Knowing the Word in Matthew 3:7-12

John the Baptist Prepares the Way

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! [Jesus repeats this phrase in 12:34] Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father [reliance on race],’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 10 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [See 7:19]

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me [not used as a sense of time but meaning a follower, as Jesus first followed John] is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry [a slave’s task]. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. [John’s preparatory and symbolic baptism will give way to an effective baptism. The prophets looked forward to a purifying outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Messianic age (Isa 32:15 and 44:3; Ezk 36:26-27 and 39:29; Joel 2:28-29). John predicts a real cleansing that his baptism can only symbolize.] 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” [The fire that purifies will also destroy. See 13:30. The judgment is selective, and the judgment is focused on Jesus.]