In Jeremiah 26, the LORD tells Jeremiah to go to the Temple and prophesy to the people that He is going to destroy Jerusalem and all of Judah. The purpose was that the people might repent, and the LORD would withdraw His promise of destruction. When Jeremiah went to the Temple and prophesied as the LORD instructed, the priests and the people wanted to kill him. The king and his counselors came to hear the prophesy and afterwards, he wanted to kill Jeremiah as well, but some of the elders reminded everyone that previous prophets had made such prophecies against Jerusalem and the previous kings did not kill them. After a great deal of discussion and debate, which included one of those who sided with Jeremiah being hunted down in Egypt and brought back to be executed, Jeremiah’s life was spared.
In Jeremiah 27, Jeremiah tells King Zedekiah and the kings of the surrounding nations that the LORD has given them into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will all serve under his yoke. Those who will not turn themselves in will die of pestilence, famine or by the sword. Once again, the message is one of utter despair, yet within it in is the promise that several of the largest items from the Temple, which were not taken by Nebuchadnezzar when he carried off the rest of the items from the Temple treasury, which would be carried of soon, would one day be returned to the Temple in Jerusalem. Despair is never complete, for the people of the LORD, and His mercy and grace are available to those who will turn and receive it.
In Jeremiah 28, the prophet Hananiah prophesied the opposite of what Jeremiah had prophesied. He told the people that within two years the LORD would return all the items to the Temple which had been carried off to Babylon. He also took the wooden yoke Jeremiah had used as an illustration and broke it. Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah and He told Hananiah that he had broken a yoke of wood, but in its place would be a yoke of iron. He also told Hananiah that for prophesying falsely he would die within the year. Seven months later he died.
As we return to Matthew 3, we are introduced to John the Baptist. John was a prophet who dressed and acted much like the prophet Elijah. He baptized people in the Jordan River as a sign of the repentance and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. John called the religious leaders who came a “brood of vipers.” This kind of engagement with the religious leaders would become a common practice of Jesus during His ministry on the earth. As John was baptizing folks, Jesus came to be baptized by him. John protested that he needed to be baptized by Jesus, not the other way around. But Jesus insisted that it be done, so John baptized Him. As Jesus came out of the water, the sky opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove. God the Father spoke from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” That empowerment and confirmation initiated Jesus earthly ministry. As we seek to follow Jesus, we are called to be baptized as a response of obedience to Him, and to wait on and then live in the power of the Holy Spirit.