Matthew 3:7,8 - You brood of vipers!

3:7

John was not afraid to speak the truth, nor did he kowtow to power. So when the religious leaders came out to him he did not give them a warm welcome! Presumably they had just come out to see hat was happening, and possibly to discourage the common people from going to John. For if they had been going out to repent and get baptised he would have been somewhat more welcoming. We see here the wrath of God mentioned. The wrath of God is a concept that occurs throughout the Bible. Those who seek to erase the wrath of God are themselves a “brood of vipers”.

3:8

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance”. This might imply that the religious leaders did actually want to be baptised. Whatever the case, it seems that they were definitely not into repentance! And we see here that the mere ritual of baptism is worthless. There needed to be genuine repentance, and genuine repentance produces fruit.

Jeremiah 7:16-18 - Do not pray for this people

7:16

Jeremiah is told not to pray for the people of Judah! This shocks most of us, but we need to take it on board. There comes a point where someone is beyond saving without dramatic intervention from God. Their hearts are so hardened that they will not respond to anything. Now, there needs to be an immediate caveat here. We (you and I) are the not equipped to make such decisions, our default position should be to seek to see someone come to repentance. But there may come a point where even to pray for them is futile. This is not being unmerciful, it is realism when a person has repeatedly failed to respond to mercy.

7:17,18

God’s decision was not capricious or an act of rage. It was based on the evidence. God knew Jeremiah would not like this instruction, so God tells him to look around Jerusalem and Judah to remind himself of what is going on. They were devoting their efforts to worshipping idols, in particular the Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven was a fertility god, the supposed wife of Baal or Molech. Men, women and children devoted effort to worshipping false gods. There was family worship of idols! And they poured out drink offerings to other gods.

Matthew 3:4-6 - Camel hair and locusts

3:4,5

The description here is reminiscent of Elijah the prophet. It was quite normal for desert folk to eat insects, and locusts were a clean food. “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea”. John the Baptist was not “seeker-friendly”, yet he attracted large numbers of people. As we will see shortly, his message was even less seeker-friendly. We need to be very careful in how we “attract” people. We should not be as obnoxious as we can, but nor must we seek to be “welcoming” at the expense of the truth. We need to understand that the “success” of outreach is dependent upon God. It is He who changes men’s hearts, and a change of heart is qhat is required to bring someone into the kingdom.

3:6

They confessed their sins and were baptised in the Jordan. Baptism was normally reserved only for converts to Judaism, and was then carried out by the person themself. This was quite different. First, the Jews needed to be baptised! This was a fundamental issue with Jesus, the recognition that Israel and the people of Israel needed to have their own sin dealt with. The failure of the religious leaders in particular to see that they too were sinners was the prime source of conflict between them and Jesus. Secondly, the baptism was carried out by someone else.

Jeremiah 7:12-15 - I called, but you did not answer

7:12

God then gives a concrete and historical example to illustrate the point He is making. The tabernacle had indeed been set up there. It was even a “dwelling for my Name”. The ark of the covenant was there until it was captured by the Philistines (1 Sam 4:1-11). This happened because of the wickedness of the people. So the people needed to realise that obedience to God was essential, and was the thing that they needed to worry about most. 

7:13-15

The present day Israelites (Judeans) were doing evil. While they were doing this God had sent prophet after prophet to warn them, to call them back to God. “But you did not answer”. Now the temple bore the Name of the Lord, but it would receive the same fate as Shiloh suffered. God would thrust the people from His presence. They had been warned!

Matthew 3:1-3 - Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near

3:1,2

All the gospels begin their accounts of the ministry of Jesus with the ministry of John the Baptist. John was in some ways an odd fellow, living out in the wilderness. This was at least partly because he was a fulfillment of prophecy. His message was “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. Throughout the Bible the gateway to new life, to salvation, has always been repentance. This was true in the Old Testament, and it is equally true in the New Testament. Sadly, repentance is often a matter that is neglected by the church. We are very foolish when we do this, for repentance is good news! If someone is heading down a road that leads to destruction (which is what the human race is doing), then for that person to change direction and head towards God, a road that leads to life, is the best possible thing they could do.

3:3

Matthew then quotes from Isaiah 40:3. John was calling in the wilderness in various ways. He was physically in the wilderness. His voice went against the grain of society. The nation was a spiritual desert. These latter two features very much apply to us today. We need to recognise that the word of God goes against the grain of society, for mankind is in rebellion against God. When the church thinks it needs to go with the grain of society it is acting in a very foolish way, and in a way that is in rebellion against God.

Complete notes on Ephesians

Complete notes on Ephesians are now available on Dundee Believer.

Jeremiah 7:9-11 - Safe to do all these detestable things?

7:9,10

These verses highlight the hypocrisy of the people, and especially the religious leaders, and highlights the warped thinking that any of us can be prone to. Note that two sets of sins are referred to. One are social sins: stealing, murder, adultery and perjury. We can immediately see the harmful effects of these. The other is one of idolatry: worshipping Baal and following other gods. The worship of false gods does not come by itself, but leads to what we can clearly see as wrong actions. Likewise, when a society abandons any belief in a creator, in One to whom we must give account, then that has consequences for the life of a nation. We see this all too clearly in the West. And yet they imagined that they were safe. As Jeremiah says “safe to do all these detestable things”.

7:11

The temple of the Lord, in which the religious leaders put so much confidence, has become a den of thieves (Matt 21:13), rather than the house of prayer that it was meant to be (Is 56:7). The people thought they were secure, but God was watching them. He knew what was going on. Sin so easily deceives.