1 Now in those days came,

Matityahu said nothing about the messenger except Yochanan the Immerser came; he just stepped out onto the stage. Why was that? Because Yochanan the Immerser pointed to the Mashiach. And since Yochanan was just a messenger, we do not need to know anything about his genealogy. What did matter was the message he was delivering!

2 "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."

So, the Jews would have been very familiar with the Kingdom of Heaven. And Yochanan the Immerser was saying:

Interestingly, Matityahu called this concept the Kingdom of Heaven, and the other Good News (Gospel) writers called it the Kingdom of G_d. Matityahu used the Kingdom of Heaven because he was writing to the Jews, and he did not want to offend them by saying the word G_d. The Jews of the time wanted to avoid familiarization in the ear with the name of Y-H-V-H (G_d's personal name, Yahweh).

The Jews were also very familiar with the word Repent; they understood very well that it meant to "change your mind". The hearers of Yochanan the Immerser's message would have understood the following:

Making repent a religious word is another modern-day example of when a word is taken out of the New Covenant and is made into a religious word/work. Obviously, performance or feelings concerning repentance does not match up with Jewish thought.

There is not a lot said about immersion in the Tanakh, but the Jews would have been very familiar with it. Do you know why? Immersion meant "identification".

The Jews knew that a proselyte (a non-Jewish believer) would have been immersed into Judaism. When a proselyte came to G_d he would say I change my mind and I want to be immersed. The proselyte had to change his mind. How? He would say I used to think that I was okay. I used to think that my gods and my religion would lead me to heaven. However, I have changed my mind. Y-H-V-H is the ONLY G_d and the Jews provide the way:

• They have the Scriptures (they are called "the People of the Book")
• They are the covenant people of G_d
• They provide access to G_d through the sacrifices
• They produced Mashiach

Remember, immersion meant identification with the Jewish people. However, the Jews already were Jewish!

As we saw in our Matthew 2:12-23 study: Matityahu took events in the life of Yeshua of Natzeret and, to show that what Yeshua did was prophesied, he compared them with events in the Tanakh. So once again, before he dealt with the issues at hand, Matityahu made it clear that the ministry of Yochanan the Immerser was foretold in Scripture.

3 For this is the one referred to by Yesha'yahu the prophet, saying, "The voice of one crying in the desert, 'Make ready the way of Adonai (my Lord), make His paths straight!"

The little phrase Make ready the way of Adonai, make His paths straight was a very common figure of speech from the literature of that time. It was a phrase that was always used about a herald, somebody who would come before the king.

In those days, the population centers were in Persia, in the Middle East, in Egypt, in Rome, and in Greece. Between those population centers there were vast expansions of desert. The way to tell that is to look on any map and identify all the brown areas. The rule of thumb for a map is: if it is brown, it is bad!

• First, the herald would yell out The king is coming!
• Second, and most importantly, the herald was responsible for taking care of the roads, because the roads were all crummy unlike those in many nations today.

Interestingly, the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the area where Yochanan the Immerser was located. I believe it is very possible that Yochanan spent time with the Essenes at Qumran, the community where, apparently, the Dead Sea Scrolls were produced. The scrolls seem to correlate with what Yochanan was saying. Also, the scrolls talk about a teacher of righteousness who had come among them. I believe that was Yochanan [the Immerser].

Yochanan Did Not Make the Cover of GQ ("Gentleman's Quarterly" fashion magazine) Ever!

4 Now Yochanan himself had a garment of camel's hair, and a leather belt about his waist;

A significant little detail: Matityahu said that Yochanan wore a leather belt about his waist. Why? We know Yochanan was not concerned about high fashion, because anybody who wears a big camel's hair robe does not worry about what he looks like. The belt was there to gird him up, because he was always moving. Yochanan did not sit in a tree meditating all day; he was busy.

And his food was locusts and wild honey.

The word locusts is not the same kind of locusts we have. It does not make much difference, because what he ate was pretty crude anyway. Those locusts were actually big grasshoppers.

Actually, the word wild honey does not even refer to honey, as we know it; wild honey was tree sap. Honey from honeybees was a delicacy. Yochanan was not eating delicacies; he was eating locusts and resin from trees.

5 Then Yerushalayim was going out to him, and all Y'hudah, and all the district around the Yarden;

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