Luk 1:17.
‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ It has already been made clear that John’s preparation has taken place in the wilderness (Luk 1:80; Luk 3:2 and compare Luk 7:24). The wilderness was in Jewish tradition the place where men could go and meet God. We can compare Moses (Exo 3:1-6) and Elijah (1Ki 19:4-18) who both met God in the wilderness and received His word there. And John too had met God there and received His word (Luk 3:2).
‘All flesh will see the salvation of God.’ We may interpret this as being explained by the words of Simeon in Luk 2:30, ‘my eyes have seen the Salvation of God’, thus meaning that all kinds of men (all flesh) will see in Him their Saviour. All kinds and classes will become aware of God’s message of salvation. Of course in the end seeing salvation and seeing the Saviour both mean the same thing for God’s salvation is only found through Christ.
But the thought might be that all flesh everywhere will see His salvation, some to their benefit and others to their dismay (Rev 1:7). For when His glory is revealed and His salvation comes, the elect will be gathered in (Mat 24:31) and the remainder will be subjected to judgment.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 3:4-6 . See on Mat 3:3 . Luke continues the quotation of Isa 40:3 down to the end of Luk 3:5 , following the LXX. freely. The appeal to this prophetic oracle was one of the commonplaces of the evangelic tradition in respect of the history of John, and betokens therefore, even in Luke, no special source; he only gives it unless a Pauline purpose is to be attributed to his words (Holtzmann) more fully than Matthew, Mark, and John (Luk 1:23 ).
In the same thing is implied that Matthew expresses by .
] Ravine , Thuc. ii. 67. 4; Dem. 793. 6; Polyb. vii. 15. 8; Jdt 2:8 . This and the following particulars were types of the moral obstacles which were to be removed by the repentance demanded by John for the restoration of the people well prepared for the reception of the Messiah (Luk 1:17 ). There is much arbitrary trifling on the part of the Fathers and others in interpreting [71] the particulars of this passage.
The futures are not imperative in force, but declare what will happen in consequence of the command, . . . . . . ought to have guarded against the taking the expressions imperatively.
On the use of the Cyrenaic (Herod. iv. 199) word , hill , in Greek, see Schweighuser, Lex. Herod . I. p. 125 f.; Sturz, Dial. Al . p. 154; Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 356.
] scil . . See Lobeck, Paralip . p. 363; Winer, p. 521 [E. T. 738 f.].
] scil . , from what follows, the rough, uneven ways .
] smooth . Comp. Xen. Mem . iii. 10. 1 : .
. . ] See on Luk 2:30 . It is an addition of the LXX. The salvation of God is the Messianic salvation which will appear in and with the advent of the Messiah before all eyes ( ). As to , all flesh , designating men according to their need of deliverance, and pointing to the universal destination of God’s salvation, see on Act 2:16 .
[71] Well says Grotius: “Nimirum est anxia eorum , qui in dictis singulas partes minutatim excutiunt cum satis sit in re tota comparationem intelligi.”
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1480
MINISTRY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
Luk 3:4-6. It is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
THERE is an abruptness in the language of the prophets, which, though it sometimes casts an obscurity over their writings, often gives them very peculiar force and energy. This may be noticed particularly in the passage referred to in our text. At the beginning of the fortieth chapter of his prophecies, Isaiah, without any particular intimation of it breaks forth into a distinct subject, which from that time occupies his chief attention. He has indeed in the preceding chapters occasionally spoken of the Redeemers kingdom: but from the beginning of this chapter he almost loses sight of the deliverance from Babylon, and dwells, even in the primary sense of his words, on the more important deliverance of men from their bondage to sin and Satan. He informs us [Note: ver. 1, 2.] that God had commissioned him to comfort his drooping people with assured prospects of his returning favour through the intervention of the Messiah. Then, passing over eight hundred years as scarcely more than a single day, he seems to himself to hear the very voice of Christs forerunner, and to see him occupied in preparing the Messiahs way: and then, with a confident expectation that Gods word should stand, he predicts the ultimate and universal establishment of the Messiahs kingdom.
The passage is quoted by St. Luke as actually fulfilled in the preaching of John the Baptist; and it may well be considered as of peculiar importance, since it is quoted by all the Four Evangelists. In considering it, we shall be led to shew,
I.
What are the chief obstructions to our Redeemers kingdom
Some there were peculiar to the apostolic age
[The Jews were so attached to Moses and their law, that they could not endure any thing which appeared to weaken their authority, and to transfer the peoples regard to any other teacher. Knowing that their religion was from God, and not aware that it was intended only to be of temporary duration, they accounted it the vilest blasphemy to speak of the ministry of the one, or the authority of the other, being superseded.
They had also very erroneous notions of the Messiahs kingdom: they supposed he would be a great temporal prince, who would deliver them from the Roman yoke, and raise their nation to the highest pinnacle of human grandeur. Hence they were quite indignant that a poor despised Nazarene, who himself their Messiah.
These prejudices greatly obstructed the establishment of Christs kingdom among them, and proved an almost insurmountable bar to their conversion.
Nor were the Gentiles in a state more favourable than the Jews. They were addicted to the vilest lusts, the grossest superstition, the most confirmed idolatry. The more learned among them were still further from the kingdom of God, and more hostile to it, on account of their philosophic pride, which led them to reject every thing which did not savour of human wisdom, and the Gospel especially, which appeared to them so repugnant to it. To be saved by a man who was crucified, and therefore apparently unable to save himself, was in their eyes a most flagrant absurdity.
Thus St. Paul informs us, that the preaching of the cross was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness.]
But there are others, which are common to all ages
[It is not needful to distinguish between the different parts of the imagery, whereby these obstructions are described; else we might see in the elations of pride, the stubbornness of passion, and the gloominess of despondency, a correspondence between the terms that are used, and the obstacles that are depicted. Certain it is, without intending to refine upon the text, that these are the most common impediments to the establishment of the Messiahs kingdom.
Men will not endure to be told that they are justly obnoxious to the wrath of God, and utterly incapable of saving themselves; and that all, the best as much as the worst, must be indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ for all their hope and all their salvation. The pride of the human heart rises against this, and turns from it with disgust. The lusts and passions of men also are averse to the dominion of Christ: they hate controul: they will not submit to the restraints of the Gospel: to have them mortified, is like the plucking out of a right eye, or the cutting off of a right hand: the spiritual, as well as the fleshly, filthiness that is in us, pleads for indulgence: and every disposition of the mind, as well as every appetite of the body, sets itself against the authority of Christ, and rejects his yoke.
But besides these, which are the more obvious impediments to the Gospel, there are some others, which, though little noticed, are both powerful and common. There is in most men a tendency to despair. Whilst the unbelief of some leads them to despise the Gospel as an idle tale, in others, it operates to keep them back from embracing it, under an idea, that they never can be brought to the state that it requires. Either their guilt appears too great to be forgiven, or their lusts too strong to be subdued, or their circumstances so peculiar, as not to admit of so great a change in all the habits of their life.
These are obstacles which we all feel in a greater or less degree; and which must be removed, before Christ can enter freely into our hearts.]
That a view of these things may not discourage us, let us consider,
II.
How they are to be removed
As there were some peculiar obstacles in the apostolic age, so were there also peculiar circumstances calculated to remove them
[The general expectation of the Messiah, which prevailed about the time of his coming, certainly tended to prepare his way. The preaching of John the Baptist, who with holy firmness laid his axe to the root of Pharisaic pride and hypocrisy, awakened a great and general attention to religion [Note: Mat 3:5-6.], insomuch that many doubted whether he were not the Messiah himself. The ministry of Christ also produced a general sensation through the Jewish land: the holiness of his life, the wisdom and authority of his words, and the number and beneficence of his miracles, wrought conviction upon the minds of thousands, and drove his enemies to the necessity of putting him to death, or of leaving him in the uncontrolled possession of universal influence. The ministry of the Apostles, confirmed as it was by the descent of the Holy Ghost, by the gift of tongues, and by miracles unnumbered, had yet greater effect: it bore down all opposition, and triumphed over the united powers of earth and hell. The universal extension of the Roman empire contributed also not a little to the facilitating of the establishment of the Redeemers kingdom; since it gave to the Apostles an easy communication both with Jews and Gentiles throughout the world, in almost every part of which the Jewish Scriptures had already prepared their way.]
But it is of more practical importance to shew how our difficulties are to be removed
[As these are the same in every age, so the means of removing them are such as are open to the use of all. We need notice only two; and these are, repentance and faith. Repentance is the great leveller of all obstructions: it humbles the loftiness of man, and brings into captivity every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ. Wherever real penitence exists, it brings the soul into the dust before God. No longer is the Gospel deemed unnecessary or severe: the penitent sees, that without it he must inevitably perish. Whether he have been more or less moral, he is equally disposed to smite on his breast and cry for mercy. His vain conceits of his own goodness all vanish; and, instead of despising others as inferior to him in sanctity, he accounts himself rather the chief of sinners. And it deserves particular attention, that the Baptist himself prescribed this as the very first and principal means of smoothing the way for the reception of Christ [Note: ver. 3.].
The next means, and that which renders the other effectual, is faith. This, no less than repentance itself, is an universal leveller. If repentance brings down the hills and mountains, faith exalts the valleys, straightens the crooked paths, and smooths the rough. Wonderful indeed is the efficacy of humble faith: it dissipates at once all desponding fears: the things which appeared utterly insurmountable, now become plain and easy: the blood of Christ is acknowledged as sufficient to cleanse them from all sin; and the grace of Christ as sufficient to make them victorious over every enemy. It is remarkable that our blessed Lord, on his first entrance on his ministry, united this with repentance, as the grand, the effectual expedient for establishing his kingdom in the world [Note: Mar 1:15.]. And his Apostles after him continued to further his interests in the very same way: they preached everywhere repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.]
To stir us up to that exertion which is necessary, let us contemplate,
III.
The blessed consequences of their removal
The manifestation of Christs glory is that which ever did, and ever shall, follow the removal of those things which have hitherto veiled him in obscurity.
See how it was on his first appearance
[The clouds which surrounded him, concealed in a measure the bright effulgence of his rays: his humble birth, his mean appearance, the contempt and abhorrence in which he was held, all tended to cast a veil over his divine majesty: yet even then his own more immediate Disciples beheld his glory, as the glory of the only-begotten of the Father.]
See it more particularly after the day of Pentecost
[Till that time his very Apostles saw but very imperfectly the nature of that kingdom which Christ came to establish: but when the Holy Ghost had opened their eyes, and had sealed their testimony on the hearts of others, what a splendour beamed from the countenance of our incarnate God! Then it was seen, that he who had been crucified, was the Lord of glory, the brightness of the Fathers glory, and the express image of his person. Every eye looked to him: every heart trusted in him: every soul received out of his fulness grace for grace. He was that object which, if I may so speak, was the centre and circumference of the globe: in him all united; and beyond him none aspired. In him the whole body of believers, collectively and individually, were complete.]
See it at this hour
[Who is loved? who is honoured? who is served? who is glorified, wherever the Gospel prevails? who, but that adorable Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ? Those who once saw no beauty or comeliness in him for which he was to be desired, now behold him as fairer than ten thousand, and altogether lovely. He is truly precious to their souls; and to call him their Friend and their Beloved, is the highest object of their ambition, or, rather, the only thing about which they have any material concern. It is the same in every quarter of the world: it is the same amongst high and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned: if God have shined into their heart to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, they determine to know nothing else, toglory in nothing else: this is all their salvation, and all their desire.]
But who can tell what it shall be in the latter days?
[The text informs us, that all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Hitherto, notwithstanding all the efforts that have been used to spread the Gospel, darkness very generally prevails, and the obstacles to the Redeemers kingdom are but partially removed. But the day is near at hand, when all nations shall serve him, and all people shall know him from the least of them to the greatest. Yes, the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it; and therefore it shall assuredly come to pass. Obstructions there are, no doubt, both great and numerous: but before Zerubbabel the mountains shall become a plain. The extension of vital Christianity through the world is not more incredible than the establishment which it has already gained in the earth; especially when we consider, that, what has been already done, is, under God, the work of a few unlettered fishermen. O that that day may appear! O that God would hasten it in his time!]
Conclusion
[As a voice crying in this our wilderness, I would now say to you, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. He has entered into the world: he has established his kingdom among men; he now stands and knocks at the door of your hearts, and desires admission into them. O think what is it that obstructs his entrance into your hearts? Is it a proud conceit of your own goodness? Let this mountain be brought low, comparing your lives with the demands of Gods holy law. Is it an inveterate love of sin, and of this present world? let it give way to penitence and faith, that your path may be plain and smooth. Is it a doubt of the practicability of your salvation? Rely on Christ: all things are possible to him that believeth.
Perhaps you will say, that a preparation of heart must be from the Lord:true; but it must be sought by you in the daily exercise of meditation and prayer. If you need any incentive to these duties, do but reflect upon the benefits resulting from them: think of a revelation of Christ to your soul! think of his glory exhibited to the eyes of your mind, and shining with increasing brightness to the perfect day! think too in how little a time you will see him as he is, and be with him for ever! Dearly beloved, beg of God to take the stumbling-blocks out of your way: he is the same gracious God as ever he was; and if you cry unto him he will make an high-way for you, like as he did for Israel in the day that he brought them out of the land of Egypt [Note: Isa 11:16.]; he will make darkness light before you, and crooked things straight: these things will he do unto you, and not forsake you [Note: Isa 42:16.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Ver. 4. In the book of the words of Esaias ] Called a great roll, Isa 8:1 ; (because it treats of great things, maxima in minimo ), and said to be written with the pen of a man, that is, clearly that the simplest of men may understand it, Deu 30:11 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 3:4 . : Lk. has his own way of introducing the prophetic citation (“in the book of the words”), as he also follows his own course as to the words quoted. Whereas Mt. and Mk. are content to cite just so much as suffices to set forth the general idea of preparing the way of the Lord, Lk. quotes in continuation the words which describe pictorially the process of preparation (Luk 3:5 ), also those which describe the grand result: all mankind experiencing the saving grace of God (Luk 3:6 ). The universalistic bias appears here again.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
the words, &c. See notes on Isa 40:3, and Mal 3:1. See App-107.
Esaias = Isaiah. See App-79.
the LORD = Jehovah. App-4and App-98.
paths = beaten tracks.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 3:4. , even as) Repentance is described in Luk 3:4-5, remission of sins is implied in Luk 3:6.- , in the book of the words) The book of Isaiah consists of certain portions and sentences [orationibus], and as these were joined together, none could slip out and be lost. So the book of the Psalms, ch. Luk 20:4-6.– – – – , …) Isa 40:3-5; The passage stands thus in the LXX. – – – – , , , the voice-the paths of our God-all the crooked things-the rough way made into plains-and the glory of the Lord shall be seen, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God, because [or that] the Lord hath spoken it.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
The voice: Isa 40:3-5, Mat 3:3, Mar 1:3, Joh 1:23
Prepare: Luk 1:16, Luk 1:17, Luk 1:76-79, Isa 57:14, Isa 62:10, Mal 4:6, Joh 1:7, Joh 1:26-36, Joh 3:28-36
Reciprocal: 2Ki 19:2 – to Isaiah Psa 27:11 – a plain path Son 2:8 – the mountains Isa 43:19 – I will even Isa 49:11 – General Jer 31:9 – in a Zec 14:10 – the land Luk 10:1 – whither Luk 14:17 – his Joh 1:31 – therefore Act 8:28 – Esaias Act 18:25 – instructed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
EARNESTNESS IN RELIGION
The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough wags shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
Luk 3:4-6
What John the Baptist was to the First Advent, ministers of the Gospel ought to be to the Second. The text suggests the idea of earnestnessearnestness in religionand the earnestness of which I wish to speak to you consists in a prepared way and straight paths.
What is earnestness?
I. A fixed conviction that God loves you, that God desires to have you, that Christ is waiting to come into your heart. It is to have this well laid in your mind as a fact; and then to feel about it, There is nothing like this; there is nothing in the world to be compared to this; everything else is mere dust in the balance; this is all in all. Am I Christs? am I safe? am I ready?
II. It is to have made up your mind that you will be a Christian.It is to have this as the one great object of lifeabove all, absorbing all, ruling all.
III. It is to have made up your mind that nothing whatever shall stand in the wayno object, however dear; no sin, however pleasant; no habit, however formed; there shall be no obstaclenothing to grieve God wilfully, and to grieve Christbut it should go, go to the winds.
IV. It is to have some great object in view, something steadily in hand, something you are living up to, the conquest of some particular sin which you hate, the attainment of some point in the divine life which you see before you, some good work which you will enterprise, something for love, something for God.
V. It is to be faithful and diligent in the use of means, as one who feels very weak, whose new warmth makes him feel very cold, who, in proportion to his earnestness, is painfully conscious of his sluggishness.
VI. It is to do all as in a very short timeMy Saviour will very quickly be here.
That is earnestness. Between such a soul and God, it is evident that all is now open, that the heart is right with God. The way of the Lord is prepared, and His paths are straight.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
4
Esaias is the same as Isaiah, and this prophecy is in that book, chapter 40:3; 4. Make his paths straight is explained at Mat 3:3.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 3:4. Matthew and Mark also quote Isa 40:3, but no more.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 4
Esaias; Isaiah 40:3-5.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
All three synoptic writers quoted Isa 40:3 as the prophecy that John fulfilled, and John the evangelist recorded John the Baptist quoting it of himself (cf. Joh 1:23). However, Luke alone also quoted Isa 40:4-5. These verses contained the preparations made for a royal visitor that were common in the Greco-Roman world. They also included the fact that all people would experience the salvation that God would provide. One of Luke’s main themes was the universal scope of salvation (cf. Luk 2:30; Act 28:28; et al.). [Note: Morris, p. 95.] Typically Luke quoted from the Septuagint. John’s ministry consisted of preparing the Jews by getting them right with God so when Messiah appeared they would believe on Him.
"This quotation from Isaiah not only interprets John’s special mission but reveals the purpose of God which underlies the whole narrative of Luke-Acts." [Note: Tannehill, 1:47.]
In Luke, John is a "prototype of the Christian evangelist." [Note: Charles H. Talbert, Reading Luke: A Literary and Theological Commentary on the Third Gospel, p. 27.]
"The section on John’s ministry begins with a rather lengthy scriptural quotation and ends with an arrest that will lead to death. Jesus’ ministry will begin and end in the same way." [Note: Tannehill, 1:53.]