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For centuries, God had
sent no prophet to Israel. Then suddenly, sometime around A.D.
25, the Lord
finally broke His silence. Matthew writes:
In those days John
the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, "Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is near." This is he who was spoken of
through the prophet Isaiah:
"A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way
for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a
leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region
of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the
Jordan River. (Matt 3:1-6, NIV, quoting Isa 40:3)
John the Baptist, or John the Baptizer, created
quite a sensation. Even non-biblical writers of the time tell of him. For
example, Flavius Josephus, a first-century
Jewish historian, writes:
...John, that was called the Baptist...was a
good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to
righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come
to baptism...[Many] others came to crowd about him, for they were
greatly moved by hearing his words. [King] Herod, who feared lest the
great influence John had over the people might put it into his power and
inclination to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything
he should advise), thought it best, by putting him to death, to prevent
any mischief he might cause.... (Josephus, Antiquities of the
Jews, Book
18, Chapter 5, Section 2; translated by William
Whiston)
Who was
John, and why was he important? First, consider his clothing:
John's clothes were made
of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. (Matt
3:4)
John's
strange clothing was a purposeful part of his message. Jews acquainted with Scripture would
immediately recognize that John dressed exactly the way the prophet Elijah dressed, as
described in 2 Kings 1:7-8:
The king asked them,
"What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?" They
replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather
belt around his waist." The king said, "That was Elijah the
Tishbite" (compare Zech 13:4).
Next to Moses, Elijah
was the greatest, most powerful prophet in the Old Testament. To illustrate:
He was the prophet who called down fire from heaven and killed the
prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18. He was also the
prophet who did not die, but who was taken up into heaven in
a fiery chariot in 2 Kings 2.
Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet, predicted that Elijah would
return before the "Day of the Lord" -- before the Lord Himself comes and
before the Final Judgment:
"See, I will send my
messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord
you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant,
whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty....
"Surely the Day is
coming; it will burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and every evildoer
will be stubble, and that day that is coming will set them on fire,"
says the LORD Almighty. "Not a root or a branch will be left to them.
But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with
healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released
from the stall....
"See, I will send
you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD
comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children,
and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and
strike the land with a curse." (Mal 3:1; 4:1-2, 5-6)
John the Baptist's clothing immediately identified
him as the new "Elijah" -- the messenger who would prepare the way for the
coming of the Lord. As Jesus himself declared, "[John] is the Elijah who was to come (Matt 11:14; compare 17:10-13).
In this series of Bare Roots, we will let John the Baptist,
the promised "Elijah," point us to the Christ.
Reflect...
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Was John the Baptist
literally Elijah returned from heaven, or only someone resembling Elijah? (See
Luke
1:17.)
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Read how an angel announced John's birth
in 1:5-25. What did the angel predict John would do?
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Read the account of John's birth in
Luke 1:57-80. What did Zechariah prophesy
concerning the child?
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