'Finally,they asked,'Who are you? Give us an answer to take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?' (John 1:22)....John the Baptist had no concern to promote himself. He only wanted to exalt the One True Light,The Word,the Christ,the Messiah,the Lord Jesus Christ. The Pharisees had their eyes on him,because they were suspicious of this humble,God fearing man,preaching repentence and baptising many that had been circumcised by the Jews but he had no authority from the Jews to baptise these people. He was popular with the people and this probably made the Jews jealous. (Luke 1:80) says that 'the child grew and became strong in spirit and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel'. This would have made the Pharisees more convinced that he was the prophet,spoken of in Deuteronomy,as the desert was a good place for a prophet to grow spiritually and to develop and be set apart for God's anointing. He was indeed a prophet,but his motives were completely different to the questioner's hypocrisy. He only desired to be the Forerunner of Christ the Messiah. And to glorify Him. We will see his answer to their question in the next verse. ..........Our desire for Jesus is in the hymnwriter's verse,'Living for Jesus who died in my place,bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace. Such love constrains me to answer His call,follow His leading and give Him my all' (Thomas Chisholm)
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