Matthew 3:2-4. “And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is He that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one, crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”
There are three specific Old Testament prophecies fulfilled in John the Baptist. These are: Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1, and 4:5-6. His description reminds us of Elias, the Tishbite: “He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins: (2 Kings 1:8).
The prophecy in Malachi 4:5-6 is the last time God speaks to Israel through His prophets until John the Baptist, a prophet in every way, appears to announce the coming of the King. The prophecy refers to the second coming, when Elijah, in person, will minister to Israel just before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Exciting times, and I believe we’re living in the prologue. While I understand that believers have always felt things couldn’t get much worse, that Christ MUST be soon returning, I look at all the prophecies of Israel coming together in the last 65-70 years and I have to believe it will be soon. Of course, God’s “soon” doesn’t have to correlate to my “soon.”
Back to John. He clearly knew what his job was. He clearly knew Who Jesus was. He makes this startlingly plain in John 1:23 when he says, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.” He denied that he was Elijah, knowing that was not the prophecy he fulfilled. He knew he was not the one the Jewish leaders all waited for to announce the Messiah coming as King. Orthodox Jews expect him still, and reserve a cup for Elijah at each Passover meal, hoping always for him to appear and announce the coming of the King Who will restore their position as God’s chosen people.
John was, however, the Elijah for his day. Later, we read in Matt. 17:12, “Elias cometh and restoreth all things; But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they did not recognize him, but did unto him whatever they would.” Again, we see Israel rejecting not only Jesus, but His prophet; and they did so because He did not come as King to free Israel from Roman governance. He did not meet their expectations.
I rarely step aside into a devotional mode in these posts, but I feel the prompting of the Spirit to do so this morning.
How often do we lose faith and trust in God because He did not meet our expectations? We prayed and prayed, hoped and dreamed and planned, and yet our prayers were not answered. God didn’t come through for us.
The problem is not with God. The problem is that we were “asking amiss, to consume it upon our own lusts” (James 4:3). We failed to claim the promise that if we delight ourselves in the Lord, He will instill in our hearts His own desires (Psalm 37:4). Our expectations need to be reexamined now and then, and brought into line with what God has offered and promised that He will do for us; too often, we ask for what we want, not what He wants.
Linda's Bible Study 