Luke 3:7 Commentary and Bible Study

What Matthew records as being said to the Pharisees and Sadducees, Luke has John saying to the whole multitude that came out to him. The whole nation was hardened and complacent, and this was a strong word to wake them up. One might have thought that anyone who would travel the distance to where John was preaching, away from population centres, would be sincere and fully aware of their need of God, but John does not view it this way. Is he overreacting? No, the human heart is deceitful above all things, and often the initial response of people to the message is not deep enough. People can judge themselves as sincere when the Spirit of God who searches the heart see that there is still a fatal attraction to sin. A further work of humbling is required, and the preacher has got to be forthright enough to deliver it. John had to have a forehead of iron. When the preacher speaks in these strong terms, it does not mean that he is a hostile person or over-severe. He is simply obeying his calling. John had been prepared for this difficult task, and he knew that in his case a very direct message was called for. His preaching was characteristically blunt. He was there to wake up the whole nation and the nation was asleep in its complacency. The people still had not woken up to the idea that they were not God’s favourites, just because they were descended from Abraham. That notion would prevent the word getting through to them unless it was delivered with great energy.John uses sarcasm to jolt them. Calling them what they are, he first indicates what he really thinks of them – they are a generation of vipers. To put it mildly, the preacher must not be someone who flatters his hearers. Sarcasm and irony have a bite to them that cuts through self-righteousness and other barriers that the unregenerate erect before God. This was one of the mountains that needed to be brought low and it was going to take force to do so. ‘Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’ That is what they should have been doing, but they were not doing it. They had come out to hear John’s preaching out of curiosity or because others were coming, but not because they felt an urgent need. You too, says John, have need to fear the wrath of God which you will face in the Day of Judgment. Is that really what you are doing here? No, it is not. Wake up to your real predicament. John was a man prepared for his time and he had a unique ministry. Not every preacher will make use of sarcasm, and most will mix words of compassion and encouragement with more convicting statements. We have to show the loving kindness of the Lord also. But John’s calling was to be this voice in the wilderness, and Isaiah’s words define the vigour of his ministry: ‘Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low.’