What exactly would this message have meant to you, a first century Jew? It would have meant something like this: the time for God’s people to be freed from their enemies and pardoned for all their sins was about to dawn. It was a message of love from the Covenant-Keeping God to His grieving people in captivity. It was the message about the coming of the Bridegroom to rescue and claim His bride for Himself and turn all of her mourning into dancing. It was the message that the exile of the people of God was over and the time of the exodus was at hand. This is why the amazing figurative language is used concerning the creation itself—that the valley should be lifted up and the mountains made low and the uneven ground made level. Why? Because the Lord Himself was going to come to His earth and save His people. And when He would come His amazing glory would be revealed, and all flesh would see it. But realize this: when God would come His glory wouldn’t be revealed in a blaze of grandeur, but it would be revealed in the most unexpected of ways. It will be revealed in the crushing of His only faithful Servant, His Chosen One, the One in whom is all of His delight.

This faithful one is Jesus. God’s glory is revealed most clearly and perfectly in the death of Jesus, His Faithful Servant. This wasn’t what a first century Jew expected. It isn’t what a twenty-first century American expects either. It sounds foolish to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the very power and wisdom and glory of God.