THE ' KING’S BUSINESS
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but marvellously forceful man might be. Many were even wondering “whether haply he were the Christ” (Luke 3:15). This gave rise to a committee being sent from Jerusalem to investigate. There were two persons for whom the people were looking as preparatory to the coming of the Christ, Elijah, as prophesied by Malachi (Mai. 4:5), and the “prophet like unto Moses,” whomMoses had foretold (Deut. 18:15-18), It was this that led the committee from Jerusalem to ask “Who art thou?” and to follow up their question, when he had denied being the Christ, with the further question, “Art thou Elijah,” and'‘‘Art thou that prophet?” John frankly confesses that he was not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet predicted by Moses. In recent years there have been those who have claimed to be Elijah, or the, prophet pre dicted by Moses, or the “Messenger of the covenant,” or “David,” or the “Branch,” or one of the two witnesses of Revelation, but John stated fully that he was not some great one such as many supposed he might be. There was a sense in which John was Elijah (Matt. 11:14; 17:10-13),Uhat is, he came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke/1:17), but Elijah in the sense in which the question was asked, a real incar nation of the prophet Elijah, he was not. How unlike the real John the Baptist was to many of those who in our day claim to be his successors. v. 23. “He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet EsaiaP (Isaiah the prophet ) T h e r e is the utmost humility in the way in which John states his real position. He speaks of himself as only “a voice,” and not only that, but only a “voice crying in the wilderness,” thus applying to himself the prophecy of Isaiah (Isa. 40:3-5), which so clearly set forth John the Baptist’s mission. A voice is something to be heard, not seen. John desired to attract no attention to himself, but simply to attract, attention to another by speaking of Him. He as much as said, “I am nobody, simply a voice.” But while
only a voice it was an insistent voice, a voice crying aloud. It would be well if more of us were willing to be merely a voice, and being a voice to cry aloud and cry insistently. One of the greatest needs of the day is men and women who are willing to be merely voices, themselves unseen, but their message regarding another, viz., the glorious Son of God, con stantly heard. John was only a herald coming before his King. Even to this day one can hear in the narrow streets of oriental cities the voice of one crying, “Make way for the Howadji.” vs: 24, 25. "And they which were sent were of the Pharisees (and they had been sent from the Pharisees). And they asked him, and sdid unto him, Why (add, then) baptizest thou then (omit, then), if thou be (art) not that (the) Christ, nor Elias (neither Elijah) neither that | (the) prophet?” The fact that John here in verse 24 explains in a measure the question in verse 25, is one of the many indications of John’s exactness and accuracy. Being “from the Pharisees,” they gave great attention to rites and ceremonies. Their attention would naturally be fixed on the very solemn and startling rite with which John the Baptist had inaugurated his new movement. , John the Baptist by his own admissions made his action inexplicable to them. They could not understand what right any one. had to: introduce a rite that by its symbolism suggested that the Jews were no better than proselytes and needed cleansing as much as. Gentiles did before they could become members of the king-; dom, unless he were a person of extra ordinary authority, either the Christ, or Elijah, or the prophet. There may have been in,their question an attempt to con demn John the Baptist out of his own mouth, i.e., by the admissions which he had just made. ■ vs. 26, -27. “John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, (in the midst of you stand eth one) whom ye know not; He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me,
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