Throughout the Bible, God always announces what he is going to do before he does it. This word-act pattern signifies that God is not simply reacting to human circumstances. Rather, he acts according to his own predetermined plan. By announcing this plan God then enables his people to live goal-oriented lives. When God reminds them and confirms his plan, he does so to get his people back on the track of his purpose. So here, just before the much-awaited moment when the Messiah begins his ministry, God sends a prophet, John the Baptist. John’s role is to get God’s people back on track to prepare them for what God is about to do through Jesus. At this point the people had waited a long time without seeing much in the way of obvious divine activity. Naturally, many were losing hope. ‘Hope’ is an attitude of anticipation of things up ahead; it is a passionate expectation that motivates us in the present to keep working towards what is anticipated. Because they had lost hope, the Jews were also wandering off the path and taking their lives in their own hands. This can happen to us too, when we feel that God isn’t doing much in our lives. The great danger, however, is that when God does act, we will miss it because our eyes are diverted from the goal. It was the greatest of tragedies that most of the Jews who saw Jesus did not recognise him. They missed the coming of their Messiah because their hopes were diverted to other things.
Reflect on how you may have lost hope and ask God to renew your vision for his purpose.
Read Matthew 3 and Mark 1:1-13.
