What the Bible Is All About KJV by Henrietta C. Mears

Author:Henrietta C. Mears
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2011-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

MATTHEW 3–16:20: PROCLAMATION OF THE KINGDOM

John the Baptist had another name. As the prophet Isaiah began to unfold the real message of his book—the coming of the Messiah, servant of Jehovah—he introduced a character known simply as “the voice”: “the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3). This voice, although unnamed in Isaiah, is to announce the coming of Jesus Christ. His two functions—that of voice and that of messenger—are all that the Old Testament tells us of John the Baptist (see Malachi 3:1). But it actually tells us a lot. It is indeed wonderful, not only that Christ should have been foretold all through the Scriptures, but also that His forerunner, John the Baptist, also is described.

In Matthew’s Gospel we hear the “voice”: “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” (Matthew 3:2-3).

The King must be announced! It was the duty of this herald to go before the King, as a Roman officer before his ruler, and command that the roads be repaired over which his master would travel. John the Baptist did this. He showed that the spiritual roads of the lives of men and women and nations were full of the potholes of sin and sharp turns of sinfulness, and they needed repairing and straightening.

We see the King stepping from His personal and private life into His public ministry (see Matthew 4). He is facing a crisis. Satan met Him after He received His Father’s blessing at His baptism: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus then begins to carry out the plans for which He came into the world. He was led into the wilderness to face the first major conflict of His public ministry.

Notice that Satan offered Jesus a shortcut to the universal Kingdom He had come to gain through the long and painful way of the cross; but Christ came to be a Savior first and then a King. How strong is the temptation to take a shortcut to our ambitions! Jesus stood victorious, His shield undented and untarnished. He went forth to conquer all other temptations, until His final victory and ascension to heaven as Lord of all (see 1 Corinthians 10:13).

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