Quotes & Notes on:    Matthew 3:3 John Wesley's Notes: The way of the Lord-Of Christ. Make his paths straight-By removing every thing which might prove a hinderance to his gracious appearance. Isa 40:3.   Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: * by. Isa 40:3; Mr 1:3; Lu 3:3-6; Joh 1:23 * Prepare. Isa 57:14,15; Mal 3:1; Lu 1:17,76   Adam Clarke's Commentary:   A voice of a crier in the wilderness. This is quoted from Isa 40:3, which clearly proves that John the Baptist was the person of whom the prophet spoke. The idea is taken from the practice of eastern monarchs, who, whenever they entered upon an expedition, or took a journey through a desert country, sent harbingers before them, to prepare all things for their passage; and pioneers to open the passes, to level the ways, and to remove all impediments. The officers appointed to superintend such preparations were called by the Latins, stratores. Diodorus's account of the march of Semiramis into Media and Persia, will give us a clear notion of the preparation of the way for a royal expedition. "In her march to Ecbatane, she came to the Zarcean mountain, which, extending many furlongs, and being full of craggy precipices and deep hollows, could not be passed without making a great compass about. Being therefore desirous of leaving an everlasting memorial of herself, as well as shortening the way, she ordered the precipices to be digged down, and the hollows to be filled up; and, at a great expense, she made a shorter and more expeditious road, which, to this day, is called from her, The road of Semiramis. Afterwards she went into Persia, and all the other countries of Asia, subject to her dominion; and, wherever she went, she ordered the mountains and precipices to be levelled, raised causeways in the plain country, and, at a great expense, made the ways passable." Diod. Sic. lib. ii. and Bp. Lowth. The Jewish Church was that desert country, to which John was sent, to announce the coming of the Messiah. It was destitute at that time of all religious cultivation, and of the spirit and practice of piety; and John was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, by preaching the doctrine of repentance. The desert is therefore to be considered as affording a proper emblem of the rude state of the Jewish Church, which is the true wilderness meant by the prophet, and in which John was to prepare the way of the promised Messiah. The awful importance of the matter, and the vehemence of the manner of the Baptist's preaching, probably acquired him the character of the crier, bown.   Family Bible Notes:  Of the Lord; in the original it is, "Prepare ye the way of Jehovah." Isa 40:3. Christ was coming: "Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." Whenever the word Lord in the Old Testament is printed in capitals in our common English Bible, it is Jehovah in the original Hebrew; and the application by the Holy Spirit of what is said of Jehovah in the Old Testament to Jesus Christ in the New, is evidence that he is God. Mal 3:1; Joh 1:1   1599 Geneva Bible Notes: For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, (e) make his paths straight. (e) Make him a plain and smooth way.   People's New Testament Commentary:   The voice of one crying in the wilderness. John was called a "voice," (1) because the whole man was a sermon; (2) because he would call no attention to himself as a person, but only to the Savior, whose way he had come to prepare. For the prophecy see Isa 40:3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The messengers sent before the eastern kings prepared the way for the chariots and armies of their monarchs. A "king's highway" had to be carried through the open land of the wilderness, valleys filled up, and hills leveled. Interpreted in its spiritual application, the wilderness was the world lying in evil. Make his paths straight. Roads that have not been properly directed at the beginning. So are the ways of men when no preparation has been made for the GREAT KING. When John cried, Make his paths straight, he meant, Stop your crooked ways.   Robertson's Word Pictures:    (No comment on this verse)   Albert Barnes' Commentary:   The prophet Esaias. The prophet Isaiah. Esias is the Greek mode of writing the name. This passage is taken from Isa 40:3. It is here said to have been spoken in reference to John, the forerunner of Christ. The language is such as was familiar to the Jews, and such as they would understand. It was spoken at first with reference to the return from the captivity at Babylon. Anciently, it was customary in the march of armies to send messengers, or pioneers, before them, to proclaim their approach; to provide for them; to remove obstructions; to make roads, level hills, fill up valleys, etc. Isaiah, describing the return from Babylon, uses language taken from that custom. A crier, or herald is introduced. In the vast deserts that lay between Babylon and Judea, he is represented as lifting up his voice, and, with authority, commanding a public road to be made for the return of the captive Jews, with the Lord as their deliverer. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight," says he; or, as Isaiah adds, Let the valleys be exalted, or filled up, and the hills be levelled, and a straight, level highway be prepared, that they may march with ease and safety. See Barnes for Isa 40:3. As applied to John, it means, that he was sent to remove obstructions, and to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah; like a herald going before an army on the march, to make preparations for their coming. {m} "by the prophet Esais" Isa 40:3   Jamieson-Faussett Brown:  This prediction is quoted in all the four Gospels, showing that it was regarded as a great outstanding one, and the predicted forerunner as the connecting link between the old and the new economies. Like the great ones of the earth, the Prince of peace was to have His immediate approach proclaimed and His way prepared; and the call here--taking it generally--is a call to put out of the way whatever would obstruct His progress and hinder His complete triumph, whether those hindrances were public or personal, outward or inward. In Luke (Lu 3:5,6) the quotation is thus continued: "Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Levelling and smoothing are here the obvious figures whose sense is conveyed in the first words of the proclamation--"Prepare ye the way of the Lord." The idea is that every obstruction shall be so removed as to reveal to the whole world the salvation of God in Him whose name is the "Saviour." (Compare Ps 98:3; Isa 11:10; 49:6; 52:10; Lu 2:31,32; Ac 13:47).   Spurgeon Commentary: Matthew keeps to his custom of quoting from the Old Testament. The prophets not only described the King, but his forerunner also. They mention the character of this harbinger: he was a “voice”; (Jesus is “the Word”); his tone, “crying”; his place, “in the wilderness”; and his message, which was one of announcement, in which he required preparation for the coming king: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” Men’s hearts were like a wilderness, wherein there is no way; but as loyal subjects throw up roads for the approach of beloved princes, so were men to welcome the Lord, with their hearts made right and ready to receive him. O Lord, I would welcome thee if thou wouldst come to me. I have greet need of thy royal presence, and therefore I would prepare a way for thee.  Into my heart my desires have made for thee a path most short and smooth.  Come, Lord, and tarry not! Come into my wilderness nature and transform it into a garden of the Lord.   William Burkitt's Notes: (Comment on this verse unrelated to text)   Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary: (No comment on this verse)   The Fourfold Gospel: (No comment on this verse)

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