The Crooked Shall Be Made Straight

Daily Reading: Concordance references for “Crooked”

Isaiah 40:4 “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:”

Isaiah 42:13-16 “The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. (14) I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. (15) I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. (16) And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them and not forsake them.”

Luke 3:5-17 “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; (6) And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (7) Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? (8) Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. (9) And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (10) And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then? (11) He answereth and saith unto them, He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. (12) Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, Master, what shall we do? (13) And he said unto them, exact no more than that which is appointed you. (14) And the soldiers likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, Neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages. (15) And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not; (16) John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: (17) Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.”

This is so interesting to me. I have been experiencing back pain and I have been wondering why now? I don’t want to turn every little circumstance into a spiritual warm fuzzy, but it seems rather ironic that the weekend that I plan to finally be obedient and get baptized, my back is hurting to the point of not being able to stand up straight. I have already determined that I will go ahead and be baptized regardless of how much it hurts. I am not going to wait another month and find some new excuse not to do it. I’ve already told people I am doing it and it’s going to happen.

Last night I looked in the mirror and realized the pain is quite legitimate in that I am visibly crooked. My upper body is leaning obviously to the left. It looks almost as bad as it feels. After doing all the practical things I know to do for myself I called one of the elders and hopefully I can get over there this afternoon to have him pray for me.

When I saw how crooked I am I immediately thought of the verse that talks about making the crooked straight. I’ve always imagined that to mean something relating more to crooked paths but it has incessantly played in my head so I looked it up this morning and the scriptures above are what I found. It never says specifically what is crooked but I would still say that the context is more likely interpreted to mean pathways. This is still an analogy and I can still claim what the Bible says. However when I got to the scripture in Luke I was surprised to find that it was a baptism service that instigated John the Baptist to quote Isaiah. Maybe this is more about Baptism than I thought. I noticed that as he is speaking to the people the scripture mentions three groups: the children of Abraham, the publicans, and the soldiers. I am quite sure there is a sermon in this somewhere, but I don’t know what each of these groups represents entirely. I will say that of all of them I would probably fit into the first one. I am not Jewish but I have been grafted into the vine nearly as long as I can remember. I am going into this baptism with a hard heart. I honestly don’t want to do it. I’m embarrassed and I find it hard to admit that there is any reason for me to do it other than the fact that my pastor said I should. That’s not the right attitude. My pride needs to be destroyed before I go through with this. I need to see that God wants this for me. That I have been disobedient in not doing it before and that I am not too righteous to be seen as immature in the eyes of the rest of my church. I need to repent of my arrogance and find joy in the straight path that I will find on the other side of this task. John baptized with water, but one mightier than he came and wishes so badly to baptize believers in the Holy Ghost and fire. Even so, Lord Jesus Come!