The Encourager
“The Voice of one Crying in the Wilderness”
“A Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness”
By Jeff Curtis
The time was about 26 A.D.; the place was Bethany beyond the Jordan. A preacher, about thirty years old, had been stirring up the people on both sides of the Dead Sea. A committee of priests and Levites came to him and asked, “Who are you?” (John 1:19). We understand the reason for the question, he answered, “I am not the Christ” (John 1:20). They persisted in their questioning:
21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”He said, “I am not.” “Are
you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are
you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about
yourself?”
Back came this cryptic answer: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (John 1:23).
The young man who called himself “a voice…crying in the wilderness” was John the Baptizer. His answer came from Isaiah 40, which told of the forerunner of the Messiah.
A voice is calling, “3Prepare the way of the Lord;make straight in the desert
a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exaltedand every mountain and hill brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth” (Isaiah 40:3-4).
Heralds and forerunners not only announce the coming of a king, but also prepared for his coming – laying up provisions and (as emphasized in this text) making a road on which he could travel.
The phrase “a voice…crying in the wilderness” in John 1:23 summarizes the phenomenon that was John: First and foremost, he was a voice; he was a man with a message. That message was to be presented in a unique setting; in the wilderness. John literally preached in a physical wilderness, but “the wilderness” referred to in Isaiah 40 and John 1 was more than rocks, sand, and scorpions. John also preached in a wilderness of sin. He dared to be a voice where other voices had been silenced.
When we look at John’s life – we can appreciate the man he was and the message he had for his day and ours.
