Matthew 3:1-12 - John the Baptist

Can you believe it? We've moved on to a different chapter! I'm going to make a concerted effort to move quicker. There was just a lot of background to cover in chapter 2. From here on out we won't camp out for so long.

Okay, I mentioned a while back that the verb tenses make a shift between chapter 2 and chapter 3. In chapters 1 & 2, the tenses were primarily aorist (you don't have to know what that means). In chapter 3, they are primarily present tense. Basically, we could think of the first couple of chapters as backgrounding and now we are in the foreground. Its like a wideangle shot in a movie then zooming in for a closeup. We are about to be introduced to Jesus. But before that, the suspense builds with this first part of chapter 3, as John the Baptist, the forerunner, predicts Jesus' intro.


By way of reminder, when we look for the main point of a text, we want to pay special attention to any "authoritative speakers" we find. We have one in this passage, of course - John. The first 6 verses serve to establish him as such a speaker, telling us why what he says is important. In the second half of the passage we see that all the dialogue comes from him. So, we get his resume, so to speak, in the first part of the passage, so that we will pay close attention to what he says in the second part of the passage. Everything is moving toward the dialogue, so it is the dialogue that will hold the key to our interpretation.


Today we'll take some time to look at this first part, why we should pay attention to this guy. The most obvious reason is the OT quotation from Isaiah 40:3. As in the previous 2 chapters, Matthew is not being subtle here. John the Baptist is the one about whom Isaiah prophesied.

It is helpful to understand the context of the OT verse being quoted. In Isaiah 39, Isaiah has told Hezekiah of the coming Babylonian exile. Chapter 40 opens with, "Comfort, O comfort My people," says your God. "Speak kindly to Jerusalem; and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins." A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. "Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; Then the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Let me say something real quick about a concept called multiple fulfillment. Frequently, in the Bible we find prophecies that have a near future fulfillment and a distant future fulfillment. That is, the prophecy is fulfilled multiple times. That is the case here. The coming of John the Baptist as the forerunner for Jesus is the distant future fulfillment.

Thus, the Lord is sending a message of comfort promising salvation from the LORD. This idea is prominent in the prophets and throughout the OT. The book of Judges is especially helpful in terms of God sending salvation following God’s judgment for the sins of His people. In each ‘cycle’ of sin and salvation in Judges, God raises up a redeemer. This text in Isaiah trumpets the ultimate redeemer, God Himself and calls on a forerunner to prepare the way. So, what does this tell us about John? His words are to be heeded - he is preparing the way for salvation.

There is something else very cool here lending credibility to John that our modern culture would never pick up on a casual reading. What's the deal with the clothes? Well, John's description in the greek text is an almost verbatim copy of the description of Elijah in 2Kings 1:8 LXX (LXX is the 'Septuagint'; it is the greek Old Testament used by most Jews during this time period.) In Matthew 11:14, Jesus confirms that John is a prophet and says that John is Elijah.

What about the diet? Later, Jesus tells us that John 'came neither eating nor drinking' (11:18). This just means that he didn't eat meat or drink wine, which is what this passage is implying. He was set apart, consecrated to the Lord.

All of this says, "John is an authoritative speaker. Listen to John."

Now, what does it mean for John to be a forerunner?

We'll talk about that next time. If you can, read the second half of this passage several times and think about what John is doing to prepare the way for Jesus. And what does that mean for us as we tell people about Jesus?