Behold, I will send my mesenger, and he shall prepare
the way before me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the
covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, he shall come,
saith the Lord of hosts.
Malachi 5:3
. . . learning from the men, women
and children of Bible times
John,
the Baptizer This is a true story!
John
the Baptist
did his
preaching near the Jordan River in the Northern
part of the wilderness of Judea.
John
the Baptist
told the
people to “turn from their sins”. The people
needed to stop being selfish, because being
selfish led people to do wrong things like
lying, cheating, stealing, saying bad things
about others, or getting back at people for
making them mad. A person who turns from sin
stops doing bad things and begins to follow
God’s way of doing things.
Isaiah had spoken of
John
when
Isaiah wrote that he would be shouting in the
wilderness, and preparing for our Lord’s coming.
(Isaiah 40:3)
Isaiah was one of the greatest prophets of the
Old Testament. Like Isaiah,
John
was a
prophet who urged people to confess their sins
(sins are things that you do that are wrong) and
live for God.
John
helped
prepare the way for Jesus. He did that by
leading people to get their hearts right with
God.
Many people from all
around the area went to hear him preach and when
they admitted their sins, he baptized them.
Some of the
religious leaders were Pharisees. They were
supposed to be teachers of the law of God.
Pharisees were zealous but self-righteous, and
became the fiercest enemies of Jesus Christ.
John told the religious leaders that if they did
not bear good fruit (that is be good and do good
things) they would be chopped down like a tree
and be thrown into the fire.
He said Jesus was
coming, and John said “I am not worthy to be
His slave”.
Then Jesus came to
be baptized by John. John didn’t want to
baptize Him because he knew Jesus was God’s own
Son and had no sin. But Jesus said they must do
what is right and it was right for Jesus to be
baptized.
This is one time in
the Bible, when all three persons of God were
made known to the people at one time.
John was very
different from other religious leaders. Other
leaders were interested in winning the praise of
people. John was interested in winning the
praise of God.
John dressed
different than others and ate different food.
Camel’s hair and a leather girdle was the usual dress of
prophets. His diet consisted of locusts and wild
honey.
Who
descended, like a dove, after Jesus was baptized and
lighted upon Him?
