Who are the

way preparers

for the Lord God and His Messiah?

The prophets were

way preparers…

Below are some of them:

Malachi 3:1“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple;

For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’”A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Is 40:3

Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel;
Because I will do this to you,
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel.” Amos 4:12

Jonah 1:17
And the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah was to prepare the people of Nineveh for Gods’ judgment,  he was to tell them to repent. When Jonah was disobedient then the Lord became a way preparer, to bring Jonah back to what he was supposed to be doing.

Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare a war; rouse the mighty men!
Let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up! Joel 2:9. 

Therefore, son of man, prepare for yourself baggage for exile and go into exile by day in their sight; even go into exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand though they are a rebellious house. Ezek. 12:3.

 

Noah was a way preparer

In obedience to the Lords directive, he

prepared the ark to make a way to survive the flood.

By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Heb. 11:7.

Moses was a

way preparer

in Ex. 14:1-32 preparing the way for freedom from Egypt by way of the reed/red sea.

And the Lord God Himself was again a

way preparer,  

Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.   

Ex. 23:20.

Joshua and Caleb were way preparers. Going before the Israelites  to cross the Jordan into the promised land.  Joshua 3.

John the Baptist was a way preparer for Yeshua/Jesus.

Matthew 3:3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” 4 And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

 

The disciples were sent out in twos, they were way preparers for Jesus/Yeshua. In Luke 10:1 After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of Him to every town and place He was about to visit. 

The apostles being sent out, were way preparers for Yeshua/Jesus and the gospel of His Kingdom. Luke 9:1-10 First it was the Twelve Apostles:

Jesus called his twelve disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness

later he calls the Seventy in chapter 10:1-24.

 

In Matthew 28:16-20 and Luke 24:44-53

The great commission calls all believers and disciples to be

way preparers.

The 2 witnesses in Revelation 11:13-19

are

way preparers

for the second coming of Messiah.

All Way Preparers are to be

awake, alert, ready, they are to be watchful.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Watch ye stand fast in the faith quit you like men be strong.

How many times did Messiah say to watch? Here are a few:

Watch with me one hour Matthew 26:40-45.

Watch and pray.

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Matthew 24:42-51.

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:44.

Rom. 13:11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

 And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. Luke 12:47.

The Way Preparer for Messiah.

¹⁵ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Eph. 6:15.

Those scribes in John’s day who were familiar with the TaNaKH, the Torah, Writings and the Prophets, sent a delegation to ask John two questions.

John 1:21 They asked him, “Then who are you? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.”?

This was referring to Malachi’s prophecy that the prophet Elijah will come as a messenger before the appearance of the Messiah.

in Malachi 4:5. See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.

And in

Is. 40:3 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.

To this day Jews around the world still set out a cup of wine for Elijah at Passover /Pesach, in participation of his arrival as the forerunner the

way preparer of the Messiah.

The second question was are you the prophet. John 1:21. This referred to Moses/Moshe prophecy that God would send a prophet like me. Deuteronomy 18:15 – 19 I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

Clearly people knew the prophecies, another example is when we read of the time Philip talked with Nathanael. John 1:45  He said we have found him of whom Moses in the Law/torah and also the prophets wrote Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.

After Yeshua/Jesus fed the 5000 the people began to ask if this was the prophet who is to come into the world. John 6:14. Then Peter identified Yeshua/Jesus as the prophet in Acts 3:22, 23.

Stephen before the Sanhedrin declared that Yeshua/Jesus was the promised Messiah. Acts 7:37 – 38. This is that Moses……

From the beginning there have been

way preparers.

Abraham was a way preparer leaving his homeland and becoming the father of faith and through him came Isaac Jacob Israel his Sons and the 12 tribes.

Joseph was a way preparer for the children of Israel giving them a safe place in the years of famine in Egypt.

Moses was a way preparer for the children of Israel to be released from Egyptian bondage. He was also a way preparer towards the promised land.

Reading through the Scriptures there are many heroes and heroines of faith who were way preparers for those who would come after. How many others can you find? John is one of many and with the spirit of Elijah as Messiah referred to him.

And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Matthew 11:14

Then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them about John the Baptist.  Matthew 17:13

All the disciples were way preparers, going into the villages prior to Messiah arriving there. All the apostles and believers were way preparers. Go into all the world and preach…… whereas all those. written of in the TaNaKH way preparers were for Messiahs 1st coming, those in the Brit Chadashah are way preparers for His 2nd Coming/ return. Paul was a way preparer for the Gentiles to be reached with the gospel of the kingdom and to be grafted into the true vine, spiritual Israel. The one who brought us the way is Messiah Himself, Yeshua of Nazareth. He said I am the way the truth and the Life. The first believers were known as followers of the Way.

Yeshua/Jesus Himself is the way preparer for us to be reconciled to a Holy God Who we will be united with eternally. From Jesus/Yeshuas’ command ‘to go’, we too are way preparers; our mission field is right where we are. It is time we move out.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Johns answer was from Isaiah 40:3, that he was a voice of one crying out in the wilderness sent as a way preparer to bear witness to the Messiah, Yeshua, Who was there present in their midst.

In Acts, Peter’s message is recalled when he spoke at Solomons portico, he was quoting from Deuteronomy 18:18 – 19 and he identified Jesus/Yeshua as the prophet like unto Moses.

Are you a way preparer?

Maybe it is time to find out?!

The days in which we are living are described in

Matthew 24 and in Luke 21:9-36 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. ¹⁰ Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: ¹¹ And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. …

Part of being a way preparer is carrying and giving the appropriate  message given by His Holy Spirit, which is fitting for the time and season.

Are we giving meat in due season?

Mathew 24:45

To give them meat (τὴν τροφὴν, their food) in due season.

The message for this time is that it must be meat in due season. Why? Because it is to feed the believers from the Word of God.

It was a direct reference to

Ps. 145:15-21.

The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.

The Lord God is moving and He wants us to be way preparers and providers of spiritual meat in due season.

It is time to move and get into the front ranks and hold our position. We must never flinch. Can our Heavenly Father be sure that we will never turn cowardly and flee? He promises to sustain us in dangerous positions.  He is well able to keep us there and adequately supply every need by His grace.

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1Pet 1:13.

Peter urges believers to prepare their minds for action and to be disciplined in their thinking. This preparation includes setting our hope fully on the grace to be received when Messiah returns. It emphasizes the need to focus our thoughts, aligning them with God’s promises and remaining alert and ready for His coming.

“In everything the prudent acts with knowledge, but a fool flaunts his folly.” Prov. 13:16.

Preparation involves acting with knowledge and discernment.

The prudent person carefully considers their actions and plans, while the fool recklessly displays their ignorance. This verse in Proverbs, reminds us of the significance of acquiring knowledge, seeking wisdom, and acting accordingly.

Being well-prepared requires understanding and thoughtfulness, avoiding foolishness and its consequences.The Bible emphasizes the importance of preparation in various contexts, offering guidance on both spiritual and practical aspects of life. Preparation is often linked to concepts such as wisdom, diligence, and foresight. Moses, was given detailed instructions by God to prepare the tabernacle and its furnishings with meticulous precision. Exodus 25-31. This shows the significance of being prepared to serve God as Daniel did, with a spirit of excellence, always offering our best work.

Joseph’s wise preparations during 7 years of abundance allowed Egypt to survive seven years of famine. Genesis 41. Proverbs frequently extols the virtues of planning, diligence, and foresight in all aspects of our lives.

As we have noted John was a way preparer,

but what does the phrase

That wisdom is justified by all children?

mean in 

Luke 7:33, 35. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

John was a ascetic,

(definition: avoiding physical pleasures and living a simple life, often for religious reasons:)

He practiced strict denial as a means of physical and spiritual discipline; but why would his refusal to eat bread and drink wine lead the Pharisees to believe he was a demon possessed man?

We would say of a nun or monk who lived such a lifestyle that they were very godly people in leading lives of denial.

Interestingly in the Aramaic language

not eating bread and drinking wine

is an ancient idiom/ or expression:

la ekal la khma shetha khamea

and literally translated reads:

not consuming food and drinking the juice of fruits.

 To say an individual consumes food and drinks the juice of fruits is like saying in English: we have lunch with friends at our favorite cafe, pub or bistro. This idiom is an expression of:

hospitality or interacting socially.

John the Baptist literally came out of the wilderness simply to preach, baptize those who repented of their sins and then went back into the wilderness. He didn’t interact with people socially or have lunch with with them, he didn’t live what was considered a normal life of those days. Yeshua/Jesus was not like John in that He came and lived among the everyday people so that He could minister to them.

Matthew 9:10-17, Mark 2:15-22, Luke 5:29-39

He interacted with them socially and often went to ‘sinners’ homes to eat, and this is why it was written:

He came eating and drinking.

There are those who say this scripture was to endorse the fact that Messiah actually drunk alcoholic drinks and even got drunk. To spin this from the expression/ idiom, would amount to setting our own Western thought and Greek mindset into an Aramaic idiom. Those who desire to drink alcohol and want it to be acceptable, use it to support their personal lifestyle; but it is far from the intent of the passage. We are not to twist the scriptures to make it fit how we want to live a compromised lifestyle and not feel guilty.

 The word for wine in Greek used here is: Oinon which could mean: both fermented and unfermented wine and the Greek word doesn’t differentiate between them. However, Yeshua/Jesus spoke in a Aramaic Galilean dialect, and that language does have different words for fermented and unfermented wine; and the word used was khamea , which is a reference to unfermented juice from some fruit. It was not necessarily the fruit of grapes, it could have been apples,  oranges, grapefruit, melon etc. The key is that it is unfermented, or non-alcoholic, meaning: the sugar content in the fruit had not turned into alcohol. It would seem that Messiah Yeshua/Jesus was mocking those accusing Him by saying in our vernacular: Look, the Son of Man comes drinking non alcoholic drinks with publicans and sinners and you accuse Him of being drunk?

Today we might say: you sit down in a social setting with all kinds of sinners drinking  lemonade or Pepsi and people think you’re getting drunk with them?

The last phrase of the same scripture is:

but wisdom is justified by all her children.

What does that mean?

We must stop trying to understand with our western Greek/English mindset and try to understand the Eastern Oriental concept of wisdom. In English the word wisdom is always used positively however, in the eastern semitic mind, it can have both a positive and negative connotation. Sometimes in Aramaic the word wisdom which is: khekmtha, can idiomatically, have the expression of meaning stupidity, which is just the opposite. In the same way people in the west will say ‘that was such a bad movie, it was wicked’ really meaning, it was very good and extremely exciting!

Messiah was using a similar Aramaic idiom/expression in this scripture and it is quite likely He was inferring: because your arguments are so ridiculous it’s a clear indication of your stupidity.  The reference to all her children has the meaning: whatever is the offspring from the parent or the original. It is in the same way we would say, a chip off the old block or the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. If the source is wise the offspring/children will be wise but if then the offspring/children are stupid… like begets like.

Yeshua /Jesus was the ultimate way preparer when He said

 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom. 10:13.

and so was our Heavenly Father

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.

 

David wrote in the 23rd Psalm.  A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

John 14:22 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Today we are way preparers for Yeshua/Jesus and the gospel of His Kingdom. We are to go into all the world and tell people to prepare themselves for the soon return of our Messiah; to prepare the way for the Lord….

Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’Matthew 9:27 Luke 10:2.

It’s time not only to pray for more laborers but to become one,

a way preparer… 

Shalom mishpachah/family

and cheverim/friends!

It’s all about Life and Relationship,

NOT Religion.

You are greatly loved and precious in His sight.

NOT SURE?

YOU CAN BE..

SAY THE FOLLOWING FROM YOUR HEART RIGHT NOW…

Heavenly Father I come to you in the Name of Jesus/Yeshua asking for forgiveness of my sins for which I am truly sorry. I repent of them all and turn away from my past.

I believe with my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus/Yeshua is your Son and that He died on the cross at calvary to pay the price for my sin, so that I might be forgiven and have eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven. Father I believe that Jesus/Yeshua rose from the dead and I ask you to come into my life right now and be my personal Savior and Lord and I will worship you all the days of my life. Because your word is truth I say that I am now forgiven and born again and by faith I am washed clean with the blood of Jesus/Yeshua. Thank you that you have accepted me into your family in Jesus’/Yeshua’s name. Amen.