The prominent features of this chapter are the mission of John the Baptist, and the entrance upon the scene by the Lord Himself.
Judging from c. 2, 16 (Luke 3:23), about twenty-eight years are passed over by the Spirit of God in silence, Luke only giving us a glimpse of the Lord during this period. He, too, gives us the birth and early history of John the Baptist. Matthew speaks only of his ministry. About six months older than the Lord—he was to go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias (Mal. 4:5-6, Matt. 17:12), and make ready a people prepared for the Lord. A prophet he was, and more than a prophet—seeing he not only spoke of the kingdom to come like other prophets, but introduced the King in person. But yet, though greatest of those born of women, he was not in the kingdom itself.
He now enters upon his ministry, and we may observe first the subject of it, then the place where it takes place, then his own characteristic manner of dress and living.
Paul, in Acts 19:4, tells us that his mission was to bring the people to repentance, and to believe on a Messiah to come. Here we get a fuller revelation. He announces that Jehovah Himself is coming, and that therefore they were to prepare His way. He further tells them that the kingdom of the heavens is at hand; and lastly, in view of these two facts, their true position was that of self-judgment or repentance.
The application of Isa. 40 is remarkable here in contrast with Luke 3:4-6. In each case the Evangelist takes as much of the prophecy as was suitable to his subject. In Luke, inasmuch as the wider glory of the Son of Man is brought in, “all flesh” are mentioned; here, inasmuch as the Messiah is in view, that part is omitted.
The kingdom of the heavens is what John announces. No longer allegiance to the law is set before the people, but a new state of things well known to those conversant with the prophets, for nearly all had mentioned it. Dan. 8:13, 14, plainly speaks of it, and Deut. 11:21, Psa. 89:29, Dan. 4:26, and Matt. 6:10, describe its characters. God’s government will then be openly manifested upon the earth, and His will done on earth as it is in heaven. As we know the period of its establishment has now been indefinitely postponed, and the kingdom of heaven in mystery (the mystery being that the King is absent), is the consequence of the Jews’ rejection of their Messiah. God, however, as yet, tests His people by the offer of “the days of heaven upon earth.”
The place where he ministers is “the wilderness”—this is emphatic—not Jerusalem, “beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth;” for “the city of the great king” was no longer owned of God, and, therefore, He sends His servant apart from the court and form of godliness to draw out the people, whose hearts God had touched, to take new ground through the baptism of repentance. They no longer range themselves under the headship of Moses,—but under John Baptist they wait for the Messiah.
Quite in character are John’s dress and manner of life. In connection with the camels’ hair and leathern girdle (and compare 2 Kings 1:8), we read of the goats’ hair covering of the tabernacle, and the sheepskins and goats’ skins of those “of whom the world was not worthy” (Heb. 11). The first points us to the separate character of Christ as He walked here on the earth, for the tabernacle is a figure of the person of Christ (Heb. 9:11). The last tells us that those who followed in His footsteps maintained the same characteristic features—inferior, of course, but similar. His food, too, was not of the city, but of the wilderness (Lev. 11:22).
The result of his ministry now comes under our notice. Many of the Jews, discontented, no doubt, with the existing state of things, were baptized of him in Jordan, not pleading righteousness, wisdom, law—but confessing sinfulness, the only “way of righteousness” for the time (c. 21:32).
The Pharisees and Sadducees accompany the crowd; but John, detecting their insincerity, exposes their true characters, and warns them not only that true repentance would bring forth fruit, but that hereditary privileges would net avail without it, and moreover that God, who raised up Abraham to be His servant, could also raise up children to him from the very stones. It was not a question now of mere fruit-bearing, but God was about to test the root itself, and unless there was true repentance, root and branch would alike be cast into the eternal burning.
He then unfolds the purpose of the Lord’s mission, in contrast with his own. His was to lead the upright in heart to confess their sins—the Lord’s was to baptize with the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:5) those who thus took their true place, and to burn up utterly those whose hearts remained untouched by his warnings (2 Sam. 23:6,7). The land of Israel (the “floor:” Isa. 21:10) should be the scene of both blessing and judgment. There the wheat has already been gathered into the garner (Acts 2:47); there the apostates will yet, in the time of the great tribulation, be burned with fire unquenchable.
Jesus Himself now appears upon the scene from the solitudes of Galilee, where we had so lately left Him, and, graciously owning the working of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the people so dear to Him, He desires to identify Himself with them, and though sinless Himself, to take a place in grace side by side with them, in order to accompany them in their trials, and encourage them by His presence (Dan. 3:25, Isa. 43:2, 3). John beautifully owns his unfitness for the office, but this does not hinder the devotedness of the Lord. He saw His people’s need, and will not be prevented from meeting them in that need; and here the words of Psa. 16 are beautifully appropriate, altering a little as Hebrew scholars say the present version— “O my soul, thou last said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee (Luke 18:19), but to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in them is all my delight.” He thoroughly identifies himself with them when he says, “Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” And now, what is surely most precious to us, we find that at the moment He is taking the lowest place, the Father pays Him the highest honor. (“He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”) Never before do we read of the heavens being opened excepting in vision (Ezek. 1:1); but now that there was on earth an object worthy of their opening to, they were opened unto Him, and in the form of a dove, the Holy Ghost descends upon Him. He who was gentleness itself was “anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power”—without a sacrifice like the High Priest of old (Lev. 8:12)—in token of the perfection of His person, as we are anointed—like the priest’s sons after the sacrifice (Lev. 8:30)—in token of the perfection of His work. And at the same time the Father’s voice is heard proclaiming His absolute delight in the Son who had ever displayed His glory. And thus Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, stand—confessed at the entrance of Jesus on His ministry. And now, in conclusion, we may well point to the fourfold opening of the heaven, as Scripture records it. Here we find the heavens opened to gaze down on Him on earth. In Acts, they are again opened to Stephen; and to us with Him (Heb. 2:9); and look up at Jesus, rejected of man, but exalted of God. Pass on now to Rev. 19, and we find them again opened to allow Him to come forth to execute vengeance on His enemies; and in John 1:51, we find them again opened to gaze on Him, as peace having been proclaimed, the angels wait on Him to do His bidding; when, as Son of Man, He has set up His kingdom; when His will is done on earth as in heaven.