as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way”— “a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ”
Mark 1:2-3 NIV
For a move of God to happen, there has to be preparation. Firstly, God’s messengers are sent by God. They are not sent from their own thinking. It is those who are sent that can make preparations because they are privy to the plan. Ever since the creation, God had a plan. He wrote out that plan in His Word and we see it unfold exactly as He wrote it.
Moreover, God’s Word tells us what God has done, what He is doing, and what He will do. You can trust the Bible. You may not understand everything in God’s Word and some of it, you may not like, but God’s Word is perfect, trustworthy, reliable, and divinely inspired.
“Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God”
1 Peter 1:20-21 NLT
We see different men of God who prophesied the coming of Jesus and then a man who was sent to be the messenger who prepares the way. Imagine if the president of a country is coming to visit a place. The kind of preparations that will go into that visit would be enormous. The country would prepare however, the protocol team for the president would come and make everything ready. God saw that although some people were expecting the Messiah, they could not adequately prepare for His arrival.
The Messenger’s purpose was not to remove obstacles from the road. It was to remove the obstacles of the heart and mind so people could receive Him who was coming. In some ways, all believers have this responsibility to help “prepare the way” and to “make straight the path” for people to encounter Jesus. Some of the ways we can do this is by telling people about Jesus. Living an exemplary life worthy of emulation; a life that draws men to Christ. Are we God’s messengers? Do we prepare the way for Christ?
