King James Version, with Nii Okai's journal notes · 6 notes
1In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Prophecy prophecy prophecy, I searched where exactly in Isaiah and the Old Testament that this was written, and it says:
Isaiah 40:3-5
The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low:
and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
The Dake's commentary provides an additional scripture in Malachi 3:1:
Malachi 3:1
Behold, I will send my messenger, 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.
What amazes me is that in just this one verse is a period of over 2000 years.
2000 years between “Behold, I will send my messenger” and “the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple”,
talking of the end times when Christ appears.
This makes me realise that the books of prophecy, for example Revelation, might have many events happen not written down, or written down but miles apart in their time zone, except where the time is explicitly given.
But even where timing of events are given, there might be gaps of time not made mention of.
We have to be very humble and sober whenever we try to predict future events using scripture.
Our firm assurance is that in the fullness of time all things shall align as written.
For there shall not one jot of the scripture be left unfulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's word abides forever.
4And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.
7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
9And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
11I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Things had changed, there seems to be something pending.
Which prophet comes preaching about another prophet who was to come after him?
A shift had happened, and though he baptized, he knew it was in preparation for the one.
These were strange times indeed.
Again, later they sent to ask if he was the Messiah, to which he denied. Where did such rumors gain grounds?
Likely because 30 years back rumors about this wonder child had been spreading and gradually gaining grounds.
The events of the magi, the shepherds, though long ago, had gained some traction.
Aside the fact that there was a general expectation of the Messiah as prophesied in Daniel.
12Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
The time had come, that prince who was prophesied about had come, and now more specifics will be unveiled...
We were given some details in verses and chapters in the OT; now here we are, we shall see the full manifestations.
Ah, so we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
Full 🌕 of grace and truth.
13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.
Ah... Then came Jesus...
14But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
15And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.
The first words of Jesus in Matthew... He was now of full age.
The devil 👿 was in trouble.
Men of the Spirit, men of wisdom. Anybody standing by and listening 👂 would wonder what these two ✌️ are talking about.
John is baptising, he sees Jesus and says, no, I can't baptise you, you baptise me.
And they seem to understand why John would make an unusual request.
This was John's territory and he was the Baptist, so why would he make such requests — a bystander would ask.
Now things get weirder when Jesus responds like, permit it to be so for now, you know we have an arrangement from the dateless past.
Having said that, there was no more arguing.
John goes ahead and baptises him. What were these two talking about? They've never met, so what fulfillment of all righteousness was that?
The way of the Spirit is the way of wisdom.
16And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:
17And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.