Getting Ready for the Admiral

Luke 3:1-6 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)

1 ... in the fifteenth year of the government of Tiberius Caesar -- Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother, tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene -- 2 Annas and Caiaphas being chief priests -- there came a word of God unto John the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness, 3 and he came to all the region round the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of reformation -- to remission of sins, 4 as it hath been written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, `A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye His paths; 5 every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straightness, and the rough become smooth ways; 6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'

Luke’s verses 3:4b-6 are lifted from Isaiah 40:3-5a of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. The LXX changes the Hebrew meaning slightly. The Hebrew says, “Hark! one calleth: 'Clear ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, make plain in the desert a highway for our God.” The Lord says that the captivity is ended. Then a messenger commands that the wilderness road be made straight and smooth so that those in exile in Babylon may return home to Jerusalem. To make their travel comfortable, even the valleys will be filled and the mountains knocked down and smoothed over so the road is straight, level and smooth. That’s what it’s about. But the LXX changes the meaning to have someone in the wilderness crying, “Prepare the way.” Thus, the passage suits the need of the gospel writers, here Luke, to have John the Baptist out in the wilderness preparing the way for the coming of Jesus. There’s nothing unusual or wrong, “prooftexting,” to call it that, is common use of the Greek Old Testament by the evangelists. 

The Isaiah passage is perfect for that use: it seems to have been common in those days that when a king was expected to visit, the roads that he would be using were smoothed out, the potholes filled, the bumps leveled over. Anyone who has ever served in a Navy warship is familiar with all the chipping and scraping and painting and other preparations that go on before the admiral visits. Just so here: Luke is about to introduce the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has John the Baptist, his slightly older cousin, preparing the way.

It’s the good news for this coming Sunday.

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