Voice in the Wilderness
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his manner and dress he resembled the prophet Elijah. With the spirit
and power of Elijah he denounced the national corruption, and rebuked
the prevailing sins. His words were plain, pointed, and convincing.
Many believed him to be one of the prophets risen from the dead. The
whole nation was stirred. Multitudes flocked to the wilderness.
John proclaimed the coming of the Messiah, and called the people
to repentance. As a symbol of cleansing from sin, he baptized them
in the waters of the Jordan. Thus by a significant object lesson he
declared that those who claimed to be the chosen people of God were
defiled by sin, and that without purification of heart and life they could
have no part in the Messiah’s kingdom.
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Princes and rabbis, soldiers, publicans, and peasants came to hear
the prophet. For a time the solemn warning from God alarmed them.
Many were brought to repentance, and received baptism. Persons
of all ranks submitted to the requirement of the Baptist, in order to
participate in the kingdom he announced.
Many of the scribes and Pharisees came confessing their sins,
and asking for baptism. They had exalted themselves as better than
other men, and had led the people to entertain a high opinion of their
piety; now the guilty secrets of their lives were unveiled. But John
was impressed by the Holy Spirit that many of these men had no real
conviction of sin. They were timeservers. As friends of the prophet,
they hoped to find favor with the coming Prince. And by receiving
baptism at the hands of this popular young teacher, they thought to
strengthen their influence with the people.
John met them with the scathing inquiry, “O generation of vipers,
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth
therefore fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say within your-
selves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is
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able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
The Jews had misinterpreted God’s promise of eternal favor to
Israel: “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day,
and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night,
which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts
is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord,
then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me
forever. Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and
the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast