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Why John The Baptist Was Sent To Israel

(John 1:6) “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.”  Why did God send John the Baptist to Israel before Jesus was introduced to them?  1) To answer the prayer of two faithful people. John’s parents Zacharias and Elizabeth prayed for a child for years, and in their later years God gave them John.  2) He came on a special mission from God. John was full of the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), and his mission was not to turn Israel back to religion, but rather to turn their hearts back to God, and “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (18). 3) To preach the coming of Israel’s Messiah. Jesus Christ was the “Word that became flesh,” and “John bare witness of him...” Jesus was God’s eternal Son, The Word, The Light, and our deliverer, and so John preached as Elijah did of old, foretelling his coming as also Isaiah said to Israel in (Chp.40:3) when he proclaimed “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God...”4) He sent to baptize Israel in water, as a symbol of their national repentance, preparing them to hear and accept Jesus as their Messiah and Savior. John the Baptist therefore was the first Christian preacher, and the first Christian Martyr of the faith.

 

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