The Way Belongs to the LORD

“Prepare ye the way of the LORD.” John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus. So, many say, Jesus must be the LORD. It sounds strong. But the prophecy itself, read whole, says something different. The way belongs to God. The way is not God. And the way is a man.

Isaiah 40:3

“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”

Isaiah 40:3

“The way of the LORD” means the road that belongs to Him. The second half says the same: “a highway for our God.” A road that belongs to God is not God. God is the owner. The way is what He provides.

And look at what the next verse does. Valleys are raised, mountains made low, the crooked made straight. Every one of these clears something out of the way. None of them builds a road. The way is given, not built.

Malachi 3:1

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Malachi 3:1

Here is how the LORD comes: “to his temple.” A temple is not the God who fills it. The verse names two things: the One who comes, and the house He comes to.

Mark 1:2-3

“As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”

Mark 1:2-3

Mark puts Malachi and Isaiah together, in one breath. So we may not take Isaiah and leave Malachi out. Mark gives us both. The LORD comes, and He comes to His temple.

Hebrews 10:20

“By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.”

Hebrews 10:20

Now Scripture tells us what the way is: “his flesh.” Not a path of stones. Not a feeling. A man’s body is the road. That is why the first believers were called people “of this way” (Acts 9:2). They were named after the person they belonged to.

So Isaiah’s “way of the LORD” is a man. It is God’s road, provided by God.

John 2:19-21

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.”

John 2:19-21

And the temple is the same body. The way is His flesh. The temple is His body. Two pictures, one man.

So Malachi is not describing two different events, a road made ready and then a temple entered. It is one coming. At the Jordan, John washed Him, as the law washed a priest before he served (Exodus 29:4). The heavens opened, and the Spirit came down and stayed on Him. The Lord suddenly came to His temple.

John 14:6

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

John 14:6

Jesus calls Himself the way, and in the same sentence He names where the way goes: to the Father. A way is known by where it leads. If the way were the place it leads to, it would not be a way at all. It would lead nowhere.

Acts 10:38

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

Acts 10:38

Here the chain closes. “Christ” means “anointed one.” Isaiah’s command, “Prepare ye the way of the LORD,” leads to this: God’s anointed, made ready.

The law gave the order: first wash, then anoint (Exodus 29:4, 7). And that is what happened. John washed Him. God anointed Him. John never anointed anyone. He prepared. God did the anointing.

And here is a question worth asking. Why would God anoint God? If Jesus came as God, then His washing by a man and His anointing by the Father mean nothing. But if He is the man God chose, they mean everything.

What this means

The way belongs to the LORD. The way is not the LORD. God filled the temple He had prepared. He did not become the temple. The road is a man’s body, washed by a man and anointed by God, and it leads to the Father.

I do not need to find my own way to God. I could not build it if I tried. God has provided the way, and it is a man, Jesus Christ. No man comes to the Father but by Him. I come by Him.

Road to Eternal Life