Luke 1:5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a certain priest named Zachariah,...and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. (13) ...And your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. Matt 3:1 Now in those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea (2) And saying, Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.
[Part 1 of 2] Although John the Baptist was born a priest, he forsook the outward position of the priest. By the outward position of his birth he was not a real priest, but a priest in figure, a priest in shadow. In 3:1 John came preaching in the wilderness as the true priest. John the Baptist's preaching was the initiation of God's New Testament economy. He did his preaching not in the holy temple within the holy city, where the religious and cultured people worshipped God according to their scriptural ordinances, but in the wilderness, in a "wild" way, not keeping any old regulations. This indicates that the old way of the worship of God according to the Old Testament was repudiated and that a new way was about to be brought in. The wilderness here indicates that the new way of God's New Testament economy is contrary to religion and culture. It also indicates that nothing old was left and that something new was about to be built up. The dispensation of law was terminated by the coming of John the Baptist (11:13; Luke 16:16). The preaching of John was the beginning of the gospel. Hence, the dispensation of grace began with John. [continued tomorrow]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Matthew, 1986, pp. 96. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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