Day 22 - THE VOICE OF ONE

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---Day - 22 begins Monday at Sundown---

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.  - Isaiah 40:3 

We can look at this Voice of one from the historical context, peering into the future from Isaiah's vantage point looking forward to John and Jesus' eventual arrival during the Roman Empire. 

We can look at it from the context of John and Jesus' day using the historical events recorded about John and Jesus in the Gospels. 

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: 

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’”

LUKE 3:1-3-

We can even compare Elijah's spirit with John's spirit prophesied by the angel in the Holy of Holies. 

16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  - LUKE 1:16

This Scripture passage was going through my mind all evening and into the night on Saturday. I prayed it out, I sang it out during open worship, and I spoke it out loud. 

And then I remembered a dream a friend had told me, just eight weeks ago. In his dream, he was in the temple courts in Israel and taking a guided tour. At the end of the tour, almost as an afterthought, the guide pointed to a painting, claiming it was the original, authentic portrait of John the baptizer. It was hanging on the landing of a stairway going down beneath the temple.  

My friend was doubtful, "how could it have survived all these years of the natural elements, much less the repeated conquests and the overturning of cultures and the ravages of war? It cannot be real he concluded. As he turned from the portrait, to move on, he saw one of our group coming into the temple courts, walking quickly looking straight ahead, as though on a mission, rolling up his sleeves, as he walked. My friend tried to make his way through the crowd in order to greet his friend. But the crowd slowed him down and he missed connecting with his friend, who walked briskly into the temple and out of sight. He thought to himself, "you know my friend is an authentic picture of the spirit of Elijah, a voice of one crying in the wilderness. 

But I want to look at it as a NOW word, to let it fire us up, to let it set into motion the preparation required before the second coming of Jesus Christ. 

This viewpoint is not only congruent with the season of the biblical year that we find ourselves in, we believe God has directed us to pray specifically during this time of the year... 

These forty days are called Teshuvah they denote preparation, leading up to the 10 days of awe and finally the solemn day, the Day of Atonement. For us, this is not historical Jewish tradition, but rather obedience to a NOW word received earlier this summer and confirmed through other witnesses. 

Preparation, specifically the kind that John the Baptist was crying out for. 

"Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." 

We understand that repentance has a negative connotation in our modern culture, it seems antiquated, irrelevant, and, uncomfortable. However, the word returning could also be used, let's interchange the words for a moment... 

Return for the Kingdom of God is at hand. 

This return word brings to mind the story of the ten virgins. Five were prepared and five were not. Think of the voice crying out in our day as 

Return! Buy oil NOW! 
For the King-dom is coming! 

Get prepared NOW! 

The King is coming, He is already on the way!