Victor Porton’s personal theological reading of Matthew 3:4; the views below are the author’s interpretation.
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Full sermon text
A short sermon about John the Baptist.
Matthew chapter 3, verse 4.
“And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern
girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.”
The first impression of John manners is that he was deliberately
poor.
But I think, there was a deeper reason for this John’s lifestyle: I
think, he was a survivalist. His lifestyle rather than being just
deliberate poverty, was disconnection from urban supply chain. If the
urban life crashes, John would still have food.
Despite him being a great prophet, he didn’t predict his death from
Herod, and his survivalism was in vain.
But survivalism adds scores in a spiritual image, doesn’t it? Another
reason, why John would choose deliberate poverty may be showing an
example that even having financial opportunities (and he clearly had,
because he was famous) one can refrain to spend much resources to leave
more to real poor people.
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