“And the young child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his presentation to Israel” (Luke 1:80). For John to grow and become strong in spirit means that he was with God and for God, and to live in the wilderness was to be away from the traditions of human culture and religion that God might have a free and clear way to use him as the forerunner of the Savior.
As one who was born a priest, and according to the regulations of the Old Testament, John should have spent much time in the temple. However, he did not stay in the temple; he lived in the wilderness. The wilderness is a place without culture, tradition, or religion. By living in the wilderness John cut himself off from the crowd, from religion and culture, and from the temple of Judaism with all the systems and traditions of its service to God. He was a Jew, but he did not live as a Jew. He was a priest, but he did not live as a priest. On the contrary, he lived as an uncultured person. He put aside human religion, human culture, human practice, human system, all of man’s traditions, the tradition of the priests, and the tradition of serving God; he abandoned them all. This strongly indicates that God’s New Testament economy is contrary to religion and culture. It also indicates that the old way of the worship of God according to the Old Testament was repudiated, and a new way was about to be brought in.
John lived in a way that was absolutely contrary to religion, culture, and tradition and outside of religion, culture, and tradition. He wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle about his loins, and his food was locusts and wild honey (Matt. 3:4). According to the regulations of the law, John, who was born a priest, should have worn the priestly garment, which was made mainly of fine linen (Exo. 28:4, 40-41; Lev. 6:10; Ezek. 44:17-18); and he should have eaten the priestly food, which was composed mainly of fine flour and the meat of the sacrifices offered to God by His people (Lev. 2:1-3; 6:6-18, 25-26; 7:31-34). However, John acted altogether contrary to traditional teachings. He wore a garment of camel’s hair (the camel was considered an unclean animal—Lev. 11:4) and a leather girdle about his loins, he ate locusts and wild honey, and he lived in the wilderness. All these things were uncivilized, uncultured, and completely contrary to the religious regulations and the Judaic traditions. All this indicates that he had altogether abandoned all the Old Testament traditions, which had fallen into a kind of religion mixed with human culture.
Luke 3:7-14 is a record of the teachings of John the Baptist.
John said to the crowds going out to be baptized by him, “Brood of vipers! Who prompted you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce then fruits worthy of your repentance, and do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham for our father, for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:7-8). He strongly pointed out that although the people of Israel were the descendants of Abraham, they had become the brood of vipers, the children of the Devil, having the poisonous nature of the Devil. They needed a change in life and nature to make them children of God to produce good fruit (Luke 3:9).
John taught the people that he who has two tunics should share with the one who has none. He taught the tax collectors to exact no more than what they had been instructed, and he taught those serving in the military to extort nothing from anyone by force, nor to take anything from anyone by false accusation, and to be satisfied with their wages (Luke 3:11-14). Although John lived in a way that was contrary to religion, culture, and tradition, he taught people to live a superior life.