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T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
July 1924
is exercised for their frequent or special clearing. In many parts of the East the ancient roads were prepared or re paired only at the special call of the king, for his special service on an exceptional occasion. John was a herald sent out to prepare the way for Christ the King.—Henry Clay Trumbull. V. S. Isaiah probably thought of the coming Deliverer as leading his sheep through the wilderness of their trials, like the march of the Israelites from Egypt across the wil derness to the promised land, or like the return of the exiles over the desert from Babylonia.—Peloubet. “ Pre pare ye” -—the responsibility was placed upon the people themselves.—-Sel. V. 4. Here the Spirit of God brooded over him, and made him a great prophet. He was called John the Baptist be cause of his emphasis on the rite of baptism. “ Repentance” — this repentance looked toward God’s forgiveness of their sins, and that forgiveness did away with their sins, sent them away, for that is what “ remission” means. Of course there is nothing yet of faith in Christ, which is the Christian ground for forgiveness; John was an Old Testament prophet living in New Testament times.—Peloubet. V. 6. The common brown locust is about three inches in length, and the general form is that of a grasshopper.— Dr. Harris... Locusts have been used as food from the ear liest times. Herodotus speaks of a Libyan nation who dried their locusts in the sun, and ate them with milk. The more common .method, however, was to pull off the legs and wings and roast them in an iron dish. Then they were thrown into a bag and eaten like parched corn, each one taking a handful when he chose.—Biblical Treasury. V. 7. “ Lace” and “ lachet” come from the same root; we speak of shoe laces, not latchets. Ancient sandals were fastened to the feet by thongs, and it was the duty of the lowest slave, as a guest entered, to unfasten his sandals and bathe his feet. John felt himself unworthy to perform even this menial labor for Jesus. We cannot fail to think of the opposite spirit shown by Christ’s disciples in the upper room, where our Lord himself had to wash His disciples’ feet as a rebuke to their pride.—Peloubet. V. 8. Because we are cleansed from the guilt of sin by Christ, who “ loosed us from our sins by His blood,” the water of baptism represents the cleansing blood of Christ. But because the cleansing which we need is an actual cleansing of the heart by the power of the Holy Spirit, the water of baptism represents especially the Holy Spirit who imparts to us a new nature. So baptism is a symbol of the new birth and of the beginning of a new life of obediemce. When Jesus commissioned His disciples to go and make disciples of all nations, He commanded them to baptize the nations “ into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’M-jrRev. P. H. Miller. V. 9. . The time when John was announcing the advent of the Messiah and baptizing the people. Luke 3:23 tells us that Jesus “ when He began to teach, was about thirty years of age.” That was the age appointed under the Levitical law for the beginning of the service of every Levite who “ came to do the work of service, and the work of bearing burdens in the tent of meeting.” : (Num. 4:43, 47).— Salmond. Why should our Lord, who was without sin, have come to a baptism of repentance? Because He was made sin for us, for the same reason as He suffered the curse of the law. It became Him, being “ in the likeness of sinful flesh,” to go through those appointed rites and puri fications which belonged to that flesh. There is no more strangeness in His having been baptized by John than in His keeping the passover. The one rite, as the other, be longed to sinners—-and “ He was numbered with the trans gressors.”—Alford. V. 10. Literally, “ tearing apart,” He saw the sky in the act of opening. Stephen had such a vision at his martyrdom (Acts 7:56) and Peter when the great sheet descended from heaven (Acts 10:11).—Peloubet. V. H i This was the first of three such voices that spoke to Jesus during His ministry, the other two being at His transfiguration (Mark 9:7) and in the courts of the temple during the week just before His crucifixion (John 12:28). This was the Father speaking and the Holy Spirit had just descended upon Jesus so that the three- persons of the Trinity were made, manifest on that occasion.— Sel. Here was the greatest meeting ever held on earth. The whole Trinity present— the Father, invisible, speaking from the clouds, the Spirit descending like a dove, and the Son in the temple of clay.-—Whiteman.
The baptism of Jesus is very properly looked upon as a crisis in His career, for it marks the transition from the thirty years of quiet, private life to the three years of stren uous public life and ministry. Let us consider the three outstand- DEVOTTONAL ing things connected with His bap- COMMENT tism— the rite itself, the descent of the John A. Hubbard Spirit, and the voice from heaven. “ John baptized with the baptism of repentance,” and for this reason he practically refused at first to baptize Jesus, for He had no sins of which to re pent. Why then was He baptized? He Himself said that it was “ to fulfil all righteousness” (Mt. 3 :15 ); that is, as we understand it, He took upon Himself all the obligations resting upon sinners, whom He had come to save. His baptism “ was the outward symbol of His identification with sinners, and therefore, moreover, of His identification with all that sin meant. For Him the whelming in the water foreshadowed the passion-baptism” (Morgan). It would seem that Jesus never lost sight of the cross. After His baptism, the Spirit like a dove descended upon Him— the capstone, so to speak, of His preparation for His public life and service. “ God anointed Jesus of Naz areth with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil” (Acts 10:38). Even for Jesus, the Son of God, this anointing with the Spirit was indispensable. From the time of His conception to the offering of Himself as a sac rifice for sin (see Heb. 9:14), He was dependent upon the Holy Spirit. How, then can we expect to be or do anything worth while apart from the Spirit’s power? Last of all came the voice from heaven attesting the Di vine Sonship of Jesus—-“ Thou art my beloved Son”— and putting the stamp of approval upon the thirty years spent in the home and carpenter shop at Nazareth, and upon His act of identifying Himself with sinners in order to save them— “ in whom I am well pleased.” “ It was a declara tion of the perfection of Jesus, and consequently of the value of that sacrifice which He would ultimately offer.” Since God was, and is, well satisfied with all that Jesus was, and with what He did in our behalf as sinners, we, too, may be well satisfied with Him. Memory Verse.^—■“ In thee I am well pleased.” Mark 1:11, Approach.— Ruth, do you try to do things to please mother? Does it make her happy? Of course it does, and when we love people, we just always want to do the things that are pleasing to them. Let us bow our heads and thank our heavenly Father for the blessings ELEMENTARY he has given us, and ask him to help Mabel L. Merrill us to do always those things that are pleasing to him. Lesson Story.r^Paul, you tell us the story we had last week, for Virginia and Leon were not here, and they will want to hear this story. (Review). Even as a boy of twelve we find Jesus loved God’s house, and was faithful in his work for God his Father. Today we are to hear about something that happened as be began his work as a young man. Before Jesus was born God sent another baby boy into the world to grow up to be the one to make ready for Jesus. His name was John. An angel told his father that a child should be given him and what his name should be. John grew Up to be a wonderful preacher. He preaehed out of doors beside the river Jordan, and crowds came te Jesus Pleases His Father Mark 1:1-11.
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