John 1:23 Commentary and Bible Study

John the Baptist replies by identifying himself with the voice of Isaiah 40:3 crying, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, or make level the way of the Lord, a passage about the forerunner to Jesus Christ, and how a preacher would be sent before Christ begins his own ministry. I am a voice sent to challenge the nation, he says, as if a king is returning to his nation but the road is cluttered up before him and must be cleared. So John warns the nation to put away their unbelief, superstition, and hypocrisy in preparation for the Messiah.It was part of the message to the nation that John’s ministry took place in the wilderness away from Jerusalem. This signalled God’s disapproval of the establishment and his call to the people to come out of a corrupt Judaism.