A voice of one calling: "Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make a straight highway for our God in the desert. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.
Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to his voice; do not defy him, for he will not forgive rebellion, since My Name is in him.
Significance
Isaiah 40:3-4 calls to "Prepare the way for the LORD" (דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה, derekh YHWH) in the wilderness, echoing Exodus 23:20-21 where God promises to send an angel "before you to protect you along the way (בַּדֶּרֶךְ, baderekh) and to bring you to the place I have prepared." Both passages envision God clearing a path for His people through hostile terrain — Exodus through the wilderness to Canaan, Isaiah through the desert for the return from exile. The voice commanding that valleys be raised and mountains made low (Isa 40:4) transforms the angel's protective role in Exodus into a cosmic highway-construction project, escalating the original exodus motif into a vision of divine road-building where every obstacle is supernaturally removed for the returning people.
Found via
Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament (1866)
Reference Type
Echo
Connection Method(s)
Longitudinal Theme — the way-of-the-LORD theme: the God who sent His angel "before you to protect you along the way" in the first exodus now commands a highway prepared for His own coming in the new exodus ("Prepare the way for the LORD in the wilderness"), one canonical thread of divine road-making through hostile terrain that Mark 1:2-3 gathers up — fusing Exodus 23:20/Malachi 3:1 with Isaiah 40:3 — and that John the Baptist fulfills in preparing the way for Christ Himself.
