Matthew 3:1-4
In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): No man will be fit or qualified for so distinguished an office who has not been formed and moulded by the hand of Christ Himself.
J. R. MILLER (1840-1912): Indeed, He trains men while they know it not, for the work He means them to do later.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): “And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel,” Luke 1:80. John the Baptist’s early life pictures a child growing up before the Lord, devoted to Him, strong in spirit, spurning the evil, choosing the good; then, when the divine call came, going alone out in the desert where he might commune with God, where he could better hear His voice and be instructed by Him, that when the appointed time came, he might appear to the people of Israel as the messenger of Jehovah.
J. R. MILLER: When God trains a man for any great work, He always takes plenty of time.
ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Till John was about thirty years of age, he was in the deserts that lay all around the Dead Sea. Up and down he wandered, and fasted, and prayed, where Sodom and Gomorrah had once stood, until the Lord rained fire and brimstone upon those cities…And John was clothed with camel’s hair, a leathern girdle about his loins; and he ate locusts and wild honey—after thirty years of such a curriculum and probationer-ship, what kind of preaching would you look for? A dumb dog that cannot bark?
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): John was rough and stern, like Elijah. His garments betokened his simplicity, his sternness, his self-denial.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): His raiment was not of camel’s hair softened and dressed—but camel’s skin with the hair on it, the “rough garment,” or “garment of hair” prophets used to wear, Zechariah 13:4; or camel’s hair undressed, very coarse and rough, and suitable to the austerity of his life, and roughness of his ministry—he appeared in the same dress as Elijah, “a leathern girdle about his loins,” 2 Kings 1:8, which showed he was prepared, in readiness to do the work he was sent about.
THE EDITOR: “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,” Ephesians 6:14; truth in doctrine, and according to that doctrine, truth in one’s walk.
C. H. SPURGEON: Everything connected with John the Baptist was in harmony with his message. His raiment and his food were like his doctrine—rough and simple—his food showed that he cared nothing for luxuries.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Locusts were a flying insect, good for food, and allowed as clean, Leviticus 11:22…This intimates that he ate sparingly—a man would be long, ere he filled his belly with locusts and wild honey; John the Baptist came “neither eating nor drinking,” Matthew 11:18.
THE EDITOR: Locusts often represent God’s judgments upon unrepentant sinners, as in Egypt, Exodus 10:14; and judgments to move men to repentance, 2 Chronicles 7:13,14. John’s desert diet of locusts prepared him spiritually for the first half of his ministry—John warned of God’s coming judgment, and exhorted men to repentance.
C. H. SPURGEON: His message was simply, “Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The one culminating point of his exhortations was “Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!”
THE EDITOR: That brings us to the “wild honey,” the preparation for the second half of John’s ministry—declaring the glory of God’s grace, to be found in the “Lamb of God.”
MATTHEW HENRY: “Wild” honey was that which Canaan flowed with—as it was found in the hollows of trees and rocks, where bees built, that were not, like those in hives, under the care and inspection of men.
THE EDITOR: Like wild honey, grace is sweet, and without man’s hand on it; “otherwise grace is no more grace,” Romans 11:6. When Jonathan dipped his rod in wild honey from a honeycomb on a tree, and tasted it, “his eyes were enlightened,” 1 Samuel 14:27. Only God’s grace spiritually enlightens a man’s eyes. Eating “wild honey” implies that John fed spiritually on the grace to be found in Christ, for “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,” John 1:17.
JOHN GILL: But this is conjecture.
THE EDITOR: Well, compare Scripture to Scripture.
By His sovereign grace, God “made” Jeshurun, “suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock; butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs,” Deuteronomy 32:13,14. “And that Rock was Christ,” 1 Corinthians 10:4.
See Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Christ: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat,”—why?—“that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good,” Isaiah 7:14,15. Without the honey of grace, who knows how “to refuse the evil, and choose the good?” Even as a child, “the grace of God was upon Him,” Luke 2:40.
See Leviticus 2:11—“Ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire,” all figures of Christ’s atonement on the cross. Leaven, emblematic of corruption, was prohibited because Immanuel Himself was personally sinless; no honey was permitted, because when God poured out His wrath upon Christ for our sin, He hid His face from His beloved Son, and Jesus felt a complete absence of all grace—“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!”
Solomon mentions honey also in a negative sense: “Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it,” Proverbs 25:16. Is this simply a dietary caution to moderation? Can we ever have too much grace? No, Solomon warns us: if thou hast found God’s grace, never presume upon that grace to continue in sin; “shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1. If we abuse God’s grace, as Jeshurun did, judgments will make us vomit up such presumption, as God judged Jeshurun: see Deuteronomy 32:15-36.
JOHN GILL: And the butter?
THE EDITOR: “Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter,” Proverbs 30:33. The land of Canaan flowed not only with the honey of God’s grace, but with the milk of His Word. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,” 1 Peter 2:2,3. Meditating on God’s Word churns that sincere milk into butter—but we only eat this spiritual butter by applying it to our walk, “being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,”—doing that, God promises that “this man shall be blessed in his deed,” James 1:29. So Job testified of the spiritual blessing he had, “when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil,” Job 29:6. And our Immanuel? “He that sent me is with me,” Jesus said,“for I do always those things that please Him,” John 8:29; and all “wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth,” Luke 4:22.
Lastly, Job’s friend Zophar, warns hypocrites who hear, but who are not doers, that they “shall not see the rivers, the floods, the brooks of honey and butter,” Job 20:17.
