Matthew 3
Book of Matthew
He confronted the false Jewish religious practices of his day. The Jews presumed they were God’s children simply because they were descendants of Abraham. On the contrary, though the nation of Israel was indeed the recipient of the Abrahamic Covenant (and its subordinate Mosaic Covenant), the covenant people had abandoned the provisions of the covenant.
The nation could not walk with God if they were out of fellowship with him. They needed to change. That was precisely the message of the Old Testament prophet Amos: “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” (Amos 3:3). When John the Baptizer was speaking out, God and the nation of Israel were moving in two different directions. The “kingdom of heaven was at hand,” the king was on the scene, but the people would have to change their direction (repent!) if the kingdom was to be realized.
kingdom of heaven was to be realized, some changes would have to be made. The people of Israel had been thinking wrongly about God, themselves, their sin their righteousness, and the nature of the kingdom
The word “repent” (metanoeo) literally means “to change the mind.” However, a change of mind is suspect if it does not result in a change of behavior, as John made clear to the hypocrites in 3:8. This same principle is echoed in James 2:14–26. Just as “faith” without works is not faith at all, so “repentance” without its fruit is not authentic. Repentance in Scripture refers to a decision to turn from one’s sins because of an inward “mind-change” which involves how we look at God as well as how we look at sin.
John the Baptizer was not so much calling individuals to eternal salvation as he was calling the nation to turn from its sins and back to God so the kingdom might come to Israel. The Bible insists that the Messiah-King will not set up his kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven” until the nation of Israel has come to faith in Messiah and turned from their sinful ways. The day will come when Israel will do both, but that will be during the “day of Jacob’s trouble” (the Tribulation) yet to come. That great day of biblical covenant fulfillment will be followed by the Messiah-King’s millennial kingdom on this earth.