John 1:23. He said, I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah. The words are from Isaiah 40:3, and, though slightly modified in form, they completely express the sense of the original passage. To captive Israel, whose warfare is now accomplished, whose iniquity is pardoned, the glorious approach of her Deliverer is proclaimed. He conies to lead back his people through the desert to their own land. The herald's voice sounds in the desert, announcing the coming of the King, commanding that all obstacles be removed from the course of His triumphal march, and that through the wilderness there be made a highway for the Deliverer and for the people whom He has set free. The Baptist takes the words in their true application to the Messianic deliverance and kingdom. He speaks of himself as the herald, or rather as the herald 's voice; as in John 1:8 , his personality, so to speak, is swallowed up in the message which he came to bring.

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Old Testament