Matthew 3 introduces us to John the Baptist, but we are not told too much about him. Luke chapter 3 tells us he is the miracle son of the priest Zachariah and his wife Elizabeth, who were well beyond child-bearing years.
John was not a Baptist, nor was his name actually John. His Hebrew name is Yochanan, meaning Yahweh is a gracious giver. The names of his parents mean Yahweh remembers, and the oath of Yahweh.
Names mean something in scripture. Taken together, we see a prophetic promise in the names of this priestly family: Yahweh remembers His oath, and He has sent a gracious gift.
The gracious gift was their son, given to them in their old age, who was to have the privilege of preparing hearts for the arrival of the Messiah. In Luke 1:72-73, we even see Zechariah referring to the oath of the Lord in the midst of his beautiful prophecy: …to show mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham…
Now John, who was himself of the priestly lineage, preached in the wilderness of Judea. Verse 2 gives us his message: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
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| Artist's rendering of John preaching at the Jordan River |
John was preparing hearts to receive their king.
Repentance is a key theme in the Hebrew scriptures, and John’s audience would have understood what was being asked of them. The Hebrew word shoov is used over 1000 times in the scriptures, and it means to turn back or return. The word teshuva, based on this root word, is understood in Hebrew as turning back to God and away from sin.
The kingdom of heaven is Matthew’s way of saying God’s kingdom to Jews who generally avoided using God’s name or title (and still do to this day). Luke, writing to a more Gentile audience, generally uses the latter expression. But they mean the same thing. The kingdom of the Lord was about to be offered to the Jewish people. Would they accept?
Matthew then quotes lsaiah 40:3 in verse 3, saying, For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Malachi 4:5 says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.
Matthew 3:4 goes on to basically describe Elijah the prophet. John wore camel’s hair and a leather belt, and ate locusts and wild honey. For comparison, 2 Kings 1:8 says, They answered him [Ahaziah, king of Israel], “He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
Further on in Matthew, we will see Yeshua referring to John the Baptist as Elijah (chapters 11 and 17 if you want to read ahead, also Luke 1:17). This does not mean that John was literally Elijah, but was a prophetic type of Elijah. I believe that Malachi 4:5 is a near/far prophecy, and that we will see a type of Elijah again just before Yeshua’s return.
Before moving on, I want to talk about the idea of making the paths straight. It was an ancient custom to fix pathways and hills that were damaged by rains, heat, and constant treading of animals, in preparation for the arrival of royalty. Boulders and debris would be removed, holes filled in, and paths leveled.
Isaiah 40:4 was not quoted in Matthew, but it would have been understood: Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Let me share a modern day example. In 2017, I was in Jerusalem during the visit of President Donald Trump. The president was transported from Ben Gurion Airport to a parking lot in south Jerusalem via the presidential helicopter Marine One. I happened to be staying at a friend’s house just across from that parking lot. The Jerusalem city workers had literally flattened that parking lot; removing bushes, trees, and raised curbs prior to Trump’s arrival. My friend actually saw the landing and caught it on video. I was off galivanting, so I missed the excitement.
So John, a prophetic picture of Elijah, was dunking people in the Jordan river as they confessed their sins. Many people think of baptism as a Christian idea, but it is rooted in biblical Judaism. The modern Hebrew term for ritual immersion is mikveh. In the Hebrew scriptures, there are many examples of ritual bathing to remove uncleanness, which morphed into the custom of dunking in the mikveh for various life events. On my first visit to Israel, our secular Jewish tour guide explained that immersing in the mikveh was like becoming a newborn baby… in other words, born again. When Peter and company immersed 3000 people in Acts 2, they most likely used the ritual baths (over 60 of them) that have been discovered around the Temple Mount.
Matthew 3:5-6 shows people from all around the area – Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordan River region – flocking to the place where John was immersing people while they repented and confessed their sins. Word was getting around that something big was afoot, and even the bigwigs of Judaism were making their way to hear John. But I don’t believe they expected to hear what John was going to say, and that will be covered in my next post.
Before ending, I just want to say that the location of John’s baptism site was no random spot. It is the very location where the Israelites crossed into the Promised Land from the wilderness. God was about to begin something new. The very word for Hebrew comes from the word Eber, which means one from beyond. The idea here is crossing over from darkness to light.
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| See below for explanation of this painting |
I once saw this amazing painting hanging on an outdoor wall in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. I'm so glad I took a photo because I haven't seen it since. It is a picture of crossing from darkness to light, but there is more going on here. The Hebrew letters Alef and Tav are attached to the cliffs, and the person walking is carrying the Mem (Hebrew reads from right to left). Alef and Tav are equivalent to the Alpha and Omega in the Greek - the first and the last, the beginning and the end. The Mem which is being carried will fit perfectly to make a bridge between the Alef and the Tav. Alef Mem Tav spells Emet - meaning truth in Hebrew. The Mem is the first letter of the word Mashiach, or Messiah.
Watch for a post on the second half of this chapter, coming soon.
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