Valley and mountain that shall be made straight

[Isaiah 40:3-4] 3 The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

The valley shall be made exalted.

Various sorts of people come to church. Some of them skillfully receive help from others and they are also at home in living at others’ expenses. They take it for granted if others help them, and they judge them if not. God is not pleased with us when we make it a way of life to receive help from others. He wants us to be mindful of eating our own bread even if we have a very small income. The valley should be lifted up this way.

The mountain shall be made low.

On the contrary, some people hate being helped. When helped while they have no food at all and every penny counts for them, they conclude that their pride has been hurt and they start to have doubts about the intention of those who have helped them, far from thanking for the help. Our church once supplied food to a member struggling from poverty, but he was offended sick at heart instead of receiving it gratefully. Because of his pride, he twisted the church’s showing favor to him.

We can easily guess that, if such a man is blessed and allowed to earn money, his eyes to judge his brothers will be very much strong. One of following church members will be the example: He made much money but finally left the church after having overjudged brethren in the church. Such a pride is not fit for the kingdom of God. The mountain of the pride is to be made low. Thus, it must be made straight.

by Chung DuckYoung, pastor