04-07-2009, 07:02 PM
John The Baptist played a very important role in history and prophecy, and yet he is someone that is rarely talked about.
John's Life Foretold By Gabriel and Zechariah
John was born to Zechariah, in the priestly line of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth was in the line of Aaron, the original high priest of Israel.
John's birth was announced to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel in this way:
"And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." (Luke 1:14-17)
So John was to be great, with the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare a people for the Lord!
After his birth, his father Zechariah prophecied about the child:
"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:76-79)
John's Warning Of The Coming Wrath
John's manner of life was very different from the religious leaders of the time. He was a Nazarene, which meant he drank no wine and strong drink. His ministry began at about 30 years of age, which was the priestly requirement, but he preached out in the wilderness, clothed in camel's hair and with a leather girdle, eating locusts and wild honey. His message was simple and straightforward:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mathew 3:2)
Many would come out of Jerusalem, Judea and the Jordan regions to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.
What was most remarkable about John is that his teachings bore a striking resemblance to those of Jesus. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him, he said:
"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
This was the kind of language Jesus was later to use when speaking to them in Jerusalem.
And John made it clear that God's wrath upon them was near:
"Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Clearly then, God was about to reap the nation of Israel, and gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff into the fire. The axe was at the root of the tree, ready to chop - there was a baptizing of holy spirit in 33AD, and a baptizing in fire in 70AD, when that nation was destroyed.
Jesus himself used a similar illustration, about a harvest season, and the weeds being gathered to be burned, but the wheat being gathered into the barn at the end of the age. (Mathew 13:30)
So we should keep John's teaching in mind when reading Jesus' illustrations. It is quite evident that both John and Jesus believed the harvest season was due, and the end of the Jewish age was imminent.
"The Wisdom Of The Just"
John was primarily concerned with righteousness and justice. When the crowds asked John what they should do, he said:
"Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise." (Luke 3:11)
Tax collectors also did the same thing, and to them he said: "Collect no more than you are authorized to do."
To soldiers, he said: "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."
Clearly John reflected Jesus' teachings, which showed that justice and mercy were more important than a ritualistic following of the Law.
John's Ministry The Fulfillment Of Prophecy
Mathew, Mark and Luke each point out that John's ministry fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, namely:
"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:1-5)
However, I would suggest that Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew scriptures, also foretells the coming of both John and Jesus.
God promises to Israel: "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; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 3:1)
God had John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus, who came to the Temple. But, as Malachi adds:
"But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord." (3:2,3)
Jesus' ministry was like a "refiner's fire", and the beginning of the separating of the wheat and the weeds. Many could not endure his sayings, such as the scribes and Pharisees who conspired to put him to death.
God also foretold that he would produce a special people, those who feared the Lord and remembered his name: "They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him." (3:17,18)
That special possession started to be produced in 33AD, when Jesus baptized his followers with holy spirit and Pentecost. These were the ones who would be spared from the destruction that was to come, as is stated in the next verses of Malachi:
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts." (4:1-3)
That day came in 70AD, when the remaining ones in Jerusalem and Judea who had ignored Jesus' warning to flee were "set ablaze" as it were by the Romans.
The distinction had been made, the wheat had been gathered into the barn, and the weeds had been burned in the fire.
Finally, God reminds his people to remember Moses, and promises to send Elijah to them:
"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (4:4-6)
Clearly then, he is talking to the Jews, who were under the statutes and rules that Moses received - and indeed, he did indeed send them Elijah the prophet before "the great and awesome day of the Lord" which took place in 70AD, when their city and Temple was destroyed. John the Baptist was this prophet!
Jesus confirms this, when he says: "For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." (Mathew 11:13,14)
And the angel Gabriel is a further witness, when he foretold that John would "... go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children..." - just as the prophecy in Malachi foretold. (Luke 1:17, Malachi 4:5,6)
So John prepared the way, in getting people to repent of their sins, and to return to justice and mercy, while the axe was at the tree and the winnowing fork was ready to gather the wheat and separate the chaff.
Jesus then came, to do his ministry that would commence the separating work. The harvest season was under way!
Finally, the "great and awesome day of the Lord" came in 70AD, in which God came to "strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 4:6)
This was also foretold in Joel 2, in the famous prophecy quoted by Peter and the spirit being poured out at Pentecost:
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls." (Joel 2:28-32)
The "great and awesome day of the Lord" was in 70AD, after the Jews had received many miraculous signs and portents, when both John's and Jesus' predictions came true, the axe fell at the root of the tree, and the winnowing fork did its work.
For those Jews who heard Peter quote Joel, they were urged to repent and get saved from their crooked generation who would experience destruction after being bundled into Jerusalem by Roman fortifications. Clearly then, in Mount Zion and Jerusalem when Peter spoke were those who would escape and be survivors of that great day, just as Jesus had also foretold: "And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." (Mathew 24:22)
So John the Baptist was important not just for baptizing Jesus and for being a witness to the spirit coming upon Jesus, but also because he served as a second witness against the nation of Israel, warning of the wrath that was to be imminently upon some of them, and also about the imminence of the kingdom of God.
John The Baptist In History
John is mentioned by Josephus, in Antiquities Of The Jews, Book 18, Chapter 5:
"Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who 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; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.
"Now, when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, 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, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.
"Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure against him."
John's Life Foretold By Gabriel and Zechariah
John was born to Zechariah, in the priestly line of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth was in the line of Aaron, the original high priest of Israel.
John's birth was announced to Zechariah by the angel Gabriel in this way:
"And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." (Luke 1:14-17)
So John was to be great, with the spirit and power of Elijah, to prepare a people for the Lord!
After his birth, his father Zechariah prophecied about the child:
"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:76-79)
John's Warning Of The Coming Wrath
John's manner of life was very different from the religious leaders of the time. He was a Nazarene, which meant he drank no wine and strong drink. His ministry began at about 30 years of age, which was the priestly requirement, but he preached out in the wilderness, clothed in camel's hair and with a leather girdle, eating locusts and wild honey. His message was simple and straightforward:
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mathew 3:2)
Many would come out of Jerusalem, Judea and the Jordan regions to be baptized by him in the Jordan River.
What was most remarkable about John is that his teachings bore a striking resemblance to those of Jesus. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to him, he said:
"You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
This was the kind of language Jesus was later to use when speaking to them in Jerusalem.
And John made it clear that God's wrath upon them was near:
"Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Clearly then, God was about to reap the nation of Israel, and gather the wheat into the barn, but the chaff into the fire. The axe was at the root of the tree, ready to chop - there was a baptizing of holy spirit in 33AD, and a baptizing in fire in 70AD, when that nation was destroyed.
Jesus himself used a similar illustration, about a harvest season, and the weeds being gathered to be burned, but the wheat being gathered into the barn at the end of the age. (Mathew 13:30)
So we should keep John's teaching in mind when reading Jesus' illustrations. It is quite evident that both John and Jesus believed the harvest season was due, and the end of the Jewish age was imminent.
"The Wisdom Of The Just"
John was primarily concerned with righteousness and justice. When the crowds asked John what they should do, he said:
"Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise." (Luke 3:11)
Tax collectors also did the same thing, and to them he said: "Collect no more than you are authorized to do."
To soldiers, he said: "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages."
Clearly John reflected Jesus' teachings, which showed that justice and mercy were more important than a ritualistic following of the Law.
John's Ministry The Fulfillment Of Prophecy
Mathew, Mark and Luke each point out that John's ministry fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, namely:
"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 40:1-5)
However, I would suggest that Malachi, the last book of the Hebrew scriptures, also foretells the coming of both John and Jesus.
God promises to Israel: "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; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts." (Malachi 3:1)
God had John the Baptist prepare the way for Jesus, who came to the Temple. But, as Malachi adds:
"But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord." (3:2,3)
Jesus' ministry was like a "refiner's fire", and the beginning of the separating of the wheat and the weeds. Many could not endure his sayings, such as the scribes and Pharisees who conspired to put him to death.
God also foretold that he would produce a special people, those who feared the Lord and remembered his name: "They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him." (3:17,18)
That special possession started to be produced in 33AD, when Jesus baptized his followers with holy spirit and Pentecost. These were the ones who would be spared from the destruction that was to come, as is stated in the next verses of Malachi:
"For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts." (4:1-3)
That day came in 70AD, when the remaining ones in Jerusalem and Judea who had ignored Jesus' warning to flee were "set ablaze" as it were by the Romans.
The distinction had been made, the wheat had been gathered into the barn, and the weeds had been burned in the fire.
Finally, God reminds his people to remember Moses, and promises to send Elijah to them:
"Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (4:4-6)
Clearly then, he is talking to the Jews, who were under the statutes and rules that Moses received - and indeed, he did indeed send them Elijah the prophet before "the great and awesome day of the Lord" which took place in 70AD, when their city and Temple was destroyed. John the Baptist was this prophet!
Jesus confirms this, when he says: "For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come." (Mathew 11:13,14)
And the angel Gabriel is a further witness, when he foretold that John would "... go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children..." - just as the prophecy in Malachi foretold. (Luke 1:17, Malachi 4:5,6)
So John prepared the way, in getting people to repent of their sins, and to return to justice and mercy, while the axe was at the tree and the winnowing fork was ready to gather the wheat and separate the chaff.
Jesus then came, to do his ministry that would commence the separating work. The harvest season was under way!
Finally, the "great and awesome day of the Lord" came in 70AD, in which God came to "strike the land with a decree of utter destruction." (Malachi 4:6)
This was also foretold in Joel 2, in the famous prophecy quoted by Peter and the spirit being poured out at Pentecost:
"And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls." (Joel 2:28-32)
The "great and awesome day of the Lord" was in 70AD, after the Jews had received many miraculous signs and portents, when both John's and Jesus' predictions came true, the axe fell at the root of the tree, and the winnowing fork did its work.
For those Jews who heard Peter quote Joel, they were urged to repent and get saved from their crooked generation who would experience destruction after being bundled into Jerusalem by Roman fortifications. Clearly then, in Mount Zion and Jerusalem when Peter spoke were those who would escape and be survivors of that great day, just as Jesus had also foretold: "And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short." (Mathew 24:22)
So John the Baptist was important not just for baptizing Jesus and for being a witness to the spirit coming upon Jesus, but also because he served as a second witness against the nation of Israel, warning of the wrath that was to be imminently upon some of them, and also about the imminence of the kingdom of God.
John The Baptist In History
John is mentioned by Josephus, in Antiquities Of The Jews, Book 18, Chapter 5:
"Now some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist; for Herod slew him, who 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; for that the washing [with water] would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away [or the remission] of some sins [only], but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.
"Now, when [many] others came in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved [or pleased] by hearing his words, 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, and not bring himself into difficulties, by sparing a man who might make him repent of it when it should be too late. Accordingly he was sent a prisoner, out of Herod's suspicious temper, to Macherus, the castle I before mentioned, and was there put to death.
"Now the Jews had an opinion that the destruction of this army was sent as a punishment upon Herod, and a mark of God's displeasure against him."