Matthew 11:7-14 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: “‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
John the Baptist’s parents were considered by God as righteous for they were following all of his commands and decrees to the letter. As with Abraham and Sarah, they were past child bearing age, but God interrupted their old age with a child for his purposes. As old as they were, they probably had little strength to raise their child as vigorously as younger parents. But God did not choose them for their strength and vitality, but because they were without fault in serving him. God considered them righteous and trustworthy in raising a son to prepare the way for Jesus. In his ministry, John preached repentance; beseeching the people to turn to God in obedience to his commandments. In his early life, John surely observed his parents’ commitment to God. In contrast to their dedication to God, Israelites in general lived lives away from God. Consequently, John urged people to return to the God of their fathers, fulfilling what the angel said to Zechariah, He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Matthew 1:13-17) Jesus knew John was igniting a spiritual fire in the people of Israel, so He asked them why they thought John’s ministry was important to them. What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? He answered his rhetorical questions by saying, you went out to see him because you believe he is a prophet, one inspired by God. But he is not just a prophet as were the many prophets before him; no, he is a special prophet as mentioned in Malachi, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. (Malachi 3:1) John introduced a new reality, the kingdom of heaven. With John’s work of baptism, God established his kingdom on Earth. God’s divine presence will come to all people who repent of their sins and follow the Lord of the new kingdom, Jesus Christ. The devil hated John’s work and the reason for his ministry. He knows the word and he knows John is the Elijah who paves the way for the Lord to come to his temple to establish the kingdom of the Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) Consequently, the Lord says, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it. Because Satan knew this time would come, he intended to divert its effects by tempting Jesus in the wilderness. If he could have, he would have attacked John directly at the beginning of his life, but John from birth was filled with the Holy Spirit, protected by God as Jesus was protected by the angels in his early life. John lived an austere life away from the amenities of society. John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. (Matthew 3:4) Although the devil and his minions intended to stop the introduction of this new kingdom that would last forever, they failed miserably for the kingdom of God has spread to millions throughout the centuries since Jesus died on the cross.
Of course, we know God planned his kingdom from the beginning of time. There was no “oops” in God’s eternal plan to make new creatures in his similitude—not to merely regenerate Adam and Eve. We do not walk with God at certain times of the day; no, we are intimately a part of his existence at all times, fully in fellowship with him at any time of the day. The devil cannot so easily deceive us now, for we are in an intimate binding relationship with God. The powerful Holy Spirit changes us into new creatures with ears attuned to God. But this intimacy with God has always been confronted by the devil beginning when Adam and Eve’s relationship with the Lord was attacked. There was no reason for the serpent to tempt Eve if it were not in the evil one’s plan to separate man from God. He did intervene, causing God to put Adam and Eve out of the Garden, severing the relationship they had with the Creator. Later on, outside this pristine, protective place of peace, humans turned violent and aggressive, so much so that God killed off all humans except for Noah’s family in the flood. But his family too had this rebellious anti-God nature embedded deeply in them. They too became despoiled by the waywardness of their flesh. But God came to man’s rescue by selecting a man of faith, Abraham, anointing him with special blessings. Faith in the Creator’s words gave Abraham a privileged position with God: the promise Abraham would be the father of many nations with his progeny possessing the land of Canaan as their home. First, they had to learn to be totally under the control of slavery, doing man’s will not their own or God’s. Then Moses led them out of slavery to the land of Canaan, the Promised Land where they would be free and prosperous if they followed God’s rules. In this land, the clans of the sons of Jacob would settle peacefully under God’s authority, obeying his laws and regulations. However, this land became a place of conflict, not peace. Even though related through Jacob, the clans of the sons killed and slaughtered their own relatives, almost wiping out the Benjamin tribe completely. The Israelites were possessed by their rebellious spirit toward God, worshipping idols of all kinds. They were also in constant battles against others and their own people. They were worse in their sinful nature than the Gentile tribes around them. The devil’s intentions to separate man from God were fully in evidence in the Promised Land, the place where God was supposed to reign. We see Satan once again diverting the kingdom of God away from men. The Jews were driven out of their own land, created for them to be in peace. In Jesus’ time the devil’s work is evident again when he shows his dislike for John by tricking Herod into beheading John. We also see Satan marshaling the priests and leaders of Israel against the ministry of Jesus; finally getting Jesus murdered by the Romans. Again, the evil one seemed to win in his effort to defeat the kingdom of God. However, the battle switches from the earthly to the heavenly. Jesus’ resurrection changes everything: no longer will a kingdom be evident by the senses; it will be established in the spiritual realm. Now the kingdom would not be temporal but eternal; not perceived as physical, but spiritual. The kingdom would consist of oneness with God: My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23) When the kingdom is truly implemented, we will be known as children of God, from his loins, not man’s. We will be birthed by God, not merely created. Jesus was birthed by the Spirit; so are we birthed by the Spirit. We are new creatures in the Spirit, carrying the Lord’s DNA of love and goodness, not of disruption, chaos and violence, characteristics of fleshly man’s DNA.
Throughout the ages, God has asked his people to commemorate that God is at rest by keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest. God rested after He completed his work of creation. He pronounced his creation as good. The day of rest was to be a time of appreciating the goodness of God and his creation. This day of rest was to be a time of no activity, a time of reflection, a time of peace, tranquility, and cessation of work. The Garden of Eden was to be a place of permanent Sabbath. As with the Garden, after inhabitation, the Promised Land was to be a place of rest, a place where slavery to the world that they experienced in Egypt would not be present. Of course, Jacob’s sons’ progeny carried their idols and satanic behavior into the Promised Land, so no real Sabbath existed for them there. The Promised Land was to be a place of bountiful abundance with inhabitants functioning together in harmony and peace, ruled over by God himself through the priesthood. Obedience to God’s laws and regulations would materialize the kingdom of God on Earth. Of course, Canaan was not the solution to a Sabbath rest for violence without and within ravaged the land. No rest was found. The turmoil within men’s hearts would not allow for the cohesiveness, peace and harmony that should exist in a kingdom of God. Canaan was subjected to violence, and violent people. Every time man has been given a place of peace and harmony, mankind has corrupted it by disobedience. He ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden. He challenged God with his lifestyle of violence before Noah. He served other gods in Canaan; he rejected obedience to the laws and regulations that God set before him. Therefore, God’s kingdom throughout the ages until Christ appears never came into fruition. Now, Jesus is telling the people, John has been preparing the way for God’s kingdom to come into existence. He has prepared the way for me to establish a permanent relationship of love and harmony with the Father God. Rather than depending on man to change to be at peace with God, Jesus knew his work would be substituted for man’s inability to please God. Jesus knew his work would change man forever into the likeness of God. The nature of rebellion in the human spirit will be exorcised and in its place will be the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God raises men from death into new creatures. The Spirit of God creates eternal beings who are one-hundred percent able to serve God in holiness and rightness forever. Those who have ears hear the word of the Lord. The prophets of old spoke of the Messiah’s day, when a new kingdom would be established forever. John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah. He is the Lord of the Harvest and of the Sabbath rest. He alone establishes the rest and harmony that God’s eternal plan desired. Mankind can enter the household of God as children of God, now being one in nature and in Spirit as God is forevermore. Enter that rest today through Jesus Christ the Lord!
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