Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Unfulfilled Expectations
At this time in history there was an air of anticipation of God’s messenger to return after 400 years of prophetic silence. John the Baptist broke this silence as he cried out in the wilderness with everyone coming to hear him. God has waited long enough and John is proclaiming One coming with His winnowing fork in His hand and therefore repentance is in order. This One who John proclaims is also known as “the Branch, Son of David, King of kings and, the Expected (Coming lit.) One,” which were common designations for the Messiah.
Is. 11:1-2
1. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength,The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jer. 23:5-6
5. "Behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "When I shall raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. 6. "In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, `The Lord our righteousness.'
Ps. 40:7
7. Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me;
John baptized Jesus and would certainly find it hard to forget the events associate with it. Matt. 3:16-17 And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, 17. and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased."
MacArthur says, “It should be reassuring to us that even a man of John’s spiritual stature and gifts was subject to doubt.” John’s expectations of what this Expected One would do appear to have gone unfulfilled by the second part of his question, “Shall we look for someone else?”
# posted by Castusfumus : 3:02 PM
