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Cherishing such expectations, how im pervious would they be to the gentle appeals of the lowly Prince of Peace. Therefore the nation must change its. mind, and both John and Jesus began their public ministry with a call to re pentance, assigning as a reason that the heavenly kingdom was at hand. Every thing about man must be changed when he gets into relationship with God..—: Farr. v. 4. As it is written. More than seven centuries before, Isaiah had prophesied of John’s coming (Isa. 40:3-5). All these intervening centur ies nothing seemed to have come of this prophecy, but God had watched over His word and now fulfilled it just as He is now watching over His word con cerning the second coming of Christ, and will fulfill it in due time.— Torrey. The voice of one. The prophecy draws attention to the work rather than the worker, the message, and not to the re markable personality of John. It is a voice rather than a man.— Godet. v. 5. Every valley filled. The metaphor is derived from pioneers who go before the march of a king. The general meaning of the prophecy is that no obstacles, whether they arose from depression or power or pride or cun ning perversity or menacing difficulties, should be able to resist the labors of the pioneers and heralds of the king dom of God.— Farrar. v. 6. All flesh shall see. Luke alone adds these words to the .quota tion, and his doing so is characteristic of his object, which was to bring out the universality of the Gospel offer. When the mountains of earthly tyranny and spiritual pride are leveled, the view of God’s saving power becomes clear to all flesh.— Camb. Bible. Not the Jews only, but the Gentiles should see the salvation provided. They shall have it set before them and offered to them, and some of all sorts shall see it, enjoy it and have the benefit of it. —Henry. v. 7. Generation of vipers. These stern words are addressed specially to Pharisees and Sadducees (Matt. 3:7). Our Lord Himself uses the same figure (Matt. 23:33). Notice that the Baptist employs figures suggested by the desert — vipers, stones, barren trees.— Critical Com. Wrath to come. John is fore telling the wrath soon to be poured out on the Jewish nation. A good many
him who he was, he declared himself to he a voice in the wilderness and nothing more. He sternly refused to be iden tified as Christ or Elijah or even a prophet. His strange and prophetic mes sage was the announcement of another who should come after him, One who should baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The hour of the long-promised and long-ex pected Messiah was at hand. His ma jestic presence was even then among them, But they knew Him not. His two fold message contained the two great revelations in the preparation of the Gospel, viz., law and prophecy, denun ciation of sin and promise of pardon, the flame that consumes and the light that consoles. v. 2. Word came unto John. This expression, which is constantly used of prophets, is never used of Christ. The reason is that the Word of God came to them as some- COMMENTS PROM thing foreign to MANY SOURCES them and from Keith L. Brooks without, whereas Christ was Him self the Word incarnate.—Vaughan. v. 3. Baptism of repentance. A baptism representing and requiring an inward spiritual change, the pledge of remission of sins to those who were truly penitent.— Speaker’s Com. These words refute the idea that John was offering the earthly kingdom for the ac ceptance of the nation Israel. He makes no offer to the nation but preaches the remission of sins to every individual who will repent.— Sel. The necessity of repentance as a change of mind is seen in John’s message to Israel. Why did he begin his message with the clarion call to repent? Why must the nation change its mind? Because the people had the wrong idea concerning the Mes siah. They were looking for a mighty warrior who should overthrow the yoke of Rome and like Judas Maccabaeus, lead them to victory on many a battle field. They expected the Messiah, by diplomatic triumph and mifitary prow ess, to restore the lost prestige of the nation and make Israel what it was in the days of the super-splendid Solomon.
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