In His Name Devotionals
THE WILDERNESS ABOUT JORDAN
In His Name Devotionals
THE WILDERNESS ABOUT JORDAN
“...In the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan.” (Luke 3:2, 3)
The wilderness to which John the Baptist withdrew stretches far and near, over the whole eastern part of Judea, beginning almost at Jerusalem, and under different names, reaching all the way to the Dead Sea and the southern desert, as its distant limits. It is a dreary waste of rocky valleys; in some parts stern and terrible, the rocks cleft and shattered by earthquakes and convulsions into rifts and gorges.
John’s field of action extended northward along the Jordan two-thirds of the way to the Sea of Galilee. This broad valley is almost without villages because of its remarkable formation. There may be something on the surface of another planet to match the Jordan Valley; there is nothing on this earth. The Jordan River lies 300 fee below the ocean level. Vegetation is an exceedingly rank jungle wherever the streams flow in torrents, especially in spring, and here are the lairs of wild beasts, boars, leopards and wolves. The drier places are covered by broom or intricate thorn bush. There are ridges of grey marl, salt and greasy, with stretches of gravel, sand and clay. Swamps abound, and there is much malaria. The stretches of sour soil, the unhealthy jungle, the obtrusive marl, and the parched hillsides out of reach of streams justify the name, Wilderness.
Here John found the vivid figures he used in his preaching: the Axe at the root of the trees, for the jungle was a haunt of wood cutters; Fires among the dry scrub on the higher stretches chasing before them Scorpions and Vipers; the stones from which God could raise up children of Abraham; streams of water for baptism.
The appearance of John the Baptist was like that of the great prophet Elijah in the popular mind. He was clothed in the coarse, rough cloth called sackcloth in the Scriptures. It was cheap, but admirable for keeping out the heat, cold and rain. This mantle was girded around him with a leather girdle of undressed hide. His food consisted of locusts and wild honey.
The common brown locust is about three inches in length and the general form is that of a grasshopper. They were very abundant. They are still used as a food. They are sold in Biskra, an oasis in the desert of Sahara. Some of our western Indians, such as the Piutes, eat locusts. Some say they are delicious, resembling fried oysters.
This kind of living aided John the Baptist to be perfectly fearless and independent. He had little to lose by the opposition of the great, or to gain by their favor.
