Isaiah 40:3-5 announces that a way must be prepared for the LORD, with every obstacle removed before His coming. This prophesies John the Baptizer, who prepared the way for Jesus. God proclaims that when He appears, His glory will be revealed for all humanity to see, fulfilling His spoken promise. This looks forward to Jesus.
Isaiah 40:3-5 announces a voicecalling for a highway to be cleared in the wilderness so that the glory ofthe LORD may be revealed to all flesh, the prophecy all four Gospels identify with John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus: A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God" (v 3).
Here, the voice goes unnamed. Isaiah records the office and the message and leaves the messenger anonymous, so the commission stands open across the centuries until the one who fulfills it appears. The command itself draws on royal custom: before a king traveled, work crews went ahead to clear, level, and straighten the route so the procession could pass. Here the King is the LORD, and the route runs through the wilderness.
The Hebrew word "midbar" translated here as wilderness refers to grazing lands. An example of "midbar" would be the grazing lands of the Judean hills that occupy the roughly 20 miles between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea to its east. These lands are arid, but also have pasture for livestock, largely watered by winter rain and dew from humidity derived from the Mediterranean Sea.
So this prophecy might refer to Jesus's baptism by John which marked the beginning of Jesus's public ministry. And this could be the reason why Jesus told John that having him baptize Him in the Jordan River, where people had to travel across the "midbar" from Jerusalem to reach him, was necessary "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15).
The Greek word "dikaiosyne," translated "righteousness" in Matthew 3:15, refers to something aligning with what is right. The Hebrew word translated smooth in the phrase Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (v 3) is sometimes translated as "right," as in 1 Chronicles 13:4 and2 Chronicles 30:4. Part of the fulfillment of this prophecy could be a prediction that the messiah would be anointed to begin His ministry with a baptism site reached by crossing the Judean wilderness.
The road is for the LORD and for our God. He is the one who travels it. Taking this prophecy as applying to Jesus’s baptism, this then asserts that Jesus, the Messiah, is God. This is certainly confirmed time and again in the New Testament, that Jesus is God (John 1:1, 8:58, 10:30, Titus 2:13,2 Peter 1:1,Romans 9:5).
God formed the nation in a wilderness after the exodus, and Hosea promised He would bring her into the wilderness again to restore the relationship (Hosea 2:14). The way back to God runs through the terrain where the covenant began. It seems fitting then that the messiah's redemptive ministry would begin with a trek through the wilderness to be anointed for ministry by John through baptism.
All four Gospels quote this verse and name the voice that will cry out in the wilderness: John the Baptizer (Matthew 3:3,Mark 1:2-3,Luke 3:4-6,John 1:23). The Hebrew text attaches in the wilderness to the road-clearing ("Clear the way... in the wilderness"); the ancient Greek translation attached it to the voice ("a voice crying in the wilderness"), and the Gospels follow that reading.
Both were true of John the Baptist: he stationed himself in the wilderness of Judea and called Israel to prepare by repenting of their sins. Baptism was a common practice for Jews at that time. They would baptize for purity prior to going to the temple to worship, for example. Many "mikvehs" (Jewish baptismals) have been discovered near the temple steps in Jerusalem, confirming this practice. The remains of Qumran also demonstrate the presence of numerous mikvehs.
John's baptism was for repentance, so it focused on the heart. It was an alignment with the righteousness contained in the messianic message, preparing to receive the messiah behind that message. Jesus was that messiah, and He was also God.
When the priests and Levites pressed John to identify himself, he answered with this verse: "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said" (John 1:23). John claimed the anonymous office Isaiah left unnamed.
The citation carries a weighty identification inside it. Isaiah says the way is prepared for the LORD—for God Himself. The Gospels say John prepared the way for Jesus. All four evangelists thereby apply a passage about the coming of the God of Israel to the coming of Jesus of Nazareth: the arrival Isaiah promised took place when Jesus traveled through the wilderness to the Jordan.
The Gospels also translate the roadwork into its moral meaning. John's preparation was "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). The obstacles to be cleared before the King are the crooked places in His people. The next verses speak of another type of alteration in geography that moves well beyond the mere construction of a road:
"Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (vv 4-5).
Four clauses in these verses cover every category of terrain: depressions raised (every valley be lifted up (v 4)), elevations lowered (every mountain and hill be made low (v 4)), rough ground planed smooth, ridge country (rugged terrain) laid out flat into abroad valley floor. This is landscape architecture on a scale only God can perform. The God for whom the way is prepared is the God who does the preparing, and every obstacle between Him and His people—geographic, political, moral—comes down at His approach.
We see all categories of obstacles thrown up to prevent Jesus from ever launching His earthly ministry. Herod tried to have him killed as an infant, his failed effort to eliminate a political rival. But we know from Revelation 12:4 that it was Satan who was behind this. The Holy Spirit also led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted prior to His ministry beginning, a test Jesus passed. He was eventually prevented from taking the crown of Israel through rejection by leaders and crucifixion by Rome. But in death, Jesus brought life to the world (John 6:33).
Then in the phrase Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed marks the purpose achieved. Theglory of the LORD will be revealed through the advent of the messiah. The idea behind "glory" is the essence of someone or something being observed, as in 1 Corinthians 15:41 where the moon and sun are said to differ in their glory.
The glory of the LORD is spoken of in the Old Testament as the visible manifestation of His presence, such as the cloud by day and fire by night that led Israel out of Egypt. The glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle at Sinai (Exodus 40:34-35) and filled Solomon's temple at its dedication (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Ezekiel, prophesying among the exiles, watched the glory rise from the temple and depart eastward before Babylon burned the building (Ezekiel 10:18-19, 11:22-23). Isaiah 40:5 promises the movement reversed: the glory coming back down the eastern road, revealed in the open where all flesh will see it together. In this instance, the glory of the LORD will be Jesus, who is God in flesh, who dwelt among us.
John describes this arrival: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The verb translated "dwelt" is the tabernacle word—the glory that once filled a tent took up residence in a human body.
Jesus was a different kind of manifestation of God from what Israel experienced in the Old Testament. Moses had promised Israel that God would raise up another prophet like him, human, who would speak the voice of God but in a manner that would not frighten them (Deuteronomy 18:16-18). Jesus was God in flesh, speaking directly to the people in the form of a human. Jesus was the second Moses, who was the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18:18.
Luke extends his quotation of Isaiah 40 through verse 5, adding"And all fleshwill see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6). In rendering the verse 5 phrase all flesh will see it together as "all fleshwill see the salvation of God" Luke substitutes "the salvation of God" for it, thereby answering the question "what does 'it' refer to?"
And, in fact, the very name of Jesus means "the Lord saves." Thus, the "glory of the Lord" is Jesus, and Jesus is salvation (Acts 4:12).
The scope is universal. The glory of the Lord Israel saw in the cloud at Sinai, all humanity will see in the person of Christ, who is the salvation of our God. The fulfillment of this is predicted in Matthew 24:14, which says that the gospel will be proclaimed through the whole world. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned His disciples to be the instrument through which God would work to cause that spread.
The phrase For the mouth of the LORD has spoken (v 5) seals the promise as a certain outcome. Isaiah uses the formula as the divine signature on a settled decree (Isaiah 1:20, 58:14). The certainty of the coming rests on the speech of God alone—the theme which the next voice, in Isaiah 40:6-8, explains in full.
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Isaiah 40:3-5 meaning
Isaiah 40:3-5 announces a voice calling for a highway to be cleared in the wilderness so that the glory of the LORD may be revealed to all flesh, the prophecy all four Gospels identify with John the Baptizer preparing the way for Jesus: A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God" (v 3).
Here, the voice goes unnamed. Isaiah records the office and the message and leaves the messenger anonymous, so the commission stands open across the centuries until the one who fulfills it appears. The command itself draws on royal custom: before a king traveled, work crews went ahead to clear, level, and straighten the route so the procession could pass. Here the King is the LORD, and the route runs through the wilderness.
The Hebrew word "midbar" translated here as wilderness refers to grazing lands. An example of "midbar" would be the grazing lands of the Judean hills that occupy the roughly 20 miles between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea to its east. These lands are arid, but also have pasture for livestock, largely watered by winter rain and dew from humidity derived from the Mediterranean Sea.
So this prophecy might refer to Jesus's baptism by John which marked the beginning of Jesus's public ministry. And this could be the reason why Jesus told John that having him baptize Him in the Jordan River, where people had to travel across the "midbar" from Jerusalem to reach him, was necessary "to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15).
The Greek word "dikaiosyne," translated "righteousness" in Matthew 3:15, refers to something aligning with what is right. The Hebrew word translated smooth in the phrase Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God (v 3) is sometimes translated as "right," as in 1 Chronicles 13:4 and 2 Chronicles 30:4. Part of the fulfillment of this prophecy could be a prediction that the messiah would be anointed to begin His ministry with a baptism site reached by crossing the Judean wilderness.
The road is for the LORD and for our God. He is the one who travels it. Taking this prophecy as applying to Jesus’s baptism, this then asserts that Jesus, the Messiah, is God. This is certainly confirmed time and again in the New Testament, that Jesus is God (John 1:1, 8:58, 10:30, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1, Romans 9:5).
God formed the nation in a wilderness after the exodus, and Hosea promised He would bring her into the wilderness again to restore the relationship (Hosea 2:14). The way back to God runs through the terrain where the covenant began. It seems fitting then that the messiah's redemptive ministry would begin with a trek through the wilderness to be anointed for ministry by John through baptism.
All four Gospels quote this verse and name the voice that will cry out in the wilderness: John the Baptizer (Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:2-3, Luke 3:4-6, John 1:23). The Hebrew text attaches in the wilderness to the road-clearing ("Clear the way... in the wilderness"); the ancient Greek translation attached it to the voice ("a voice crying in the wilderness"), and the Gospels follow that reading.
Both were true of John the Baptist: he stationed himself in the wilderness of Judea and called Israel to prepare by repenting of their sins. Baptism was a common practice for Jews at that time. They would baptize for purity prior to going to the temple to worship, for example. Many "mikvehs" (Jewish baptismals) have been discovered near the temple steps in Jerusalem, confirming this practice. The remains of Qumran also demonstrate the presence of numerous mikvehs.
John's baptism was for repentance, so it focused on the heart. It was an alignment with the righteousness contained in the messianic message, preparing to receive the messiah behind that message. Jesus was that messiah, and He was also God.
When the priests and Levites pressed John to identify himself, he answered with this verse: "I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as Isaiah the prophet said" (John 1:23). John claimed the anonymous office Isaiah left unnamed.
The citation carries a weighty identification inside it. Isaiah says the way is prepared for the LORD—for God Himself. The Gospels say John prepared the way for Jesus. All four evangelists thereby apply a passage about the coming of the God of Israel to the coming of Jesus of Nazareth: the arrival Isaiah promised took place when Jesus traveled through the wilderness to the Jordan.
The Gospels also translate the roadwork into its moral meaning. John's preparation was "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). The obstacles to be cleared before the King are the crooked places in His people. The next verses speak of another type of alteration in geography that moves well beyond the mere construction of a road:
"Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, And all flesh will see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (vv 4-5).
Four clauses in these verses cover every category of terrain: depressions raised (every valley be lifted up (v 4)), elevations lowered (every mountain and hill be made low (v 4)), rough ground planed smooth, ridge country (rugged terrain) laid out flat into a broad valley floor. This is landscape architecture on a scale only God can perform. The God for whom the way is prepared is the God who does the preparing, and every obstacle between Him and His people—geographic, political, moral—comes down at His approach.
We see all categories of obstacles thrown up to prevent Jesus from ever launching His earthly ministry. Herod tried to have him killed as an infant, his failed effort to eliminate a political rival. But we know from Revelation 12:4 that it was Satan who was behind this. The Holy Spirit also led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted prior to His ministry beginning, a test Jesus passed. He was eventually prevented from taking the crown of Israel through rejection by leaders and crucifixion by Rome. But in death, Jesus brought life to the world (John 6:33).
Then in the phrase Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed marks the purpose achieved. The glory of the LORD will be revealed through the advent of the messiah. The idea behind "glory" is the essence of someone or something being observed, as in 1 Corinthians 15:41 where the moon and sun are said to differ in their glory.
The glory of the LORD is spoken of in the Old Testament as the visible manifestation of His presence, such as the cloud by day and fire by night that led Israel out of Egypt. The glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle at Sinai (Exodus 40:34-35) and filled Solomon's temple at its dedication (1 Kings 8:10-11).
Ezekiel, prophesying among the exiles, watched the glory rise from the temple and depart eastward before Babylon burned the building (Ezekiel 10:18-19, 11:22-23). Isaiah 40:5 promises the movement reversed: the glory coming back down the eastern road, revealed in the open where all flesh will see it together. In this instance, the glory of the LORD will be Jesus, who is God in flesh, who dwelt among us.
John describes this arrival: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The verb translated "dwelt" is the tabernacle word—the glory that once filled a tent took up residence in a human body.
Jesus was a different kind of manifestation of God from what Israel experienced in the Old Testament. Moses had promised Israel that God would raise up another prophet like him, human, who would speak the voice of God but in a manner that would not frighten them (Deuteronomy 18:16-18). Jesus was God in flesh, speaking directly to the people in the form of a human. Jesus was the second Moses, who was the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 18:18.
Luke extends his quotation of Isaiah 40 through verse 5, adding "And all flesh will see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6). In rendering the verse 5 phrase all flesh will see it together as "all flesh will see the salvation of God" Luke substitutes "the salvation of God" for it, thereby answering the question "what does 'it' refer to?"
And, in fact, the very name of Jesus means "the Lord saves." Thus, the "glory of the Lord" is Jesus, and Jesus is salvation (Acts 4:12).
The scope is universal. The glory of the Lord Israel saw in the cloud at Sinai, all humanity will see in the person of Christ, who is the salvation of our God. The fulfillment of this is predicted in Matthew 24:14, which says that the gospel will be proclaimed through the whole world. In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commissioned His disciples to be the instrument through which God would work to cause that spread.
The phrase For the mouth of the LORD has spoken (v 5) seals the promise as a certain outcome. Isaiah uses the formula as the divine signature on a settled decree (Isaiah 1:20, 58:14). The certainty of the coming rests on the speech of God alone—the theme which the next voice, in Isaiah 40:6-8, explains in full.