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Mark 1:1-3 (NLT)
John the Baptist prepares the way
1 Here begins the Good News about Jesus Christ [the Messiah], the Son of God. [1]

2 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, God said,
“Look, I am sending my messenger before you,
and he will prepare your way. [2]
3 He is a voice shouting in the wilderness:
`Prepare a pathway for the Lord’s coming!
Make a straight road for him’! [3] “

[1]
Some manuscripts do not include the Son of God.

[2]
Malachi 3:1.

[3]
Isaiah 40:3.

DRAWING NOTES:

TIME OF DAY:
Unspecified in the Bible narrative. This scene is set in the late morning.

LIGHTING NOTES:
The unseen sun (high in the sky on the left) casts shadows below and to the right of figures and objects.

CHARACTERS PRESENT:
An un-named man walking across a log.

RESEARCH/ADDITIONAL NOTES:
There are two versions of this scene:
01) (This page) Mark 01 – The mission of John the Baptist – Scene 01 – Isaiah’s prophecy (with text).

02) (Next page) Mark 01 – The mission of John the Baptist – Scene 01 – Isaiah’s prophecy (without text). The only difference is the presence or absence of the words coming out of the open Bible.

The scene shows a man walking across a fallen tree, which is spanning a steep-sided valley. He is using it as a bridge. All the people & objects behind the man represent his old life as a non-Christian, including various items that tend to be unhelpful or spiritually dangerous to participate in. For instance I have drawn a black cat witch’s familiar, Ouija board, a witches hat, a spell book with wand, a blue wizard’s robe, all of which indicate an unhealthy interest in the supernatural. Interest & participation in these activities can have harmful effects on people. There is also food, alcoholic drinks, money & two people in the scene, all of which represents negative, dangerous or harmful relationships in the man’s previous life. There are far more items I could have included, but the ones I have drawn will suffice to represent some of the dangerous and harmful things in this life which we would be wise to avoid.

In front of the man is an open Bible which represents the man’s decision to become a Christian, and is the reason he is walking away from his old, sinful life, and walking towards his new, Christian life. The text coming out of the Bible represents the positive character traits the man can develop as his faith in God increases as a Christian. This is my way of visually illustrating the first 3 verses of Mark chapter 1. Mark refers to Malachi’s & Isaiah’s prophecies in the Old Testament. The verses talk about “my (i.e. God’s) messenger before you, preparing your way” and “Make a straight road for him”. One way to visually describe the straight path was to draw a log across a ravine!

Here is the scene without the figures, objects or log in the foreground.

Background of Mark 01 – The mission of John the Baptist – Scene 01 – Isaiah’s prophecy

Click on the colour bar below to view/buy this Background:
Background of Mark 01 – The mission of John the Baptist – Scene 01 – Isaiah’s prophecy (with text)

In the Bible passage above (verse 3), it says, `Prepare a pathway for the Lord’s coming! Make a straight road for him’! You could be forgiven to think that the verse is saying that WE are to build a straight road. But if we understand that the road is the road of salvation, then we can safely conclude that only God can build the road of salvation. If we could build the road of salvation, we would be able to save ourselves, in which case we don’t need God to save us. But the fact is, we can’t save ourselves, therefore we need Him as a saviour, and thus it is not us human beings who are to build the road, but Father God, through the work of Jesus on the cross.

In the context of Isaiah 39:5 – 40:11, it is a road of salvation which God opens for his people to come out of slavery. It was God who opened the road through the Red Sea, leading right across the wilderness. It wasn’t the Israelites who created or opened any road. Nor is it us, today, who do that either.

When God speaks through Isaiah (in chp 40 verse 3), Isaiah writes “Prepare the way of the LORD,” he is not saying that the Hebrew people build a physical road from Babylon (where they were in exile) to Israel. In fact he is just saying, prepare that God will OPEN the way, or be PREPARED TO RECEIVE salvation from the Lord. God cannot save those who don’t want to be saved. Only those who listen to God’s call (and come out of exile in their own “Babylon”!) will come out on this highway of salvation. They “prepare” to experience the salvation of God, not “build” a road.

People’s own “Babylon” could well be represented by all the items the man has left behind on the far side of the log!