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 3:2323And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, (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. 4:5-65Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: 6And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Malachi 4:5‑6), Matt. 17:1212But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. (Matthew 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 19:44Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. (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 3:4-64As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 5Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; 6And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (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, 1413Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? 14And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. (Daniel 8:13‑14), plainly speaks of it, and Deut. 11:2121That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. (Deuteronomy 11:21), Psa. 89:2929His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. (Psalm 89:29), Dan. 4:2626And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule. (Daniel 4:26), and Matt. 6:1010Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matthew 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 1:88And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite. (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. 9:1111But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; (Hebrews 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. 11:2222Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. (Leviticus 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 1:55For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (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. 23:6,76But the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: 7But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; and they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place. (2 Samuel 23:6‑7)). The land of Israel (the “floor:” Isa. 21:1010O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. (Isaiah 21:10)) should be the scene of both blessing and judgment. There the wheat has already been gathered into the garner (Acts 2:4747Praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (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. 3:2525He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. (Daniel 3:25), Isa. 43:2, 32When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. 3For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. (Isaiah 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 18:1919And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. (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. 1:11Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. (Ezekiel 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. 8:1212And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. (Leviticus 8:12))—in token of the perfection of His person, as we are anointed—like the priest’s sons after the sacrifice (Lev. 8:3030And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him. (Leviticus 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. 2:99But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 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 1:5151And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (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.