A voice cries out in the desert: “Clear a way for the LORD." Matthew 31-3.

 Matthew chapter three opens with a fast-forward of about 25 years.

The headline from the Berean Study Bible (and most of them say the same thing) reads:

“John the Baptist Prepares the Way”

“And in those days John the Immerser comes, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea,”
(Matthew 3:1 LSV)

FYI: The LSV = The Literal Standard Version of The Holy Bible is a registered copyright of Covenant Press and the Covenant Christian Coalition (© 2020).

I don’t know if the LSV carries any extra importance, but I like to check to see if it offers some insight that others may have missed. Immediately I am delighted because of the emphasis on John being the Immerser. This word can be substituted with baptizer; however, it is what he did, not who he was, a Baptist. Amir Tsarfati told the story of a person approaching him after a tour lecture and asked, so, was Jesus Catholic or Protestant? One part of the obvious is that there were no church affiliations as there was no church as yet. If you insist that John was such and such, then he was more of an evangelist who called the nation and Herod (who was half-Jewish by blood) to repentance.

In the series “The Chosen,” John (the immerser) is portrayed as someone a bit unusual, to say the least. He has a classic, Jewish, sarcastic sense of humor, and if you think about the comments he made to the Pharisaical crowd that came to be baptized by him, he called them vipers – a bit of a harsh jab. Our introduction to John has him jumping out from behind a bush as his cousin, Yeshua, and a couple of the disciples walk by. Jesus smiled and was glad to see John. Philip was one of those disciples from John’s team and threw his arms around John’s neck, demonstrating how loved he was. Several episodes convey to us how attached Andrew was to John. (When talking about the disciples, you can begin to see where making a distinction as to which John you are referring to can come in handy.)

Pay attention to where John is immersing, Judea, which was, at one time, the Southern and separate kingdom from Israel to the North. The wilderness of Judah runs North to South and parallels the Dead Sea. 

The point is that I have no idea how Jesus and John got together, for, as you can see, there are close to 90 kilometers or 70 miles between the two.

“Turn away from your sins, for the kingdom of heaven is near!” (Matthew 3:2 TLV)

He was referencing Jesus, the Son of God, and, by the way, the Messiah. 

Almost all of Israel looked for and longed for the Messiah, as He would free them from the bondage of the Romans. Well, that was not going to happen.

Matthew describes John the baptizer as the one crying out. However, the designation “crying in the wilderness” certainly makes it sound pessimistic.

I started this blog almost twenty years ago, and that is what I named it, The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Experience has taught me that few listen, and I am not just talking about listening to me; they don’t listen to God either. So the idea of a wilderness speaks to me of the barrenness of our souls without the Word of God being poured into them. You would be foolish if you are willing to depend on someone else doing the pouring; this has to be you.

“This is he who was mentioned by the prophet Isaiah when he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness (shouting in the desert), Prepare the road for the Lord, make His highways straight (level, direct).” [Isa. 40:3.]
(Matthew 3:3 AMP)

I have used the Amplified as they frequently give you the related passage. It is Matthew who gives us this.

“And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come.” (Matthew 11:14 NASB)

So, allow me a moment here. Elijah was lifted off this earth without dying, and scripture tells us that:

“... it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment “ (Hebrews 9:27 NASB)

Well, when did Elijah get his turn?

I do not know, and I will not accept the idea that he was reincarnated as John the baptizer. Just the fact that Jesus refers to Elijah in terms of coming back merely promotes the idea that Elijah did not die and must yet die. Consider the fact the two witnesses, who come from God, stand in the streets of Jerusalem witnessing about Jesus as the Messiah and the glory of God, will die after their time is done (3.5 years.) But, after lying dead in the street for three days, they will rise again and return to the Lord.

Appointed is the Greek word apokeimai and means reserved or awaited.

I will let you in on a little-known fact. There is nothing that will prevent this body from dying. The body, which carries the broken DNA chain that motivates us to sin, has to be purified. A passage that almost everyone has heard at least once tells us that our works will be tried by fire; this is probably part of the bema seat judgment and where the body will die.

You are aware that Jesus died? Right! Then you should also be mindful that He came back to life and continued to walk this earth for forty more days, sharing the good news.

John didn't refuse to answer. He told them clearly. John 1:19-23.

 I am writing to people who have been taught poorly or were taught falsehoods, and some errors are intentional. I will include myself in this next weakness within the Christian community, and that is that WE do not nor will not pick up the Bible and read it. I can speak bluntly about this because I had to make a hard decision to fix this weakness in myself. In 2007 I started a job with early work hours, so I would give myself an extra hour before work to go to McDonald's, eat breakfast and read my Bible. So many people whimper about where they should start reading; I have suggestions, but there is a better time or place. I needed to know who God was and what His character was like, so I started with Matthew's gospel, where I saw His Son, Jesus, and slowly worked my way through the New Testament. Every day brought questions and challenges, and I wrote them down as I asked God my hard questions, all of which got answered.

I never spent a tremendous amount of time focused on John the Baptist.

The NASB entitles this next section, The Testimony of John the Baptist.

We covered a couple of details about John the Baptist in my previous post. In terms of teIn my previous post, we covered some details about John the Baptist. In terms of temperament, and I am imagining here, I perceive a touch of sanguine because he is outgoing and, to a degree, social. The other trait that I see is choleric. I say this because John comes across as short-tempered and irritable, much like the Apostle Paul (who may well be one of those being sent to verbally accost him.) He had, by the way, called them a den of vipers. 

Now apply the personality traits that we can only assume to the following few verses where we see John in action.

“This was John’s answer when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?””
(John 1:19 GW)

• “The Jews sent priests.”

We are not told who did the sending as even within the priests and council members, there was a hierarchy. I can see leaders sending lower-ranking members to go and challenge the man they obviously perceive as acting as though he is replacing them. However, John may not have felt that way.

If what I said seemed odd to you, think about this incident.

“Very early, while it was still night, Yeshua got up, left, and went away to a place in the wilderness; and there He was praying. Then Simon and those with him hunted for Yeshua. And when they found Him, they said to Him, “Everybody’s looking for You.” He said to them, “Let’s go somewhere else, to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also—this is what I came for.” And He went throughout all the Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and driving out demons. A man suffering from a dreaded skin disease came to Jesus, knelt down, and begged him for help. "If you want to," he said, "you can make me clean."(GNB) .” Moved with compassion, Yeshua stretched out His hand and touched him. He said, “I am willing. Be cleansed.”
(Mark 1:35-41 TLV & GNB)

There was no doubt that Jesus could heal, but to be cleansed was what the priests did, and apparently, religion was corrupt enough to demand payment for the procedure where you were reintroduced back into the community. So this man asked Jesus to heal him and pronounce him cleansed. But, if you follow the narrative, Jesus sternly warned the man to keep his mouth shut about Jesus pronouncing him clean. He knew this was a boundary that would feed into a deadly fight with the Pharisees. Considering that John's daddy was a priest, they knew who John was.

“When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the division of priests named after Abijah. Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron.”
(Luke 1:5 GW)

Their question had no politeness connected to it. It is more of a challenge, similar to who do you think you are. The other side of this coin is that Jesus' own disciples, and several of them left John to join Jesus, did not understand that He was the Messiah, as they were looking for a warring messiah that would free them from Roman oppression, etc. This misconception stayed with them until they were filled with the Holy Spirit in the upper room after Jesus left the earth.

“John didn’t refuse to answer. He told them clearly, “I’m not the Messiah.”
(John 1:20 GW)

Adam Clarke wrote: “John renounces himself, that Jesus may be all in all.” Really, at this point, John is enjoying some freedom, but the day is coming after denouncing the actions of Herod."

“For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip,”
(Matthew 14:3 TLV)

John is close to death, so he sends some of his disciples to Jesus to do what?

“Now when John heard in prison about the works of the Messiah, he sent word through his disciples and said to Yeshua, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”
(Matthew 11:2-3 TLV)

““What then? Are you Elijah?” they asked him. “I am not,” said John. “Are you the Prophet?” “No,” he answered.”
(John 1:21 TLV)

• Are you Elijah?

  The answer is NO.

• Are you the prophet?

  Just a touch on the repetitious side. Wasn't Elijah a prophet? Yes, he was, and NO he never died because God took him, and this piece of evidence sort of mandates that Elijah must physically die. 

John told them straight out, I am not Elijah. Then who is this other prophet? Adam Clarke says this is the prophet spoken of by Moses, Deuteronomy 18:15,18.

“Instead, he will send you a prophet like me (Moses) from among your own people, and you are to obey him.”
(Deuteronomy 18:15 GNB)

I had no idea that Moses was a prophet.

“I will send them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command.”
(Deuteronomy 18:18 GNB)

This line, “I will tell him what to say, and he will tell the people everything I command,” says much about the character of Jesus.

“He will speak in my name, and I will punish anyone who refuses to obey him.” (Deuteronomy 18:19 GNB)

Every word that Jesus spoke was focused on the instructions of the Father, no matter how random those words may have seemed.

“So they said to him, “Who are you? Give us an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”
(John 1:22 TLV)

I am not sure it mattered what the answer was; no matter how ridiculous, it just needed to quell the angst of the Jewish leadership. 

“He said, “I am ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of Adonai,”’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
(John 1:23 TLV)

The words that stand out in my mind are the same that I chose for my blog.” Why did I choose that? Because I felt, and still feel, like I am sharing God's voice and no one is listening. Someday soon, they will hear. 

It is never too late to make straight the way of Adonai, as long as you have breath in your lungs.