CHAPTER 5
Ch.
PREACHING OF JOHN
CHAPTER
From Isaiah.
Of the rrcaching ofJohn in the Wilderness.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xl.
3.] This prophecy too was necessarily to be fulfilled in the (c) times of our Saviour.
And according to the Evangelist Luke, in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius
Pilate was governor of Judaea, and those numbered with him, the Word of (iod came to John, the son of Zachariah, in the wilderness, " And he went into all the country around
Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." To this the evangelist adds the witness, saying, Luke iii. i.
"As it is written in the books of the words of Isaiah the ])rophet, ' The Voice of One crying in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord,'" and that which follows.
\Vhat then did John's voice shout in its [)reaching in the ((1) wilderness, but an invitation to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, as to reptiles of the wilderness, akin to his " generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? " And he changed too the crooked Mait. iii. 7. souls into straight, and the rough roads into smooth by saying to them, " Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance."
And this was fulfilled when John had prepared them to behold the glory of the Lord, and what is called " the salvation of our God,"" which is the Christ, as he bore witness, saying :
"I indeed baptize you with water, but there cometli (429) one after me that is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear : He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."
Who also seeing Jesus coming cried :
"Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the John i. 29. sin of the world : This is he of whom I spake, a man cometh after me, who was before me."'
And Symeon also bare witness that the same Jesus was "the salvation of God," who took Him in his arms when He was still an infant, and said :
"Now thou art letting thy servant, O Lord, depart in Luke ii. peace, according to thy word : For mine eyes have seen 29-
i62
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IX thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face (b) of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles."
With which the prophet agrees, saying, " And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
For "all flesh " stands for "all the nations."
And I need not say this was fulfilled, and that all nations knew the Christ of God.
Such was the literal fulfilment of the prophecy.
(l) But why did John go forth to preach in the wilderness, and not in cities, or in Jerusalem itself?
It might be answered that he did so in fulfilment of the prophecy.
But a critical questioner will at once inquire, what this prophecy meant to teach when it spoke of the wilderness and the things to do with it.
And I should reply to him that it is a symbol of the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Altar there, and of the Mosaic worship, because the forgiveness of sins was no longer extended to them by the legal sacri- (d) fices, but by the cleansing and washing delivered to her that was before thirsty and deserted ; I mean the Gentile Chu'-ch, in which also the prophetic voice bids to prepare the way of the Lord, foretelling that the souls which are lying deep in sin as in a valley will be raised up, and that the old heights of Jerusalem, and of her rulers and kings, called "mountains and hills," shall be laid low, which being completed, he says, " All flesh shall see the salvation of (iod," meaning every soul united with a body, both Greek and Barbarian, of every nation without exception, and this is seen to have been fulfilled according to the prophecy.
(430) Now let me ask myself what it was in John that struck the multitude with fear, so that they marvelled at him and put trust in his baptism of repentance, and all from every side left their homes, and flowed in one stream into the wilderness, having regard to the fact that the records give no account of anything he did ; for we are not told that he raised the dead, or worked other miracles.
What then was it that struck the multitude?
Surely it was his manner of life so strange and diflerent to that of the people ; for he came forth from the desert clad in a strange
CO garment, refusing all social human intercourse, he went not into village or city or the human haunts of men, he did not even share their common food ; for it is written that from childhood he was in the deserts, until the day of his shewing
Ch.
MYSTERY OF JOHN BAPTIST
forth, to Israel, yes, and his raiment was made of camels' Luke i. So. hair,^ and his food locusts and wild honey.
Matt.iif How, then, should they not have been naturally alarmed, when they saw a man, with the hair of a Nazarite of God, (c) and a divine face, suddenly appearing from the lonely wilderness clothed in a strange kind of dress, and after preaching to them going back again into the wilderness, without eating or drinking or mingling with the people, and must they not have suspected that he was more than human ?
For how could a man not need food ?
And so they understood him to be an angel, the very angel foretold by the prophet, in the words, "Behold, I send my angel before (<1) thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee," a Mark i.
2. passage of Scripture which is quoted by the Evangelist Mark.
And the Saviour also bears witness in the words, '•John came neither eating nor drinking,^ and you say. He Luke vii. hath a devil."
For it was just as natural that unbelievers, 33with minds hardened and shut against the truth, should thus blaspheme John because of his living as he did, as that those who were in accord with his noble character should reckon him an angel.
Such, then, I understand to be the reasons why John was a marvel to those who saw him
; and therefore they hastened from all sides to the cleansing of the soul, of which he preached.
Josephus, too, records his story in the Eighteenth Book (431) of the /iTC'/s/i Arc/i(P(ih)g}\ writing as follows:
" Now, some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army^ came from God, and that very justly as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist ; for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise righteousness towards one another, and piety towards Ciod, and so to come to baptism.
For so the washing would be accept- (•>) able to Him." * '
\V. n.
: dirJ> Tpixuiv ko.iht)\ov, Kal (wvr]v Sfpfiarivrfv irepl Tr]v 6(r<p'vv aiiTOv.
K.: iKTpix<^v Kaij.r)\a>v ir(iron)fi.fvov.
- W.II. add olvov.
(^f . liuseb., H.E.
I. ii.
«Jos., AiK. XVIII.
i64
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. IX.
CHAPTER
From the same.
Stiil concernhi^ the Wilderness, and tJu River called Jordan, by which John baptized.
[Passage quoted, Isa. xxxv. 3-6.] This, too, was fulfilled, was clearly fulfilled, by our Saviour's miraculous works after John's preaching.
Notice therefore how He bears good tidings to the desert, not generally, or to any desert, but to one particular desert by the bank of Jordan.
This was because John lived there and ba])tized there, as Scripture says :
"John was in the desert baptizing, and there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptized of him in Jordan."
I think the desert here is a symbol of that which of old was void of all God's good things, I mean the Church of the (432) Gentiles, and the river by the desert that cleanses all that are bathed therein is a figure of some cleansing spiritual power, of which the Scriptures speak, saying, " The movers, xlvi. 4. ments of the river make glad the city of God."
And this means the ever-flowing stream of the Holy Spirit welling from above and watering the city of God, which is the (b) name for life according to God.
This river of God, then, has reached even unto the desert, that is the Gentile Church, and even now supplies it with the living water that it bears.
Moreover, it is said in this pro[)hecy that the glory of Lebanon and the honour of Carmel shall be given \.o this wilderness.
What is the glory of Lebanon, but the worship performed through the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, which Jcr. yi. 20; Qq(J refused in the prophecy which says, "Why do you •,a.
1. II.
|jj.jpg p-,g iJbanus from Saba?
And of what service to me is the multitude of your sacrifices ? "
He has transferred (c) the glory of Jerusalem to the desert of Jordan, since, from the times of John, the ritual of holiness began to be performed not at Jerusalem but in the desert.
In like manner, too, the honour of tlie Law and of its more external ordinances, was transferred to the wilderness of Jordan for the same reason, viz. that they who need the healing of their