Prepare the way for the LORD

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea ² and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³ This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

⁴ John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵ People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. ⁶ Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

The passage quoted in verse 3 is Isaiah 40:3. This is a prophecy about God’s coming to Earth to usher in his messianic reign. The prophet (Elijah) is meant to bring in the Messianic age by coming back and proclaiming his coming. John the Baptist is this coming of Elijah, and we get his testimony to show who Jesus is. God doesn’t want us to have blind faith but gives us reasons for the hope that we have. Namely, the testimony of at least 9 people (plus nature, miracles, archeological evidence, etc.). Jesus later says that if he testified about himself his testimony would have no meaning. So, he has others testify about him who also have miracles and prophecy from God.

For the first time in 500 years the Jews have access to a prophet who is performing miracles and teaching directly from God and is bringing a baptism of repentance. This prepares the people to come to Yahweh by faith and understanding that they cannot get into and do not deserve heaven. They are trespassers against the law and require repentance. This also has Matthew placing Jesus in the same position as Yahweh. Showing that Matthew believed Jesus to be Yahweh.

Isaiah “mini-bible” reference

The use of Isaiah 40:3 is also incredible here and shows God’s foreknowledge in an amazing way. There is a view (which I will make a long post about) that Isaiah is actually a mini-bible, and each chapter of Isaiah corresponds to the bible book of the same number. Here we get in the 40th book of the bible (Matthew) a reference to Isaiah 40. Not only that but a direct quotation in Matthew 3:3 to Isaiah 40:3. This blew my mind the first time I learned about this, and I love God all the more. There is a good website you can look at a number of the connections here. I will also write about this later on.

The Pharisees and coming judgement

⁷ But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸ Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ⁹ And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

The enemies of Jesus?

This is also the first time we see the Pharisees. They are the self-righteous leaders of the Jewish religion and practices. They added hundreds of laws and customs to the law and made it even harder for people to come to God and to live rightly with him. People (usually skeptics) often consider the Pharisees as the “enemies of Jesus” in a literal device way. This is not true though. Jesus had several followers and later the Apostle Paul who were Pharisees. He ate with them, walked with them, talked to them and taught them. Several converted and he was buried by a likely Pharisee (Joseph of Arimathea, who was on the Sanhedrin) who disagreed with the majority decision.

If the one who buried him, and the author of the majority of the NT books were Pharisees then it doesn’t look like they were foes to Christ, but just people who were in charge of God’s people who were hypocrites. Jesus chastised them for not only knowingly rejecting him as Christ but being self-righteous and prideful. Their sin is what made him so upset and how they treated his Law and his people. It was a righteous anger for the innocent that suffered under them.

Salvation through repentance

John was preaching for repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is in line with Psalm 51:16-17. God wants us to be repentant and love each other. It also points to how we are redeemed in Christ. Grace.

This is how John made straight paths for Jesus. He made the people more willing and expectant to receive salvation through grace and mercy through repentance. This helped to draw many people to Jesus but also be offended by him. The leaders rejected the notion of repentance as they were so prideful and self-righteous that they were offended at the idea that they were sinners who needed to repent. They didn’t need to be clean. They were the ones who cleaned others.

The baptism offered by John was a confessional baptism. We confess our sins then profess our faith in God. This points to the new covenant and John is preparing the way for Jews to worship God in spirit and truth through faith. His baptism is the first ministry of the new covenant and prepares our hearts to be saved through confession, repentance, and faith in Christ. The Pharisees didn’t want to confess their sins. They didn’t want to show that they needed salvation as they were the only path to salvation. Yet here is John and later Jesus saying “No, there is another, better way to Yahweh and ever-lasting life”.

The gospel message is offensive to those who are prideful and think they are good people who deserve heaven. You do not deserve heaven. You are dirty and need to be cleansed. God came to Earth and died for you to be cleansed. Examine yourself. Think about the worst thing you have ever done then ask if you are a good person. Humble yourself and come to Christ with a broken heart over the evil you have done in your life. Give it to God and be cleansed.

¹¹ “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

The baptism of Jesus is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and us being born again. Jesus’s baptism is what saves, and it happens when we have faith in Christ. Just about everyone I have met who has been filled with the Holy Spirit describes it as “fire coming over you and in you”. This fire remakes you and is the seal of your salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).

The coming fire

John says that Jesus is coming to separate the true believers and save them and burn the unbelievers with fire. This applies for both Christians and non-Christians. The “trees which do not produce fruit” in verse 10 is talking about people who call themselves Christians but are not really. They are trees in God’s garden, but they produce no fruit. So, they will be cut down and thrown into the fire. Are you producing fruit for God?

The wheat versus the chaff points to the difference between Christians and non-Christians. In this passage we get both the difference between real Christians and fake ones and between Christians and non-Christians. Those who are not true believers of Jesus will be thrown into the fire. This is a literal Hell of torment. I will go in depth on Hell in a different post.

Untying sandals?

John in verse 11 is saying that he is not worthy to be Jesus’s slave. The action of untying the sandals of someone is something a slave/servant would do for their master when they came home. We are called the slaves of Christ. That is how we are supposed to live. Yet we are unworthy of being in this lowly position as God is so great that the only way we can become his slave is for him to die for us and make us have his righteousness. We then become worthy slaves and are adopted into sonship alongside Jesus to live with Yahweh forever in the next life.

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. ¹⁴ But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

¹⁶ As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

We see all 3 members of the trinity here interacting with one another. Which is pretty cool. This is not the first time this has happened. The first was likely either the garden of Eden or the burning bush. We see the father and the son interact a lot in genesis (the angel of Yahweh == Jesus) but not usually all 3. Another really cool instance is the pillar of fire, God speaking, and the angel leading during the exodus.

This is also the moment where the Trinity is reunited during Jesus’s Earthly life. We don’t know if he was separate from the Holy Spirit before this moment but for sure he is reunited with him during this event. This is also the event that shows who Christ is and 4 of his 12 disciples are present for this event (John, James, Andrew, and Peter) which 2 of them testify to in the Gospels directly (Mark 1 [Peter’s gospel], John 1).