Mark 1:3,4 - John the Baptist appeared

1:3

The Isaiah part of the quotation comes from the well known Isaiah 40. This passage speaks of Israel’s sins being forgiven, of all human power being like grass, i.e. very temporal, and of the greatness of God’s love for His people.

1:4

Malachi identifies the Messenger as one who would come like Elijah (Mal 4:5,6), and Jesus later identifies John as Elijah (Mark 9:13), though interestingly John the Baptist himself denied being Elijah (John 1:21). John appeared in the wilderness and preached a baptism of repentance. Repentance is the gateway to knowing God. We need to acknowledge that our ways are wrong, that we need a change of direction, a change that aligns ourselves with God’s ways, indeed aligns ourselves with God.

The fertile area around the Jordan soon became wilderness. Baptism was used for Gentiles converting to Judaism, and represented a complete turnaround in their way of life. The unique feature of John’s baptism was that this was applied to the Jews themselves. The Jews, along with all of humanity, needed a complete turnaround.