January 31, 2012
Warning
John the Baptist was not one to mince words and in the account of the
Pharisees and Sadducees who came to where he was baptizing, John said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee
from the coming wrath?” (Matt 3:7; Luke 3:7 NIV) I’m intrigued by John’s
question. Maybe John had a touch of Jonah running through his veins and he wanted
the Pharisees and Sadducees to endure wrath.
Was his question in jest, or did John really want to know who among the
disciples was brave enough to give a warning to the Pharisees and Sadducees? As
a believer it seems like it’s our responsibility to warn people about the
coming wrath…and that their only salvation comes by way of fleeing to the Lord.
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Gail;
-----You strike upon what is lovely about a warning. It is a thing of love. Love cares. It is full of concern and holds in its hand whatever is properly beneficial for the situation. In this general world situation, at least a general theme of warning must interlace all our purposes (yet not consume them.) And as the danger of a particular situation increases, so should the level of alarm.
-----It wasn’t that the Lord’s coming was dangerous to us in itself. It was that the addition to the knowledge of God He made for man increased our personal responsibility to know more specifically. In that the approach to God was soon to narrow to Christ alone, there was becoming a greater danger of missing any approach. And without approach to God there is wrath to face. So it was that John was sent before the Lord as a warning for man to straighten the path of the Lord.
-----I think there was a smattering of simple rhetoric in John’s question to the Pharisees, Sadducees, and multitudes. Calling them a brood of vipers, he knew what they were. Knowing what they were, he knew love had no calling for them, at least not for them as they were. “Bear fruits that befit repentance,” he warned. (Luke 3:8) I believe this hinged the question to swing from simple rhetoric to a sparker of contemplation for any amongst these people who had within themselves some fuel for contemplation. For warning had been given all them. And I think John knew it.
-----”Remember this and consider, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.” (Isaiah 46:8-10) “The former things I declared of old, they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them and they came to pass. Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass, I declared them to you from of old, before they came to pass I announced them to you, lest you should say, ‘My idol did them, my graven image and my molten image commanded them.’ You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I make you hear new things, hidden things which you have not known.” (Isaiah 48:3-6) “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
-----John knew there was a right answer to his question. God loved them all enough to warn them through His prophets. The warning was written in their history. It was written in their scriptures. These Pharisees, Sadducees, and multitudes just hadn’t been paying attention to what they should have been. Had they been they would have run to John for a place to fall upon their knees with him.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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