Matthew 3

SUMMARY.--The Preaching of John. The Kingdom of Heaven. John's Raiment and Food. The Great Multitudes. The Pharisee and Sadducees. Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire. Jesus Comes for Baptism. Jesus Baptized in the Jordan. The Anointing of the Spirit. The Voice from Heaven.

      1. In those days. Many years after the incidents of the last chapter; somewhere from twenty-five to thirty. Came John the Baptist. Called the Baptist or Baptizer because he baptized the people. He came forth as a preacher and reformer. He was the subject of prophecy ( Isa. 40:3 Mal. 3:1 ); his birth was announced by an angel; he was of a priestly family, the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary. He was now about thirty years old. Preaching in the wilderness of Judea. A region thinly inhabited, used mostly for pasture, a rocky tract in the eastern part of Judea and west of the Jordan and the Dead Sea.

      2. Repent ye. The great rite of John was baptism, but the great duty commanded was repentance. Repentance is more than a sorrow for sin; it is a determination to abandon it and live a new life. It means a change of the will, or heart, new purposes, a determination to leave off sinning. Sorrow is not repentance, but "godly sorrow worketh repentance" ( 2 Cor. 7:10 ). The kingdom of heaven. The long expected kingdom ruled by the Messiah King, predicted by the prophets, and especially by Daniel ( Dan. 2:44 ). The announcement of this anxiously-waited-for kingdom thrilled all Judea. Is at hand. It is to be noted: 1. That the kingdom to which he referred was in the future, but near. It did not begin with Abraham, or David, or even with John the Baptist. 2. It is the kingdom of heaven, not an earthly kingdom, and hence, must have a King sent from heaven. That King was not yet revealed to the public, but we have seen that one was born at Bethlehem who was to be the King. John was not the founder, but the herald of the coming King.

      3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. John was called a voice, (1) because the whole man was a sermon; (2) because he would call no attention to himself as a person, but only to the Savior, whose way he had come to prepare. For the prophecy see Isa. 40:3 . Prepare ye the way of the Lord. The messengers sent before the eastern kings prepared the way for the chariots and armies of their monarchs. A "king's highway" had to be carried through the open land of the wilderness, valleys filled up, and hills leveled. Interpreted in its spiritual application, the wilderness was the world lying in evil. Make his paths straight. Roads that have not been properly directed at the beginning. So are the ways of men when no preparation has been made for the GREAT KING. When John cried, Make his paths straight, he meant, Stop your crooked ways.

      4. Raiment of camel's hair. See 2 Kings 1:8 . Not the camel's skin with hair on it, but a garment made of the shaggier camel's hair, woven in a coarse fabric. It was recognized as a garb of the prophets ( Zech. 13:4 ), and is still worn in the East by the poor. A leathern girdle about his loins. The "leathern girdle" may be seen around the body of the common laborer. It fastens the loose raiment of the East about the waist. His meat. Food. Locusts. Permitted to the Jews as an article of food ( Lev. 11:22 ), and still used by the poorer classes in Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. They are a large, voracious insect, much like the Rocky Mountain grasshopper. Wild honey. Honey deposited by wild swarms of bees in the rocks. So abundant was it that Palestine was described as "flowing with milk and honey." John was no epicure, and used such food as the wilderness provided.

      5. There went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea. These expressions must be taken, not as meaning every individual, but as showing the wonderful impression produced by his preaching. All Judea, and among the rest, the people of Jerusalem came.

      6. And were baptized of him in the Jordan. Note that the baptism took place not at, but in, in the Jordan. Mark says, "in the river Jordan." The Jordan, the principal stream of Palestine, rises in the mountains of Lebanon, runs south into the sea of Galilee, leaves it and descends southward along Galilee, Samaria and Judea, to the Dead Sea. In many places the streams is fordable, and furnishes good facilities for baptizing. Confessing their sins. Baptism itself, a burial in water, a "baptism into death," a symbol of the burial of one who dies to the old life, is a confession of sins. There was, perhaps, also a verbal confession. The acknowledgment of sin, repentance and baptism are prescribed as conditions of pardon.