Your First Priority

Dannah Gresh: What is your biggest priority today? Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There are many voices crying out in our day, and they’re telling us what they think is the need of the hour. There are politicians. There are activists. There are businessmen. There are educators. There are economists. And they’re saying, “This is what we need. This is what we need. And this is what we need.” Some of them have good messages, important messages. But the prophet cried out, and he said, “The number one priority we must give our attention to is to prepare the way of the Lord.”

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, coauthor of Seeking Him, for Monday, January 27, 2025. I'm Dannah Gresh.

Okay, I have a geography quiz for you. Name the highest mountain on the continent of Africa. (clock ticking)

The answer is Kilimanjaro, at 19,341 feet above sea level.

Second question: What's the deepest valley in Africa? (clock ticking)

The answer is, The Great Rift Valley. Lake Assal is in that valley, 508 feet below sea level.

Third question: Today is your heart more like Mount Kilimanjaro? Or is it more like Lake Assal? Nancy’s about to help you answer that question as she teaches through Isaiah chapter 40. It includes a verse that says, "Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill will be made low." Let's find out how this pertains to us, as we listen to this message Nancy gave at a Revive Our Hearts conference in South Africa a few years ago.  

Nancy: Charles Haddon Spurgeon was the great British preacher of the 1800s, and he said,

In every land, Jehovah’s goodness is seen. Therefore, in every land, He should be praised. Never will the world be in its proper condition till with one unanimous shout, it adores the only God.

Can you imagine that day? What a day that will be!

Now, when I got here to South Africa, and what a beautiful country you have and what a beautiful people are here. We’ve had people from other nations joining us as well. But I looked online to see what some of the headlines are in South Africa these days, and I found that there are many that are very similar to the headlines in the United States.

There are economic problems. There is poverty. There is high unemployment. There are racial tensions. There is corruption in business, in government. There is violent crime—murder, rapes, gangs. These are some of the things I read about in the South African headlines, and you would read the same things in the headlines in the United States and in many, if not most, nations of the world.

And many people today in our world have a sense of helplessness and frustration and anger and fear. People are looking for answers. They’re looking for hope. And this is a time for the people of God to look up and to cry out to the Lord for His grace.

I was so thankful to read on your church website about the “Tipping Point Prayer Initiative” that you launched last year as you’re believing God for a country-wide prayer movement. I think that’s heading in the right direction. It’s looking in the right direction.

Now, I want to encourage us this morning to open our Bibles to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 40. As you’re turning there or scrolling there on your phone, I want to just remind us that the book of Isaiah has sixty-six chapters. It’s divided into two sections—chapters 1–39 are the first section, chapters 40–66 are the second section.

This mirrors the two sections of the Bible. The whole Bible has sixty-six books. The Old Testament has thirty-nine books, and the New Testament has twenty-seven books. So the book of Isaiah gives us a picture of the overview of the Bible.

Now the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah have a theme of judgment and warning. You read verses like this in chapter 2. We won’t turn there, but it says, “The lofty looks of man shall be brought low and the lofty pride of man shall be humbled.” Throughout those first thirty-nine chapters, God confronts His people with their sin—idolatry, immorality, injustice.

And it’s not just the people of God that are confronted. There are prophecies throughout those early chapters of the coming judgment of God on the nations that have forsaken God. To name a few: Babylon, Assyria, Moab, and others.

For example, in chapter 24—and I’m just introducing us, setting up the context to chapter 40—there’s a prophecy of judgment on the whole earth. It says,

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate. The earth lies defiled underneath its inhabitants for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt. All joy has grown dark. The gladness of the earth is banished.

Does that sound like our world today?

So in the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah, you have this theme of condemnation. But in chapter 40, verse 1, and for the rest of the book, the tone changes dramatically. There’s a new theme now, not of condemnation, but now of consolation and comfort. That word "comfort" is used thirteen times in chapters 40 through the end of the book. And the rest of the book of Isaiah talks about blessing and grace and hope and the glory of God.

The turning point in Isaiah, and in all of the Scripture, the turning point between the old covenant and the new covenant is brought about through the coming of the promised Messiah—His name is Jesus.

Now, we’re going to look at just the first five verses of Isaiah chapter 40, and this is a Word of God to people who are looking for answers and hope in a bleak, barren time. The context immediately there, if you were to look at the end of chapter 39, just before chapter 40, there’s a prophecy about the coming Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. The people of God are going to be sent into exile in Babylon. So they are facing dire, desperate circumstances.

Then we come to chapter 40, verse 1, and God says, “Comfort.” There’s been no sense of comfort at all in the first thirty-nine chapters. And now God says, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

Listen, there’s a time for instruction. There’s a time for warning. But there’s also a time to speak words of comfort and consolation and encouragement. And the prophet Isaiah is given a message of comfort, or reassurance, for God’s people: “Comfort my people.”

People in our world today, people in the church today, are looking for comfort. Aren’t they? Maybe you need a word of comfort today.

I listened all weekend long to women from many countries of the world, including South Africa, tell me their stories about hard things they are going through in their lives. They were longing for comfort.

The Scripture says Yahweh is the God of all comfort. If you want comfort, you must turn to Him. And God has a word of comfort for your heart, for this church, for His people, and for our world today. Comfort, comfort my people.

Verse 2: “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her.”

That phrase, “speak tenderly,” it literally means speak to the heart—speak to the heart. It’s the kind of term that would be used for a young man who is wooing the girl that he wants to marry. Speak tenderly to her.

God’s people in this situation have spurned Him. They have rejected His law. They have turned to idols. But God still loves them. He still has a plan for them. He still calls them His people. He still reaches out to them. And He says, “Here’s what you are to say tenderly to My people.”

“Tell My people,” verse 2, “that her warfare is ended.”

That word “warfare” could be translated “hardship or severe trials.” Remember, they’d just had that prophecy that the Babylonians were going to come and take over their nation, and God says, “Tell My people that their hardship, their hard trials are over, that her iniquity is pardoned.” That word means “atoned for.” Her sins have been atoned for.

“Tell My people that they have received from the Lord’s hand double for all their sins” (see v. 2).

What does that mean? That full, sufficient payment has been made for all the sins of My people. And so we see here a compassionate God who chastens His covenant people—yes, He does—but He never, ever forsakes them. He speaks tenderly to them. He brings them a message of the hope. And He tells them that their time of trial is coming to an end.

Now, note: He does not offer this comfort to people who intend to stay in their sins, but to those who are willing to repent and who want to be restored to a right relationship with Him.

Judah is to be sent into captivity in Babylon because of her sin. That is yet to come. The prophecy was the previous chapter. “Babylon will come. You will be sent into exile.” But God looks ahead, past those seventy years of captivity. Before they even start, He says to His people, “The day will come when your captivity will end.”

God has already made provision before the judgment comes. He has made provision for the sin of His people to be forgiven, for the hardships that have been caused by her sin to end.

Our warfare, our labor, our hard, heavy service is ended. Our iniquity is pardoned. Not because God lets us off the hook and just winks at sin and says, “Oh, that’s okay.” It would not be righteous of God to do that. But our sin is atoned for. Our hard labor is ended through the atoning work of Christ because He has borne the wrath of God that we deserved for our sins.

And that brings peace and comfort to our hearts today. Right? And hope, as we anticipate the final consummation of that redeeming work when all trials will be ended, and we will be freed from the very presence of sin.

But there’s something that we have to do between now and then. Look at verse 3: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”

The eastern monarchs and the nations they ruled over had a custom. When the monarch, the king, was coming to visit his people, he would send a forerunner in advance to announce, “The king is coming. He’s coming to visit his people.” And this messenger would prepare the way for the king’s entourage. We might say they would roll out the red carpet for the king.

But the problem was that in those days public roads were unknown, nonexistent in many areas, or those roads might be overgrown with brush and trees and boulders. There was no way the king’s entourage could get to those villages, those far-off places.

So he would send this group out, not only to announce that he was coming, but to say, “Send a group out to clear away the obstacles. Make a road for the king to ride on.”

And where was this highway to be built? In the wilderness, in the desert. This speaks of a dry and barren place, an unlikely place for the king to visit but a desperately needy place.

Maybe your family is in a desert place. Some of you told me stories of that this weekend. Maybe you are in a desert place. Maybe your church is in a desert place. For sure our cities and our nations are in a desert place.

And God’s people are urged to prepare the way for the coming of Messiah by building a highway in the wilderness of their hearts.

Now, in the New Testament, all four of the gospels apply this passage to the ministry of John the Baptist. Right? The forerunner of Jesus, the Messiah King.

For example, in Matthew chapter 3, we read,

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, [the wilderness, and what did he preach?] “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [The King is coming.] For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, [chapter 40] “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”

John the Baptist came with a message of repentance. In preparation for King Jesus coming to this earth, God’s people were to remove every obstacle and to prepare a road, a highway for His arrival.

There are many voices crying out in our day, and they’re telling us what they think is the need of the hour. There are politicians. There are activists. There are businessmen. There are educators. There are economists. And they’re saying, “This is what we need. This is what we need. And this is what we need.” And some of them have good messages, important messages. But the prophet cried out, and he said, “The number one priority we must give our attention to is to prepare the way of the Lord, to build a highway for our God.”

Isaiah said it. John the Baptist says it. And it says it to our heart today. We need the Lord, and we must prepare the way for Him to come to us in revival.

So how is the way for the Lord to be prepared? Well, verse 4 tells us what’s required to build this highway. It says, “Every valley shall be lifted up,and every mountain and hill will be made low;

the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

This is a picture of the preparation that must be made in the hearts of us as God’s people for King Jesus to be able to come and visit us. There are obstacles that need to be removed if we want to experience His presence in our churches, in our homes, in our land, and in our world. We must build what Isaiah 35 calls “a highway of holiness.” There are changes that have to take place. There are issues that must be dealt with.

 

For example, it says first, “Every valley must be lifted up.” There are low places, shallow areas that need to be built up and filled in so the king’s army doesn’t trip in those low places.

This could refer, for example, to spiritual complacency, spiritual laziness, drifting spiritually, frittering our lives away with trivial matters rather than being intentional about seeking the Lord. Perhaps the lack of spiritual disciplines, these are low places that need to be filled in—Bible reading, meditation, prayer. Maybe there are valleys of discouragement and doubt because our eyes are on ourselves rather than on our God.

“Every mountain and hill must be made low.” There are barriers. There are roadblocks. There are hindrances to revival, and some of these may seem like mountains. They may seem large and immovable. They have been there for as long as we can remember. They need to come down.

What are the hindrances to revival? The things that can stand between us and the presence of God, the things that can stand between us and other believers so together we can experience His presence. It may be:

• broken relationships
• mountains of bitterness
• mountains of unforgiveness
• mountains of idolatry
• money
• power
• sex
• mountains of addictive habits and sinful bondages

These things that seem so big, so powerful, so overwhelming. These mountains must come down.

It may be mountains of racial prejudice. They must come down so that King Jesus can come and visit us.

And isn’t the biggest mountain of all an exalted view of ourselves, the mountain of pride? “Every mountain and hill must be brought low.”

Any mountains or hills in your life that need to be brought low?

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10 we cast down “every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (v. 5 NKJV).

And then he says, thirdly, “The uneven ground must become level.” You can’t walk easily on uneven ground. It has things jutting up out of it.

This may speak of ways that are deceitful or fraudulent or crooked, ways of thinking that don’t line up with God’s Word, ways of thinking in our culture about sexuality about marriage.

That uneven ground may be injustice, unjust systems, oppressions of the poor and the needy. Maybe it’s hypocrisy. Maybe it’s dishonesty about our true spiritual condition. We’re crooked. We’re pretending like we’re one thing, but the reality is that we’re living a very different life.

It may be mixed-up priorities. We claim to belong to God’s kingdom, but we love this world and our stuff and our work and our pleasure and our sports more than we love God.

Is it any wonder that the world is not motivated to love and follow Jesus when they see so few Christians who really delight in Christ? These are uneven ways, uneven ground that must become level.

And then he says, number four, “that the rough (or the rugged) places will become a plain.”

These could be rocks or boulders or shrubs, things that can trip you up. They’re not high mountains, but they’re nevertheless dangerous. They may be little things that we’ve allowed into our lives that will keep the presence of Christ from being manifest in our lives and in our churches.

Maybe there are rough relationships that need to be smoothed out. We saw God doing that in women’s hearts throughout this weekend.

There may be a lack of love, disregarding the needs of those who are different than us, treating others from maybe a different socio-economic background, treating others with contempt.

Those rugged places may be distractions, things that we give attention to in our lives that just distract us from time to hear the Lord and to respond to Him.

What happens when all these things are taken care of, when the highway has been prepared in the wilderness, making a way for our God?

Dannah: Hmm . . . Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth has just given us a lot to think about. Is there some next step you need to take to help prepare a highway for our God?

It might be getting rid of distractions that keep you from time with the Lord. It could be reaching out to someone if a relationship is broken. You might need to set some new priorities. Maybe it’s starting by admitting your pride or confessing laziness or lack of discipline.

Would you take the next step? To read a transcript of today’s program or hear it again, visit the Revive Our Hearts app or ReviveOurHearts.com.

Okay, you know you’re supposed to pray. But do you really know how? Do you ever feel like your prayers aren’t going anywhere?

You can learn to pray more effectively by joining our team for a live video broadcast. The live event is called Developing a Vibrant Prayer Life. It’s the last installment in our series Biblical Help for Real Life. The host is our friend Erin Davis. And you’ll also hear teaching and discussion from Lori Hatcher, Karen Ellis, and Kathy Branzell. They will help you learn how to connect with God and grow in your prayer life. The live online event is coming February 4 at 7 p.m. Eastern time. To register, visit ReviveOurHearts.com/help. 

On our next episode, we’ll hear part 2 of Nancy’s message on preparing a highway in the desert. She will remind you that your church is expecting a very important guest. Join us again here on Revive Our Hearts.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted.

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