Getting away from religious business God brings about revival and introduces our Redeemer. Take a moment to see what God does in places that we consider harsh and inhospitable. It will help us not to waste our wilderness. Listen in!
Matthew turns his attention from the narrative about how Jesus entered the world to how He entered ministry. To give his readers a good view of the good news about how Jesus ministry began the former tax collector tells about the work of the forerunner - John the Baptist. The mention of those days (ταῖς ἡμέραις ἐκείναις - v1) is, broadly speaking, a reference to the period of time when Jesus was living in Nazareth (Matthew 2:23). During that time Archelaus had come to reign over Judea instead of his father Herod (Matthew 2:22). Jesus earthly father, Joseph, was warned by God in dream about the danger posed by the son of Herod. So Joseph, in returning from Egypt to the land of Israel (Matthew 2:19-21), chose to keep some distance between his family and crazy dictators; the carpenter took up residence in Nazareth. More specifically those days were in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar (Luke 3:1). During this time “the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias” in the wilderness (Luke 3:2; John 1:31-33).
When John the Baptist arrives on the scene (παραγίνεται) he is preaching and baptizing in the wilderness. What is he preaching? He is saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” It was an in-your-face message to the people who are supposed to already know God. Hmmm. Where was he preaching? In the wilderness. Interesting.
In the message (Repent) and location (wilderness of Judea) we have no small amount of significance. By preaching and baptizing in the wilderness John’s ministry fulfills a prophesied location requirement for the ministry of the Messiah’s herald - it would be in a place that is underdeveloped and uninhabited. Isaiah, 700 years earlier, had prophesied that the coming of the Lord would be preceded by someone calling people to repentance. Indeed, says Isaiah, the preaching will happen not in the relative comfort of an urban environment but in an uncomfortable and remote region regarded as wilderness or desert. Why is John in the boonies with a call to get right? It was not John’s idea. Matthew says it was sign ordained by God (v 3):
For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord;
Make straight in the desert A highway for our God.
(Isaiah 40:3, NKJV)
His call to repentance is preparing the way of the Lord. That fact that he is doing it away from the city and synagogue shows that the call is away from a broken religious system that was chiefly concerned with appearances.