Daily Thoughts from Mark: Straight Paths (Mark 1:2-3)

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness:  ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’” (Mark 1:2-3, ESV)

Mark’s quotes are actually from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3 and both refer to God sending a messenger before Him to prepare His way.  The announcement is because Israel is in danger if God comes and they are still in their sinful rebellion. Malachi seems to be referring to Elijah, the prophet, as the one announcing Yahweh’s coming and preparing His people with a challenge to repentance (see Malachi 4).  But the one he is announcing is Yahweh, and so this becomes an indirect statement as to who Jesus is.  Jesus is Yahweh, the coming king.

So if Israel rejects John the Baptist’s message and rejects Jesus, Mark is suggesting, then God will come with judgment on Jerusalem and the nation instead of bringing in the kingdom.  That, of course, is what Mark is going to chronicle.  Israel will reject her Messiah and God will destroy the city and send her people into exile.  This actually happened in A.D. 70, nearly 40 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection.

When God comes to bring His kingdom there will be those on earth who can only anticipate judgment.  There will be others who will be prepared, having repented and believed in the Messiah.  Jesus’ first disciples were those who had believed John’s announcement and had prepared themselves by submitting to his baptism for repentance.  They then began following Jesus when he came on the scene.

The call is still out there for us make God’s paths or journey to us straight.  The road for the King’s coming needs to be leveled out and straightened by correcting our hearts and behaviors of ungodliness.  Do we want the Lord to do mighty kingdom work among us?  Then we must begin with personal and corporate repentance and life change.  Finally, Yahweh is going to come again as Jesus returns a second time to judge the world and rule in righteousness.  Are you ready?