Isaiah 40:4, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures the leveling of a road for a coming king, with hollows filled, heights brought low, bends straightened and rough ground smoothed. John the Baptist fulfilled it at Christ's first coming by calling people to face their sins, repent, confess and clear away false teaching so they could recognize the Messiah already among them. The same preparatory work is to be repeated before Christ's second coming to make ready a people for Him. Inwardly this means pride, self-exaltation and superiority are brought low while humility and self-sacrificing love are lifted up, with wrong practices put away and rough traits of character softened and changed. It is a word of comfort and promise that God Himself will clear every obstacle, reveal His glory and uplift fallen humanity when the way is prepared by repentance, obedience and the plain proclamation of truth.

Imagery and Historical Setting

The verse pictures the preparation of a level road for a king, with obstacles removed, hollows filled, steep places leveled, and the way made straight and clear. Its four actions are that every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill brought low, the crooked made straight, and the rough ground made smooth and plain. Together they picture the right position to take before God in order to receive His blessing.

John the Baptist applied this road-making to Christ's first coming, calling people to remember sins, repent, confess sin, and put away the darkness of false teaching so they could recognize and value Christ's work and message. His ministry announced that the long-promised Messiah was already standing among the people, though they did not know Him. He understood the raising of valleys and lowering of mountains and hills as the humbling of human pride and power before the Messiah. He expected that humbling to come through Christ's exercise of kingly authority and judgment, but Christ's kingdom did not unfold as John expected.

The verse belongs to a prophetic parable of work to be done before Christ's first advent and again before His second coming. That later work repeats history, repeating the preparation once made for the first appearing in preparing a people for the second appearing, leading to the revealing of the Lord's glory to all flesh. It also belongs to the promise of Israel's future complete restoration in Christ, whose coming would be heralded by a messenger preparing the Lord's way. That restoration was meant to turn the nation from unrighteousness and make it a witness to the excellence of God's government, where obedience would exalt it and disobedience would bring it down.

Grand scenes of nature with high rocks and hills, deep precipices, valleys, and striking views illustrate the greatness and majesty of God declared in the verse. They humble human self-importance, overwhelm the mind with solemn thoughts of His greatness, and move the heart to marvel at His works and praise Him. The making of crooked places straight also describes figuratively bringing order out of confusion and clarity to what is dark or obscure. God Himself makes the way level and straight by entrusting people with talents and inventive genius and causing means of rapid travel to be invented for the great day of His preparation. He works even through those who refuse Christ to fulfill His will in certain lines, and though misuse of God-given powers for lust and ambition mingles strange fire with the sacred and brings confusion, His hand is beneath the wheels of earth and heaven to bring perfect order from confusion.

Inward Spiritual Transformation

The verse uses the preparing of a road for a king to describe the gospel's work in the heart, part of the work announced by John. When God's Spirit awakens the soul, human pride and everything exalting itself against the knowledge of God are brought low, while humility and self-sacrificing love are raised up as truly valuable.

Every valley filled and every mountain and hill brought low means the purging of heart and mind and soul, with the mountains and hills of self-esteem and pride brought low. The valleys, mountains, crooked paths, and rough places represent disobedience, self-exaltation, sense of superiority, and national pride, which must be recognized and set aside through repentance and humility before God. Natural advantages cannot replace purity and obedience to God's commandments. This inward reformation prepares the way of the Lord as given in John's message and needed by every believer today, bringing forth fruits meet for repentance in daily life, and when done in the experience of God's believing people all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

The crooked made straight and the rough made smooth means wrong practices put away and crooked paths made straight and rough places made smooth. In preparation for Christ's second advent this means correcting what is wrong and allowing God to soften and change rough traits of character. When self is surrendered and Christ rules the heart, crooked paths are made straight, the King's highway becomes clear, the soul's moral atmosphere is cleared, and power is received. The love of God in the heart levels rough places and works changes in character that glorify God.

Clearing the way means putting away sin, cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh, keeping the commandments, accepting discipline, hating sin but loving the sinner, and calling sin by its right name instead of tampering with it until it seems less sinful. A crooked life is made straight in God through the strength of the crucified Redeemer. Those striving to be Christlike can in that strength reveal Christ's character and work wisely and powerfully to straighten what is crooked and help souls through difficulty toward victory.

Promise and Prophetic Fulfillment

The verse is a declaration from the Lord giving the true lesson of higher education, written to comfort true believers, holding promise and assurance and encouragement that His word will certainly be fulfilled. It is a word of promise confirming the sure mercies and grace and glory of God, given to forbid discouragement and to call for faith in God and speaking words of truth, that precious victories may be gained and the message be one of faith and hope and assurance and courage. The leveling and straightening prepares for the revealing of the glory of the Lord to all flesh as spoken by the mouth of the Lord, and for all flesh to see the salvation of God. That revelation comes when God's messengers remove obstacles and make crooked paths straight and rough places level, in a work that repeats the preparation once made for Christ's first appearing in order to prepare a people for His second appearing. It is seen when the inward reformation is done in the experience of believing people, with valleys filled and mountains and hills of self-esteem and pride brought low and wrong practices put away and crooked paths made straight and rough ways made smooth, bringing forth fruits of repentance in daily life. In the last-days work it calls those who know the truth to proclaim repentance and let the true light shine despite opposition.

The great object of divine compassion shown in the verse is the uplifting of fallen humanity, with obstacles removed and the path made level. For this work messengers from the throne of God are sent to earth to minister to weak and helpless heirs of salvation and to encamp around them, not to consume or rule. It was written to comfort believers amid afflicting judgments coming upon the world near the close of earth's history, when earthquakes and storms on land and sea and heavy calamities by sea and railroad visit the world because Lucifer has perverted higher education and wars against God and all who exalt Him by causing calamities and deceiving many away. While many who have greatly sinned perish physically under these judgments upon the rebellious, sincere humble righteous followers of Christ also feel and are afflicted by their results, yet if they fulfill God's word in these latter days He will surely do all He has promised, so Lucifer's deceptions should not discourage them.

God makes rough places plain and the way smooth when people heed His warnings and set their hearts in order, dealing with His people through both trials and blessings from His hand. Obstacles have been removed and crooked places made straight and rough places smooth, and God has provided for every human need and difficulty and Himself prepares the way before workers. Therefore those who cherish unbelief and resist the Holy Spirit are responsible and will have no excuse at the judgment. The chapter calls for a reformatory work to be carried forward in deeply spiritual lines where a mixed company does not understand its nature and all hearts are not prepared to receive God's messages, requiring men of clear understanding worked by the Holy Spirit to lead out in thorough reformation with no haphazard work done. It must be studied in connection with Isaiah 42 and with 2 Peter, and the truths presented in those chapters need to be considered. It belongs to Isaiah's presentation of Christ's work and the instruction about God's truth and the divine teaching that leads people to Him, warning that men must not trust in men or make flesh their arm but the Lord alone is to be their trust, that He will not be trifled with, and calling upon His people to make diligent earnest work for repentance, when strength will be given to His own people.

It is part of daily counsel from God to be read and prayed over to put away unbelief, giving light from the Word to be appreciated, reproving commercialism woven into religious experience, and calling for the refining influence of the Holy Spirit.

Public Proclamation of Truth

Every obstacle to the redemption of God's people is removed by opening God's Word and presenting a plain Thus saith the Lord with its plain commands. Valleys lifted up are difficulties raised, mountains and hills brought low are hills of difficulty leveled, and crooked places made straight and rough places made plain picture the clearing away of all hindrances. When the way is thus prepared the true light shines forth amid spiritual darkness and error, and the truth of the living God appears in contrast with error so that the glory of the Lord is revealed for all to see.

The verse gives the work for these last days, the same work given to John the Baptist. All who are truly engaged in the Lord's work bear it as a decided message: repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and prepare the way for a revival of God's work. In days when satanic agencies seem to be triumphing the call to prepare the way must be lifted in no uncertain tones. Those who know the truth must be wide awake so the enemy gains no advantage to deceive the elect, letting their light shine both to those in the house and to those outside, and though difficulties and opposing elements will always be found, believers are to let the true light shine forth with power until the Lord's glory can be revealed to all people.

The way is prepared by proclaiming Christ's righteousness throughout the world, while magnifying God's law and calling people to decide for or against the truth. This worldwide message is the closing work of the third angel and must be proclaimed before probation closes and judgment comes. The present time is the time to work to make a highway in the desert for God by waiting and watching and praying. That work is proclaiming the warning message to all peoples and kindreds and tongues and nations, each person standing in his lot and place as a consecrated channel through whom God prepares people to stand in the last great day, wide awake and vigilant with the oil of grace in vessels with lamps.

That preparatory clearing of valleys exalted, mountains and hills lowered, crooked made straight and rough made plain is the pattern for the great missionary work to be accomplished in the last days by the churches that claim to believe the truth for this time. It belongs especially to those who carry responsibilities in school and sanitarium enterprises for the education and training of youth for the work of God, requiring those who hold positions of trust to constantly seek the Lord. Preparing that way calls for earnest, wholehearted, unselfish work and a warning message. The preparing work belongs to ministers and doctors and others in responsible positions as teachers, and is to be done in earnest to enlighten blind minds and open the understanding, leading men to see that they are standing in their own way and hedging it up with all sorts of rubbish that should be made clear.

Fulfilling it includes pressing into the regions beyond where people are in spiritual darkness, with moving the work forward from Battle Creek to Washington as a step in the right direction. The true light is to shine forth where darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people, proclaiming the glad tidings that the Saviour gave His life so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Obstacles to the advancement of God's work will appear, but nothing can stand in God's way, for in His absolute power, gentleness, goodness, love and unalterable covenant He has means for removing every difficulty and overthrowing the strongest plans of enemies in His own time and way when faith has been tested and His people draw near to Him.

Now is the time for ministers to clear the King's highway by becoming humble and converted and removing pride, selfishness, criticism, envy, and division toward fellow ministers. Clearing the way requires showing respect to fellow laborers and conference leaders, receiving ministers who come where meetings are in progress, inviting them into the stand and uniting with them in labor instead of laboring alone and ignoring them, because what is done to fellow workers in the person of His saints is done to Jesus Himself, and churches built by proud, unconverted, divisive labor become unmanageable and the truth means nothing to those who hear it. It requires accepting the testimony given from the very commencement and giving it weight, instead of rejecting it or turning to personal feelings, ideas, and impulses, no longer denying the message, hedging up the way against it, tampering with it, or standing to oppose it to the end, but working together with God to carry it forward. God, who discerns thoughts and hears every word from human lips, straightens what is crooked by disconnecting certain hindering elements from His work, and to keep the way blocked is to let the grace of God come to the people in vain and to trifle with the Spirit of God, so those who interpose themselves between the light and the people must get out of the way.

Personal Preparation for God

Clearing the King's highway is wrought when the Holy Spirit impresses the heart, bringing brokenness, a realization of one's true condition, humiliation of heart, and confession of sin to remove difficulties and obstacles, and where that humbling and confessing is refused the highway stays blocked. Making crooked courses straight means confessing past wrongs and falsehoods and setting them right as far as possible, and confessing the sin that called for reproof and turning back to the truth, which brings blessing, for until this is done conscience cannot be clear nor advance be made in the divine life. Crooked ways are made straight when those who have opposed the divine will turn from wrongdoing with humility and changed character so they no longer obstruct the work, and when personal sins are put right and cleared away through confession, reconciliation, and grace so others do not stumble and righteousness and salvation can be seen. That same straightening corrects unfair, secretive dealings between brethren, requiring acknowledgment of wrong and dealing with one another with openness, frankness, fairness, and by the golden rule.

Straightening crookedness also applies to unjust dealings and perverted principles that must be corrected, including the misappropriation of funds intended to help the Southern work. Confession of sin with a changed attitude removes stumbling blocks from the King's way so obstacles are taken away, the Lord may enter, His glory be revealed, and His salvation be seen. The King's highway is cleared so He can come to the heart and sanctify it through each person's own efforts to make the way clear by removing the crooked and rough ways that obstruct His coming. Receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit and giving living, earnest testimonies depend on this preparation of removing obstacles and making the path level. As soon as entire surrender is made, heavenly intelligences work upon that person and make him a living channel of light.

Every valley exalted and every mountain made low means putting away sin, cleansing from all filthiness of the flesh, keeping the commandments, accepting discipline, hating sin but loving the sinner, and calling sin by its right name instead of tampering with it until it seems less sinful. Sin in the midst bars the way so God cannot do what He would for His people, just as unbelief kept Christ from doing many mighty works, for God waits for His people to clear the way so He can work for them. John did this preparing work before Christ by calling people to repentance so Christ's words would find lodgment in the heart, and the same clearing must be made now. When the highway is cleared, God's willingness to work is revealed and salvation is seen. Clearing the King's highway means having a revival of faith and setting an example of doing one's best to do one's part, then placing everything in God's hands in belief in His promises and asking Him to give evidence of His working, with assurance that He will hear and answer.

That clearing requires putting every cherished sin out of the way and being converted, and if the way is cleared God will help His people. It gets them ready for the judgment on the borders of the eternal world and fits them to go forth to their fields of labor to strengthen the things that are ready to die instead of becoming powers of darkness. The rough place made smooth pictures the way brightened through faithful work in the home, where the Sun of Righteousness shines on parents' efforts to teach their children upright principles and obedience. God Himself makes the rough places smooth and prepares the way before workers in foreign countries when they humble themselves before Him, pray together, lay plans with His infinite wisdom, and labor in perfect unity with unselfish interest and brotherly love instead of working at variance. Then He directs them in the right way to work and angels are with them, so apparent difficulties threatening to obstruct the pathway do not intimidate or stop them, because this foreign mission work can never be done by mortals unaided by divine wisdom.