In our day, before world leaders travel, there are advance teams which do preparatory work. In ancient times, before an eastern monarch traveled, heralds or forerunners would be sent before him, both to proclaim his impending visit, and to prepare the route the king would take. This might involve clearing away obstacles, making causeways over valleys, leveling hills, smoothing roads, etc.
God announced to His people through the prophet Isaiah that before He visited them, He would send a forerunner: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness,'Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low...'" But the generation that heard that promise died without seeing it fulfilled. Another generation came and went. Israel and Judah were carried into captivity, then restored to Palestine. Then, about 300 years after Isaiah's prophecy, Malachi reaffirmed it: "Behold, I send my messenger, and He will prepare the way before Me, and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple..." But the generation that heard Malachi died without seeing the Messiah, another generation came and went, then another. Four hundred years passed with no supernatural intervention, no prophetic word, no sign of the Messiah. Then suddenly, quite unexpectedly, God shattered the silence. Gabriel announced to an old priest that he and his wife would have a son, and that child would be the promised forerunner of the Lord. This message is the first of four from Luke chapters one and two. |
