John the Baptist Part 4

e. As a Nazarite, John would have been “different” and “separate” and under other restrictions. NUM 6:1-8. (1) He would have been restricted from contact with dead bodies. (2) He would have had long hair, the exception to the rule for men (1CO 11:7, 14), which, if ignored, erases the distinction of the Nazarite’s hair. (3) Jesus Christ, Whose Spirit authored 1CO 11:7, 14 would not have been a “long hair.” (4) The Nazarite’s exceptional long hair is no more a license for men in general to have long hair than the exceptional nakedness of Isaiah (ISA 20:1-4) or the exceptional taking of a whorish woman for marriage by Hosea (HOS 1:2; 3:1) are licenses for all men. (5) John the Baptist would have cut quite an extraordinary figure by his wilderness beginnings, appearance, diet, etc. But his most remarkable distinction was his holy life and ministry which stood out to all men, even Herod. MAR 6:20. (6) “Note, Frequently those have most real honour done them, who least court the shadow of it. Those who live a mortified life, who are humble and self-denying, and dead to the world, command respect; and men have a secret value and reverence for them, more than they would imagine.” (Matthew Henry on MAT 3:1-6) f. “This separation was in ordinary cases temporary and voluntary: only Samson (Jdg 13:7), Samuel (1Sa 1:11), and John Baptist were Nazarites from the womb. It was fitting that the utmost severity of legal consecration should be seen in Christ’s forerunner. HE was the REALITY and PERFECTION of the Nazarite without the symbol, which perished in that living realization of it: ‘Such an High Priest became us, who was SEPARATE FROM SINNERS’ (Heb 7:26).” (Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary on LUK 1:15) 9. “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God” (v. 16). a. But not all. LUK 7:29-33. b. John even turned such away from his baptism. MAT 3:7-10. c. Of the Nazarite, Samson, it was said, “...he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines” (JDG 13:5). So also with John, whose ministry paved the way for Christ Who would save God’s Israel from temporal enemies and spiritual enemies and finish our faith. LUK 1:69-75 c/w MAT 1:21; HEB 12:2; PHIL 1:6; 1TH 5:23-24. 10. “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 5 the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (v. 17). Like the stones of Solomon’s temple made ready for that O.T. edifice, John without the temple would make ready a people prepared for the Lord and His kingdom. 1KI 6:7 c/w MAT 3:1-3. a. This is exactly what the last two verses of the O.T. prophecy declared. MAL 4:5-6. b. Godly prophets, apostles, preachers and angels declare “...none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:” (ACT 26:22). c/w GAL 1:8-9. c. Jesus declared that John the Baptist was Elias/Elijah indeed (in actual fact, in reality, in truth; really, truly, assuredly, positively). MAR 9:11-13. d. Malachi’s prophecy implies that there was a general breakdown of the family in its duty and relationship relative to God in 1st C. Judea, an interesting parallel to ISA 38:19. c/w DEU 4:9; PSA 78:1-8. e. Elijah worked miracles but not John. 1KI 17-18 c/w JOH 10:41. (1) The Jews typically looked for miracles to confirm a prophet. 1CO 1:22. (2) Yet in the absence of observable miracles, the people held John to be a prophet and heeded him. MAT 21:26. (3) The work of the Spirit on the inward man convicting of sin is itself a miracle of grace. 1CO 1:18. (4) Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is both conviction and release. 2CO 3:15-18. f. But like Elijah, John “came out of nowhere” and preached righteousness to a generation swallowed up in carnal interests and lusts to turn them unto the Lord. 1KI 18:37-39 c/w MAR 1:1-5 c/w MAT 6:31-34; MAR 10:23-27. g. Elijah reproved all who needed to repent and turn to God: false prophets, the people, and royalty (1KI 18:17-21). So also did John. MAR 6:17-18. h. Elijah’s ministry was unique, fiery, illuminating (1KI 18:22-24). So also was John’s, spiritually. MAT 3:7-12; JOH 5:35. i. Elijah’s ministry was highlighted by water and fire (1KI 18:37-38). So John baptized with water and spoke of Christ’s baptism with fire. MAT 3:7-12. j. Elijah’s zeal for the Lord slew the wicked carnally (1KI 18:40). John slew the wicked spiritually by the words he spoke. c/w HOS 6:5; ACT 5:32-33. k. Elijah and John had similar garb and appearance. 2KI 1:8 c/w MAT 3:4. l. Elijah and John turned “...the disobedient to the wisdom of the just” (v. 17). 1KI 18:39 c/w LUK 7:29. m. “THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords pre- sumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, a proclamation, a rite, and a ministry as startling as that of Elijah had been. In many respects, indeed, the two messengers and their times bore singular likeness. It was to a society secure, prosperous, and luxurious, yet in imminent danger of perishing from hidden, festering disease; and to a religious community which presented the appearance of hopeless perversion, and yet contained the germs of a possible John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 6  regeneration, that both Elijah and John the Baptist came. Both suddenly appeared to threaten terrible judgment, but also to open unthought-of possibilities of good. And, as if to deepen still more the impression of this contrast, both appeared in a manner unexpected, and even antithetic to the habits of their contemporaries. John came suddenly out of the wilderness of Judæa, as Elijah from the wilds of Gilead; John bore the same strange ascetic appearance as his predecessor; the message of John was the counterpart of that of Elijah; his baptism that of Elijah’s novel rite on Mount Carmel. And, as if to make complete the parallelism, with all of memory and hope which it awakened, even the more minute details surrounding the life of Elijah found their counterpart in that of John. Yet history never repeats itself. It fulfils in its development that of which it gave indication at its commencement. Thus, the history of John the Baptist was the fulfilment of that of Elijah in ‘the fulness of time.’ (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p. 274) n. So emphatic and distinguishing was Elijah’s ministry in Israel, that his very appearance apparently became a uniform for false prophets. ZEC 13:4. John the Baptist 6-29-25 Page 7