What would a voice in the desert sound like?
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| English: This is a map of first century Iudaea Province that I created using Illustrator CS2. I traced this image for the general geographic features. I then manually input data from maps found in a couple of sources. Robert W. Funk and the Jesus Seminar. The Acts of Jesus. HarperSanFrancisco: 1998. p. xxiv. Michael Grant. Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels. Charles Scribner's Sons: 1977. p. 65-67. John P. Meier. A Marginal Jew. Doubleday: 1991. p. 1:434. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Following Christ’s move to Galilee, Matthew does not give any further details
of Jesus’ childhood. Instead, he picks up the story of his gospel three
decades after Jesus returns from Egypt, as we learn elsewhere that He is about thirty when He begins His ministry (Luke 3:23). The events of Matthew 3 take place around A.D. 27, and Joseph has probably already passed on, as none of the other gospels mention him during Jesus’ adult life. In all likelihood, Joseph has been gone for awhile, with the responsibility to support the family resting on Jesus and His brothers, that is, until His itinerant preaching begins.
This passage depicts John the Baptist’s ministry in the “wilderness of
Judea” (v. 1), a region covering the Jordan valley just north and west of the
Dead Sea. His message is well-received by the Jews in Palestine, and crowds
from all of Judea receive his baptism (vv. 5–6). Importantly, in John’s day
the voice of prophecy has been silent for 400 years according to various
extra-canonical writings. When John ministers in the wilderness wearing
camel’s hair, the people associate him with Elijah, who acted similarly (1
Kings 19; 2 Kings 1:7–8), and consider John a prophet (Matt. 21:23–27).
Through John the people realize that God is speaking to them again.
In 3:3, Matthew again says prophecy is fulfilled at the coming of Jesus and
cites Isaiah 40:3. The meaning of this passage for Isaiah’s original audience
shows us how John fulfills it. Isaiah 40 is about the restoration promised to
the exiled Israelites after they repent. A highway for God will be built, and
the people will travel back to their land in glory (v. 3). The exiles longed
for this day, but the promise of glory did not occur when they returned to
Palestine, for the nation as a whole did not repent. In a real sense, life in
exile away from the Lord’s blessing continued even though many of the people
had returned. John is the ultimate realization of Isaiah 40:3 because he sets
the stage for the Lord’s favor to come to the exiles. Jesus is the way through
which God’s blessing comes to His people (John 14:6), and in heralding His
coming, John is the road that leads the nation to blessing and thus to God in
Christ.
John the Baptist was the primary herald of Christ in his day, but the task of
bearing witness to the Savior was not laid solely upon him. Jesus Himself
commissioned first the apostles, and secondly, the entire church to testify to
the grace of God manifest in His life, death, and resurrection. Our witness
will only be effective if, as with John, the surrounding culture sees that the
church is different. Is your manner of life different than that of an
unbeliever’s?
