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"Isaiah says, `Prepare the way of the Lord: cast up, cast up the highway; gather out
the stones' (Isa. 62: 10); and not only do modern ways prove the need of such
preparation, but modern customs show how, when and why it is done. When Ibrahim
Pasha proposed to visit certain places on Lebanon, the emeers and the sheiks sent forth a
general proclamation, somewhat in the style of Isaiah's exhortation, to all the inhabitants,
to assemble along the proposed route, and prepare the way before him. The same was
done in 1846, on a grand scale when the present * sultan visited Brusa. The stones were
gathered out, crooked places straightened, and rough ones made level and smooth . . . . .
the exhortation to gather out the stones is peculiarly appropriate. These farmers do the
exact reverse--gather up the stones from their fields, and cast them into the highway:
and it is this barbarous custom which in many places renders the paths so uncomfortable
and even dangerous." (* Published in 1888.)
The two-fold use of the word "way" needs no lengthy dissertation. The "highway",
mesillah, is from the verb Salal, "To cast up", as in Isa. 57: 14 and 62: 10. The
"highway" is used figuratively in such passages as Psa. 84: 5 and Prov. 16: 17.
Among the prophetic preparations for Israel's restoration is this "highway". Isaiah says:
"There shall be an highway for the remnant of His people" (Isa. 11: 16). Jeremiah says:
"Set thine heart toward the highway" (Jer. 31: 21).
Again, the highway is to be made "straight, and the crooked made straight", and this
too has a moral significance. The Psalmist prayed: "Make Thy way straight before my
face" (Psa. 5: 8). This word, which is translated "to make straight", yashar, gives us the
adjectives "right", "just", and "upright". When Elihu would speak of sin, he used the
figure of the road, saying, "If any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right"
(Job 33: 27), where he uses the same word as is translated "crooked" in Lam. 3: 9,
"He hath made my paths crooked", and the same word as is translated "make straight" in
Isa. 40:
The reader however can sense the twofold nature of this figure: "Walk", "way",
"path", "crooked", "straight", etc., retain their twofold meaning today.
This spiritual "preparation" for the coming of the Lord, a preparation that includes
"the heart" and "the people", may be seen in Peter's exhortation, "In holy conversation
and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God" (II Pet. 3: 12).
Let us be glad and rejoice that at last all hindrances, all obstacles, all stumbling
blocks; all that prevents the coming of the King shall be removed.
"And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isa. 40: 5).