Hanukkah and the Messiah p. 3 The Forerunner of the Messiah p



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His Position



v.17: He was the one who was to go before the Messiah to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That is, to prepare the people to accept the long-promised the Messiah.
He is the one predicted in Isaiah 40:3-11 over 700 years before his birth! John is the last of the Old Testament Prophets although he appears in the New Testament.
See John 1:6-8
Arnold Fruchtenbaum summarizes the position (or role) of John the Baptist:
John’s roles were:


  1. To go in the spirit and power of Elijah to bring repentance to the people

  2. To restore the fathers’ hearts to their children and the children’s hearts to their fathers (Malachi 4:6)

  3. To prepare a people to receive Christ

(ibid. p. 44)

His Pilgrimage (his life to the beginning of his ministry)

Given the command in Deuteronomy 6:4-9 about the training of children, and given their carefulness to follow God’s Word, as well as their obvious knowledge, you can be sure that John was taught the Scriptures very well in this godly home.


Given the understanding that his father had of John’s position in the plan of God as the forerunner of the Messiah, this was a central part of John’s home training. From the earliest age John knew his mission in life and, even more importantly, he freely accepted it.
Luke 1:80
This one verse probably covers about 27-28 years of the life of John the Baptist. There is no information about this time in his life except this one short verse.
“so became strong in spirit”: that is, spiritual strength. He advanced to spiritual maturity at a young age under the training of his parents and his own personal studies.
“he lived in the deserts”: Given the age of his parents, it seems probable that they died when John was still a young person, perhaps an older teenager at best. It is important to note that being a Levite would prevent John from touching the bodies of his parents when they died. Others would have to do the necessary work and burial for him.
When did he go to the wilderness? It is impossible to know, but G. Campbell Morgan writes this which is worth considering:
I think, without any question, John went to the deserts when he was twenty years old. He was a priest; his father was a priest; he was in the priestly line; and in the Hebrew economy the sons of the priests had to take up their courses in the priesthood when they were twenty years of age. I think that he then broke with the priesthood and Temple, under Divine command, and went into the deserts.
(The Gospel According to Luke, Fleming H. Revel, 1994, p.33)
Matthew 3:1, 4; Mark 1:4, 6 – go back to page 9 to see the desert (wilderness) region of Judea where John lived and worked.
John did not live an easy life in the wilderness. He dressed in the simplest, cheapest, and roughest of clothing. His clothing was like that of the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 1:8); the food he ate would not make it on the top favorites list of foods! He would have lived in a cave for his home, water from the few streams for survival, and he would have been very much alone.
But he knew his purpose and that God was preparing him for his future usefulness. Do we know this about ourselves? John was satisfied with what God had provided. Are we?
Luke 3:1-2: after all the years of waiting in the wilderness (probably about 10 years), the Lord spoke to John and let him know that the time was right to begin his ministry. See Malachi 3:1, 4:5.
The word of the Lord did not come to the rich and the powerful, it came to a man of humble means who was prepared for the task.

His Proclamation



Matthew 3:5-6: John had a popular ministry which attracted many people and much attention by the Jewish leadership. He became so popular that some even thought that maybe he was the Messiah: John 3:25-30.
Luke 7:30: the Jewish leadership rejected John the Baptist and his message just as later they would reject Messiah Jesus and His message.
Mark 1:7-8; Luke 3:1-18; John 1:19-36, 3:22-36
Once again let me borrow from Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s Life of the Messiah:
These passages tell the general content of John’s message.


  1. Repentance is the main theme; turn back to God.

  2. The Kingdom of God is announced. Its arrival is at hand. This message has messianic overtones.

  3. The multitude who respond to John’s message undergo a baptism of repentance.

(ibid. p.74)



NOTE: This call to repentance is not a call for individuals to receive eternal life. Rather, it is a call for the nation to return to God in preparation for the offer of the Kingdom that Messiah Jesus would make to the nation. Repentance is never something an unbeliever has to do to receive the free gift of eternal life either in the Old Testament or the New Testament.
Robert Wilkin writes:
John the Baptist did not say that the kingdom would have come if the nation had merely repented. He said that the nation should repent since the kingdom of God was at hand. In reality John also called for faith in the Messiah as a second condition for the kingdom to come for that generation of (cf. John 1:7; Acts 19:4). In order for the Lord Jesus to give the kingdom to that first century generation of Jews, the nation had to repent of her sins and believe in Him.
(The Ten Most Misunderstood Words, Grace Evangelical Society, 2012, p.112)
John 3:36: John the Baptist is speaking and he is very clear that the only condition to receive eternal life individually is to believe in the Son.
Note: NASB uses the word “obey” which is fine if it connected to John 6:29 where Jesus tells people that the only thing necessary is to believe in Him for eternal life. However, the “believe” is in the best manuscripts and should be here in this verse.
John 1:29-34: John had the honor of identifying Jesus as the Passover Lamb of God who, through Hid sacrifice, would take away the sins of the world!
Matthew 3:13-17: John had the highest honor of all to be the one who would baptized the Messiah even though he protested that he was unworthy to do this baptism. The baptism of the Messiah by John was His identification with the purpose of God the Father for Him in time. It was here that the public ministry of Jesus began with the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16). The voice of God the Father is heard speaking in approval of His Son Jesus (Matthew 3:17).


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