Daily Devotional for Monday, December 22

The Message of John

“And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,”Luke 3: 3, 4.

You sound like a broken record!” Allow this older writer to explain the meaning of this expression to our younger readers. Prior to the digital age, we listened to music recorded on vinyl discs played on stereo phonographs using mechanical turntables. Occasionally the vinyl disc would develop a scratch, or “break,” and the needle of the phonograph would “skip” back and forth on the same part of the recording, producing a continual loop of repetition, hence the phrase, sounding like a broken record. This phrase is usually directed toward a person who seems to only be able to talk about the same thing, repeatedly. Perhaps you know someone who, no matter how the conversation starts, it always ends with the person’s pet subject.

This aphorism might have been applied to the subject of today’s passage, because John the Baptist lived his life and conducted his ministry focused on one central message. The prophet Isaiah spoke of John’s message, “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,” Isaiah 40:3.

As John preached the message of baptism for (because of) the remission of sins (Luke 3:3) his message was constant, unchanged, regardless of the audience. The common people asked what they should do, the publicans, the soldiers, asked what they should do, and the answer was the same: repent, and “bring forth fruits worthy of repentance!” (verse 8). John taught that true conversion will cause the stingy to give generously, the thief to stop stealing, the violent to cease, the liar to stop lying, the greedy to be content.

Final Thoughts

While John’s ministry has ended, his message lives on. Does your life bear fruit worthy of repentance?

John Nations