לתשובת המינים

Isaiah 40:3

Whose Voice calls out in the Wilderness?

Matthew 3:3, Mark 1:3, Luke 3:4-6, John 1:23

"A voice calls out in the wilderness, ‘Clear the way of Hashem; make a straight path in the desert, a road for our God.’"

One of the few passages which all four Gospel cite focusing on a common application is Isaiah 40:3 which each of the Gospel writers understood as forecasting the coming of John the Baptist. Of particular interest is how this is presented in the Gospel of John:

Finally they said, "Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet, ‘I am the voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’"¹

It must be realized that, at least according to the Gospel of John, John the Baptist envisioned himself as fulfilling this prophecy. While this doesn’t invalidate him from fulfilling it per se, it must be recognized that it was within his ability to actively control the events which are being presented as "fulfilled prophecies", namely preaching in the desert. By extension, given the relationship between the two it is not inconceivable that the Nazarene could have influenced John’s "fulfillment" in order that he would have the "anticipated" forerunner.²

This verse comes at the beginning of a passage known by its twice repeated opening word, "Nachamu", meaning "Console." This passage is the haftarah (Scripture reading from the prophets to supplement the weekly Torah portion) read on the first Shabbath following Tisha b’Av, the annual anniversary of the destruction of the Holy Beith HaMikdash (Jerusalem Temple). Following the three weeks in which we reflect over our loss we turn to this and other passages which offer hope for the future.

While some traditional Jewish commentators understand the prophecy as referring to the return of the exiles from Babylon³ others view it as Messianic⁴ and it’s traditional place among the haftaroth expresses our hopeful anticipation of a future application.

John the Baptist, however, did not raise his voice in consolation. He raised his voice in chastisement. John the Baptist did not present God as a redeemer, a shepherd who gathers His flock into His arms, but as one who comes to punish the strays. He said, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matthew 3:7, Luke 3:7).

This is not the message of parshath Nachamu. There are plenty of instances where Isaiah and the other prophets rebuked Israel, but that is not the message here. Here the message is consolation, "her iniquity has been forgiven; for she has received double for all her sins" (40:2). This was not the message of John the Baptist.

Despite most aspects of this "prophecy" being within his personal ability to fulfill, and an apparent intent to do so, John the Baptists only "fulfilled" the verse if it is superficial characterized as giving sermons in the wilderness (and insofar as he regularly attracted crowds, I’m not so sure how much we can even call his location "wilderness"). The message this passage said would be delivered was a very different one than that of John the Baptist. Meanwhile we still await for the days when Hashem will gather together His dispersed flock, not merely to their physical homeland, but to the "bosom" of His active providence.