Verse 3
3. This is he that was spoken of by Esaias Isaiah 40:3-5. I agree with Mr. Watson, that the passage has no reference to the return from Babylon, (as some commentators imagine,) of which it would be no true description.
The voice of one crying The passage is more fully given by Luke 3:4-6, to which, or to the prophet, the reader should refer. Dr. Thomson says:
“When Ibrahim Pasha proposed to visit certain places on Lebanon, the emeers and sheikhs sent forth a general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah’s exhortation, to all the inhabitants, to assemble along the proposed route, and prepare the way before him. The same was done in 1845, on a grand scale, when the present sultan visited Brusa. The stones were gathered out, crooked places straightened, and rough ones made level and smooth. I had the benefit of their labour a few days after his majesty’s visit. From customs like these comes the exhortation of John the Baptist: ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight,’ etc.”
And so King Messiah is coming with all his train to assume his dominion. Before him a herald comes to prepare the way. The herald’s voice is heard ringing from the wilderness through which He is to march. As before the chariots of ordinary kings, the road must be graded; the elevations must be lowered and the depressions raised; so before this Divine King the very mountains must sink, and the vales must rise to prepare a level for his wheels.
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