Read Matt. 3:1-3; Isaiah 40:1-3, The Voice in the Desert

It should be easy to see the connection between the ministry of John the Baptist and the voice referred to in Isa. 40.  This was exactly the ministry of John, even according to his own claim.  He came to prepare the people to receive their Messiah.

Was it appropriate for John to claim this of himself?  Looking at Isaiah 40, the context for this passage is set at the beginning of the chapter.  God speaks “comfort” to His people.  They have received double for their sins; now is time for comfort.  The voice in the wilderness is calling the people to prepare the way of the Lord so this comfort can come.

There is a question that has been raised about this.  Dennis Prager is a conservative writer and speaker.  He is full of common sense and I appreciate a lot of what he says.  Prager is Jewish.  In his book, Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, one of the questions is, why do Jews not accept Jesus as the Messiah.  His answer is, basically, that Jesus did not fulfill any messianic prophecies.  The Messiah was to bring universal peace, and after nineteen hundred years it hasn’t happened. (JFJ, p1)

Relating this to Isa. 40:3, we could ask: where’s the comfort for Israel?  If John the Baptist was the desert voice, and he was preparing the way for Jesus and comfort for Israel, Israel did not and has not experienced that comfort yet.  This is the way the rabbi’s understood the passage.  According to both the Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Ezra son of Avraham), and Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo son of Itzhak), two very prominent 11th century Jewish commentators, the [divine] voice is proclaiming that the return to Jerusalem is imminent and that the road should be cleared and prepared.

If you have studied the Bible that includes the New Testament (although we believe the OT actually agrees with this) you likely understand the Christian answer.  The comfort and universal peace is still going to come.  But for now, because Israel rejected their Messiah, they live in blindness; but the day of salvation will come.

Blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins. (Rom. 11:26-27)

When we say the OT agrees, we are basing this on the fact that Paul quoted from Isaiah 59:20-21.  There is no disagreement.  However, neither the OT nor John the Baptist understood fully how this would happen.  When things were falling apart (John was in prison and Jesus was experiencing growing opposition) John sent to ask Jesus if He truly was the One (Matt. 11:3).  Like the other prophets before Christ, John did not understand how the prophecies of Messiah’s suffering and glory would be played out in history (1 Peter 1:10-12).  The time of glory will come, when Israel will be truly comforted.  The delay does not mean failure by the Messiah nor His prophet of preparation, John.  God is faithful.  The day will come!