How many remember crossing the Rockies before the Roger's Pass highway? It was an adventure of swithbacks and steep drops if you missed a corner. Valerie and I drove a short portion of the famed Route 66 this spring. For the most part, it has been supplanted by Intersate 40, but in north and west Arizona a portion exists. The portion that heads west into the mountains between Arizona and California is also an adventure. It is narrow, twisty with many switchbacks and portions are subject to falling stones and in season, flash floods. Anyone wanting to make time safely through the desert and mountains takes the interstate.

I imagine that the Judean wilderness north and east into Iraq is similar geographically to the Mojave. Not only did travellers have to contend with natural hazards, out of the way roads were notorious haunts for brigands and bandits.

 Isaiah 35:1-10
And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way;
wicked fools will not go about on it.  No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it;
 they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, 
and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

How many remember crossing the Rockies before the Roger's Pass highway? It was an adventure of swithbacks and steep drops if you missed a corner. Valerie and I drove a short portion of the famed Route 66 this spring. For the most part, it has been supplanted by Intersate 40, but in north and west Arizona a portion exists. The portion that heads west into the mountains between Arizona and California is also an adventure. It is narrow, twisty with many switchbacks and portions are subject to falling stones and in season, flash floods. Anyone wanting to make time safely through the desert and mountains takes the interstate.

I imagine that the Judean wilderness north and east into Iraq is similar geographically to the Mojave. Not only did travellers have to contend with natural hazards, out of the way roads were notorious haunts for brigands and bandits.

Remember the significance of this Highway of God.

God has sent Judah into exile as punishment and they languished in Babylon for a generation. Then came word that they were going home. John the Baptist quotes Isaiah when he says, "I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord." I remember my father used to quote John the Baptist, but not in the way intended by John or Isaiah. When we would disregard his advice he liked to say, "I feel like a voice in the wilderness around here." I had not studied theology and did not know my dad was misquoting Isaiah. If I had, I might have said, "Father dearest, you do know thats not what the prophet meant. He was really saying, 'a voice calls, prepare a road in the wilderness'". My father would have been so grateful to know that, as I know you are.

That highway was the road the exiles would be taking back home. It went through the desert because that was the shortest route home. When its God's time to act, deserts, mountians, bandits or serpents will not stand in the way of the Lord or God's people.

In fact, its notworthy to see who is NOT on that highway as to see who is.
The unclean will not be there, nor will wicked fools. There will be no lions or any other ferocious beast.
This is a toll rode and without a ticket, you will not enter.
How do you get a ticket?
The toll has already been paid, but your ticket comes through being in relationship with its builder and maker.
The beginning of that relationship from our side of the toll booth is repentance and faith.

John points to the coming of Jesus, whose avent we celebrate this time of year.
He is the One who is the Toll Payer.
What is required of us is repentance of our old ways and a faith in Him as Lord.

The highway home is Jesus Himself.
Are you on the highway? If you are then lets celebrate: