17  Setting the Stage  for Jesus  (Luke 3:1–6)

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’” (3:1–6)

In chapters 1 and 2 of his gospel, Luke recorded the birth narratives of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ. As chapter 3 opens, eighteen years have passed since the last historical event recorded by Luke, the story of the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple (2:41–51). The public ministries of the Baptist and Jesus are about to begin.

For thirty years each had lived in seclusion. John “lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel” (1:80). Jesus lived in the obscure, out of the way, off the beaten path village of Nazareth, where “He continued in subjection” to His parents (2:51). Only a select few, those who were looking for the consolation and redemption of Israel (2:25, 38), knew the true identities of John and Jesus. Of that small group many, such as Zacharias, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, and Joseph, had most likely died by this time and gone on to glory. The angels who announced their births had long since returned to heaven. But the three decades of silence were about to end. The beginning of John the Baptist’s public ministry would also mark the end of an even longer silence—the four centuries of prophetic silence since the time of the last prophet, Malachi (about 430 B.C.).

As the curtain rose on the ministries of John and Jesus, Israel was shrouded in deep darkness. It was the bleakest of times politically. The nation chafed under the oppressive rule of pagan idolaters. Israel, God’s covenant nation, was now part of a minor province in a backwater region of the mighty Roman Empire. It was also the darkest of times spiritually. The Jewish people were crushed under the heavy burden of an apostate, legalistic, hypocritical religion dominated by corrupt, wicked spiritual leaders (cf. Matt. 23:1–33). Israel had not realized the promises of the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants; they possessed neither the land promised by the former, nor the kingdom promised by the latter. Engulfed in legalism, hypocrisy, and external ritual, the nation also failed to experience the New covenant blessings promised in Jeremiah 31:31–34 and Ezekiel 37:26.

The Old Testament closed with the promise of Messiah’s coming (Mal. 3:1; 4:2), and throughout the ensuing centuries of political and religious darkness the Jewish people had clung to that hope. But before Messiah’s ministry began, His forerunner was to appear to prepare the way for Him. Years earlier John the Baptist’s father, Zacharias, had prophesied concerning him, “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways” (Luke 1:76; cf. Mal. 3:1). Thus John, the first prophet in more than 400 years, appeared on center stage to introduce the main character of the story, the Lord Jesus Christ. His task was twofold: to prepare the people for the Messiah, and to present the Messiah to the people.

Like any good historian, Luke understood the importance of placing his historical account in its proper context. In this passage he gave four settings that provide the backdrop for the ministries of John and Jesus: the historical, geographical, theological, and prophetical settings.

THE HISTORICAL SETTING

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, (3:1–2a)

Luke includes seven individuals, five Gentiles and two Jews, in providing the background for the ministries of John and Jesus. Luke’s purpose in introducing them was not to provide an exact chronology, but rather a general historical context. The first name, Tiberius Caesar, illustrates that fact, because there are two plausible ways of determining the fifteenth year of his reign. Some argue that Tiberius’s reign as emperor began at the death of his illustrious predecessor Augustus Caesar, Rome’s first emperor (for more information on Augustus, see the exposition of 2:1 in chapter 12 of this volume). Since Augustus died on August 19, A.D. 14, that would mean John’s ministry began in A.D. 29. The more traditional view counts the fifteen years not from Augustus’s death in A.D. 14, but from A.D. 11, when Tiberius became his co-regent. John’s ministry would then have commenced in A.D. 26

While it is impossible to be dogmatic, the latter view best harmonizes with the chronology of the New Testament (cf. The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, s.v. “Chronology of the New Testament;” Lewis A. Foster, “The Chronology of the New Testament” in Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 1 [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979]). There are also several specific arguments in favor of starting the fifteen years in A.D. 11 when Tiberius became co-regent.

First, his reference to the co-regency of Annas and Caiaphas as high priests (see the discussion below) suggests that Luke may also have had the co-regency of Augustus and Tiberius in mind.

Second, according to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Herod the Great began building the temple in 19 B.C. In John 2:20, the Jewish leaders said to Jesus, who was in Jerusalem for Passover, that the temple had been under construction for forty-six years. That would make the date of that Passover A.D. 27, which in turn places the start of Jesus’ public ministry late in A.D. 26.

Finally, according to Luke 3:23, Jesus was about thirty years old when He began His public ministry. Since He was born shortly before the death of Herod in 4 B.C., Jesus would have been about thirty in A.D. 26.

Moving from the supreme ruler of the Roman Empire to the highest-ranking local Roman authority, Luke next introduced Pontius Pilate, who had been appointed the fifth governor of Judea by Tiberius in A.D. 26 and remained until he was removed from office in A.D. 36. The Gospels and extrabiblical sources portray Pilate as proud, arrogant, and cynical (cf. John 18:38), and also weak and vacillating. As governor, Pilate displayed insensitivity and brutality (cf. Luke 13:1). Reversing the policy of the earlier governors, Pilate marched his troops into Jerusalem carrying standards bearing images that the Jews viewed as idolatrous. Outraged, many protested heatedly against what they saw as a sacrilege. Pilate ignored their protests and ordered them, on pain of death, to stop bothering him. But they called his bluff and dared him to carry out his threat. Unwilling to massacre so many people, Pilate removed the offending standards. The story reveals his poor judgment, stubbornness, arrogance, and vacillating weakness. Pilate also enraged the Jews when he took money from the temple treasury to build an aqueduct to bring water to Jerusalem. In the ensuing riots, his soldiers beat and slaughtered many of the protesters.

Ironically, the incident that finally triggered Pilate’s removal from office involved not the Jews, but their hated rivals the Samaritans. A group of them decided to climb Mount Gerizim in search of golden objects Moses had supposedly hidden on its summit. Mistakenly thinking the Samaritans were insurrectionists, Pilate ordered his troops to attack them, and many were killed. The Samaritans complained about Pilate’s brutality to his immediate superior, the governor of Syria. He removed Pilate from office and ordered him to Rome to be judged by Tiberius, but Tiberius died before Pilate reached Rome. At that point, Pilate disappeared from history. Some accounts claim that he was banished, others that he was executed, still others that he committed suicide.

Two other local rulers of note were Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip, the tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis. These two were members of the notorious Herod family, sons of Herod the Great. When Herod died in 4 B.C., his domain was divided among three of his sons, Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Archelaus proved to be such an inept and brutal ruler that he was deposed in A.D. 6 and his territory (Judea, Samaria, and Idumea) was placed under the rule of Roman governors (as noted above, Pilate was the fifth of those governors). The Herod in view here is Antipas, who ruled Galilee from 4 B.C. to A.D. 39. He is the Herod referred to in the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ ministry. It was Antipas who imprisoned (Luke 3:20) and executed (Luke 9:9) John the Baptist, and played a role in the unjust trial of Jesus (Luke 23:7–12).

Antipas’s brother Philip ruled the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis (northeast of Galilee) from 4 B.C. to A.D. 34. Philip has been considered the best of the Herodian rulers.

Little is known of the third local ruler mentioned by Luke, Lysanias, the tetrarch of Abilene (northwest of Damascus). Rejecters of biblical inerrancy used to charge Luke with an historical blunder, claiming that the only Lysanias known to history had died years earlier in 36 B.C. Inscriptions have been found, however, that indicate another Lysanias had ruled during the reign of Tiberius (Darrell L. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1994], 283).

Moving from the secular to the religious realm, Luke placed the outset of John’s ministry in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, suggesting that in some sense they held the office jointly. Although no longer officially the high priest, Annas was nonetheless the most powerful figure in the Jewish religious establishment. He had been the high priest from A.D. 6 to A.D. 15, when he was removed from office by Valerius Gratus, Pilate’s predecessor as governor. He could still properly be referred to as high priest (Acts 4:6), in much the same way that former presidents of the United States are still referred to as president after they leave office. Annas’s title, however, was more than a mere courtesy. Many Jews, resentful of the Romans’ meddling in their religious affairs, still considered him to be the true high priest (especially since according to the Mosaic law high priests served for life; cf. Num. 35:25). As Leon Morris notes, “There is little doubt but that … the astute old man at the head of the family exercised a good deal of authority. He was in all probability the real power in the land, whatever the legal technicalities” (The Gospel According to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979], 749).

Further, after his removal from office five of Annas’s sons and one of his grandsons served as high priest, as did his son-in-law Caiaphas, who held the office from A.D. 18 to 36. Since high priests were appointed and deposed at the whim of the Romans, Caiaphas’s unusually long tenure testifies to his skill as a politician. His ruthless determination to preserve his own status and power can be seen in his proposal that Jesus be executed (John 11:49–50)—an unwitting prophetic prediction of the atoning nature of His death (vv. 51–52).

Annas was proud, ambitious, and notoriously greedy. A major source of his income came from the temple. He received a share of the proceeds from the sale of sacrificial animals; only those for sale at the temple (for exorbitant prices) would be approved as an offering. Annas also got a cut of the fees the money changers charged to exchange foreign currency (only Jewish money could be used to pay the temple tax; cf. John 2:14). So notorious was his greed that the outer courts of the temple, where the business was conducted, became known as the Bazaar of Annas (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah [Reprint; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974], 1:371–72). Annas and Caiaphas especially hated Jesus because He twice disrupted their temple business operations (John 2:13–16; Matt. 21:12–13).

These two wretched individuals, as greedy and corrupt as the pagans they despised, exercised tremendous control over the people of Israel. Their rule was especially odious, since they corrupted their God-ordained authority (cf. Matt. 23:1–3). The epitome of their wickedness came during the mock trial of Jesus, in which they played the leading roles.

It was into the world of these seven men that John and Jesus came proclaiming the word of God. Four of them, Pilate, Herod, Annas, and Caiaphas, would play important roles in the unfolding drama of the Lord’s life, ministry, and death. All of them symbolized the moral and spiritual darkness that the Light of the world (John 8:12) came to dispel.

THE GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, (3:2b–3a)

One could hardly have envisioned a less auspicious location for the beginning of the public ministry of John the Baptist, the son of Zacharias, than the wilderness. Surely the forerunner of the Messiah would be expected to make a dramatic appearance at the temple, or at least somewhere in Jerusalem. There was no more barren, desolate region in Israel than the wilderness of Judea (Matt. 3:1). It stretched from the hill country of Judah on the west to the shores of the Dead Sea on the east, and extended north into the Jordan River valley. According to one writer,

It was in that harsh, unforgiving environment that John grew to manhood. Since his parents, Zacharias and Elizabeth “were both advanced in years” when he was born (Luke 1:7), John may have been orphaned at a young age, and then moved to the wilderness after the death of his parents. Despite the claims of some, however, there is no evidence that John ever lived at the famous religious community of Qumran, which was located in that region (cf. Bock, Luke 1:1–9:50, 198). That John’s entire ministry was spent in the district around the Jordan (cf. Matt. 3:6, 13; John 1:28; 3:23, 26; 10:40) in no way diminished his enormous popularity (cf. Matt. 3:5; Mark 1:5).

The phrase the word of God came to John does not imply that God revealed Scripture to him. Instead, the use of the more specific term rhema (word) as opposed to the more general term logos (cf. 5:1) suggests that John’s call to a prophetic ministry is in view here (cf. Jer. 1:1–2; Ezek. 1:3; Hos. 1:1; Joel 1:1; Jonah 1:1; Mic. 1:1; Zeph. 1:1; Hag. 1:1). After years of isolation, John suddenly, dramatically stepped onto the public stage.

The location of John’s ministry was a rebuke to the religious establishment, located primarily in Jerusalem. That John ministered in the wilderness symbolized God’s disdain not only for Gentile idolatry, but also for hypocritical Jewish legalism. John kept his distance from both, remaining untouched and unpolluted by either. It also symbolized John’s attack on the establishment (Matt. 3:7–12), and the necessity for truth seekers to leave it (Matt. 3:5–6). Finally, like the Messiah he heralded, John was humble. He did not minister in the temple, or a royal palace, but in the humblest of circumstances (cf. Matt. 11:8). That illustrates the truth that God chooses the humble and the lowly (1 Cor. 1:26–29). As the Jews had to be purged in the wilderness after they had left Egypt before entering the Promised Land, they would also be required to return to the wilderness again to be cleansed, baptized by John to prepare their hearts to receive Messiah’s kingdom.

THE THEOLOGICAL SETTING

preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; (3:3b)

John’s message of repentance and forgiveness is the one proclaimed by every true preacher of God’s truth. It is the good news that alone provides hope to a sin-cursed world. John’s message would be readily understandable had he been preaching to Gentiles. But at first glance it seems an unnecessary one for Israel, whose people were steeped in the Old Testament.

The truth is, however, that Israel was religiously bankrupt and desperately needed to hear John’s call to repentance. The Jewish people were cured of their penchant for idolatry by the Babylonian captivity. In its place, however, arose a legalistic religion, whose followers believed they could gain a right relationship to God by means of their own efforts.

The Lord Jesus Christ denounced that pernicious, false perspective in the Sermon on the Mount. He declared that no one can earn salvation by keeping the law, since the standard is the absolutely perfect holiness of God (Matt. 5:48; cf. v. 20). Focusing on external behavior instead of heart attitudes (vv. 21–47), making showy public displays of giving to the poor, praying, and fasting (6:1–18) all mark those on the broad way that leads to destruction (7:13). Those counting on such self-righteous achievements to earn their salvation are foolishly building a house on sand—one that will be washed away by the flood of divine judgment (vv. 26–27). But those who declare spiritual bankruptcy, humbly mourning their sin, yearning for a righteousness granted them by God (5:1–12; cf. Phil. 3:9), and trusting in the Lord Jesus (Matt. 10:32–33), will become sons of God and inherit the kingdom of God. The apostle Paul reminded the Romans that

Three important theological realities characterized John’s preaching. He offered the hope of forgiveness of sins. As noted above, the Jewish people were caught up in a system of works righteousness. Salvation, they were taught, came from keeping the Law, observing the traditions, and performing the rituals. But the realization that they could not perfectly do those things laid a heavy burden of guilt on them. Jesus declared that the Jewish religious leaders “tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Matt. 23:4). Defending the biblical truth that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, Peter asked his fellow Jews at the Jerusalem council, “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?” (Acts 15:10).

Yet the Jewish people knew that the New covenant promised forgiveness. In Jeremiah 31:34, God declared, “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (cf. 33:8; 50:20; Ezek. 16:60–63). They also understood that God is by nature a forgiving God. The Lord described Himself to Moses as one “who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:7). Interceding for rebellious Israel, Moses characterized God as “slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression” (Num. 14:18). Nehemiah called God “a God of forgiveness” (Neh. 9:17). In Psalm 32, David exalted,

“Iniquities prevail against me,” David lamented, but then added, “as for our transgressions, You forgive them” (Ps. 65:3). In Psalm 86:5, he affirmed, “You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive.” In Psalm 103:12, he expressed the magnitude of God’s forgiveness when he declared, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,” and in Psalm 130:3–4, he added, “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared.” Daniel took comfort in the knowledge that “to the Lord our God belong compassion and forgiveness” (Dan. 9:9). Isaiah pictured God’s forgiveness as washing sins so thoroughly that they are white as snow or wool (1:18), casting them behind His back (38:17; cf. Ps. 51:9), refusing to remember them (43:25), and covering them with a thick cloud and a heavy mist (44:22); Micah depicts forgiveness as God’s trampling sins under His feet and casting them into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7:19).

Just as his father, Zacharias, had prophesied (Luke 1:76–77), the Baptist proclaimed God’s forgiveness. His message offered hope to a people staggering under the weight of sin and guilt. As a result, multitudes flocked to the wilderness to hear the strange prophet with the profound, penetrating message that their burdened hearts so desperately needed to hear.

But forgiveness comes only to those who acknowledge and turn from their sins; hence John also proclaimed the need for repentance. That concept was also familiar to the Jewish people. Isaiah 55:6–7 commanded, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Ezekiel 18:30–32 also called upon the people to repent:

Repentance is not merely an intellectual change of mind about who Christ is, or superficial remorse over the consequences of sin. It is a radical turning from sin to God; a repudiation of the old life and a turning to God for salvation from the penalty and dominion of sin. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9, Paul wrote that the Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God.” Those who come to Him broken in spirit, humble, and mourning over their sins will experience God’s forgiveness.

Saving repentance never exists except in partnership with faith. It is impossible to have true faith in Jesus Christ apart from true repentance from sin or true repentance from sin apart from true faith. They are two sides of the same work of the Holy Spirit to convict sinners of their sin and draw them to Christ.

It must be clearly understood that repentance is not a human work that earns salvation. Repentance is not a pre-salvation effort by sinners to set their lives right that God rewards by saving them. In repentance sinners recognize their dire condition, acknowledge that they are unable to save themselves, and turn to Jesus Christ as the only One who can save them. Left to themselves, the unregenerate will never come to that conclusion, since they love darkness rather than light (John 3:19), and are dead in their trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1).

The conviction that produces repentance is a work of the Holy Spirit, who “convict[s] the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (John 16:8). In Acts 5:31, Peter declared that, “God exalted [Jesus] to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 3:26; 11:18; and 2 Timothy 2:25 also affirm that God grants repentance to sinners.

In 2 Corinthinans 7:9–11, the apostle Paul captures the essence of repentance:

He began by distinguishing remorse over sin’s consequences from the sorrow that produces repentance, noting that the Corinthians “were made sorrowful to the point of repentance.” Their sorrow was “according to the will of God;” that is, they viewed their sin the same way God does. That in turn “produce[d] a repentance without regret, leading to salvation,” as opposed to the “sorrow of the world [that] produces death.” Remorse over sin’s consequences, which is little more than wounded pride stemming from being caught in a sin, cannot produce the genuine repentance that results in forgiveness.

Paul closed his description of true repentance by defining it in a series of words or phrases. The first mark of repentance is “earnestness,” an eager pursuit of righteousness that ends a person’s indifference to sin and complacency about his or her lost condition. “Vindication” de scribes the desire to clear one’s name of the stigma attached to sin. “Indignation” is righteous anger at the dishonor sin brings to God’s holy name. It goes hand in hand with “fear” of God’s just judgment on sin and a “longing” to have one’s relationship with Him restored. Repentance also produces “zeal,” a passionate desire for righteousness that causes sinners to long to see justice done and the wrong of their sins avenged and atoned for. The Corinthians’ desire “to be innocent in the matter” shows that the one who is truly repentant aggressively pursues holiness.

The baptism in view here is not Christian baptism, which symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because it had not yet been instituted. Nor did John’s baptism produce forgiveness, for no ritual can accomplish that. And while there were various ceremonial washings in Judaism (cf. Heb. 6:2), there was no baptism of Jews. But while there was no baptism of Jews in Judaism, the Jews did baptize Gentile converts to Judaism. Thus, those who “were being baptized by [John] in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins” (Matt. 3:6), were publicly acknowledging that they were no better than the Gentiles. Their sins had separated them from the true and living God (cf. Isa. 59:2) and cut them off from covenant blessings. For Jewish people to place themselves on the same level as the despised Gentiles was astonishing, and demonstrates the power of John’s preaching.

Unfortunately, few being baptized by John were truly repentant. The nation would later reject Jesus when He failed to meet their expectations of a political Messiah, who would deliver them from the Romans. Others were superficial from the start. Thus when John

But those few (Matt. 7:13–14) who acknowledged their sinful condition and alienation from God and turned to Him in repentant faith were saved. (For more information on repentance, see the exposition of 3:7–17 in chapter 18 of this volume and my books The Gospel According to Jesus [Rev. ed.; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994] and The Gospel According to the Apostles [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1993, 2000].)

THE PROPHETICAL SETTING

as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God.’” (3:4–6)

Nothing more convincingly demonstrates God’s control over history than fulfilled prophecy. One such prophecy is Isaiah 40:3–5, the subject of these verses. It was written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet seven centuries before John’s birth, and has immense theological and historical significance. John’s fulfillment of this prophecy also shows the continuity between his ministry and the Old Testament, something critically important if the Jewish people were to accept him as a prophet of God.

John perfectly fulfilled this prophecy. He was the voice … crying in the wilderness, where he lived most of his life and where he ministered (see the discussion of the geographical setting above). In keeping with his role as Messiah’s forerunner, John called on the people to make ready the way of the Lord, to make His paths straight. The imagery is of an Oriental monarch on a journey sending a messenger ahead of him to make sure the roads were cleared of debris or other hazards. In the process ravine[s] would be filled in, mountain[s] and hill[s] brought low, crooked paths made straight, and … rough roads made smooth.

Chapter 40, the source of this prophecy, is a pivotal point in the book of Isaiah. The first thirty-nine chapters focus largely on God’s coming judgments on Israel and the surrounding nations. The opening words of chapter 40, “‘Comfort, O comfort My people,’ says your God,” mark a dramatic change in tone. The message of Isaiah’s prophecy changed from judgment to salvation, which is the theme of the rest of the book. The same God who judged Israel for her sins will one day have mercy on her; His ultimate purpose for the nation is not judgment but the salvation of the believing remnant, based on His unmerited grace (cf. Rom. 11:1–32). The theme of God’s comforting of Israel runs throughout the last half of Isaiah’s prophecy (cf. 40:6–11, 28–31; 41:8–10, 13; 49:14–16; 51:1–3, 12; 52:9; 54:4–8; 57:18; 61:2; 66:12–13).

Ultimately, God’s comfort of Israel will culminate in the millennial kingdom. Human history will end when the Lord Jesus Christ establishes His earthly kingdom and reigns over the entire world (Ps. 2:6; Isa. 2:2; Jer. 33:15; Ezek. 34:23–24; Dan. 2:44–45; Hos. 3:5; Rev. 20:4–6). Politically, the millennial kingdom will be characterized by Christ’s universal, absolute, and righteous rule. Physically, the curse will be lifted, resulting in abundant provision, health, and long life for all. Spiritually, knowledge of the Lord will be universal (Isa. 11:9), and the believing remnant of Israel will be saved (Zech.13:1, 8).

The words of Isaiah’s prophecy quoted here also serve as an analogy of the repentance John preached. The wilderness pictures the sinful heart, and repentance involves bringing to light the deep, dark things of the heart, pictured by filling in the ravines, and humbling human pride, depicted in the imagery of bringing low the mountains and hills. The crooked, deceitful, devious perverse things must be made straight, and any other rough places in the heart, whether self-love, love of money, love of the world, the lust of the flesh, indifference, or unbelief, must be smoothed out. Only then will the truly repentant see the salvation of God.