From the Old to the New

Locusts of Wild Honey - it's a fruit, not an insect!!! 

From the Old to the New

There was a man sent from God—his name: Yochanan (יוֹחָנָן), meaning “Yahweh is gracious.” And oh, how much weight was hidden in that grace. He was no ordinary prophet. He didn’t come wearing fine clothes. He didn’t sit in the temple courts. He thundered from the wilderness, not the sanctuary. And yet, he was the hinge between covenants, the last flicker of prophetic fire before the blinding dawn of the Kingdom.

Yeshua Himself said, “Among those born of women, there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist” (Matthew 11:11). And yet—yet!—He added, “But the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Why? Because John, though filled with the Ruach HaQodesh (Holy Spirit) from the womb, still stood beneath the old covenant's shadow, not yet bathed in the full light of the new.

He was the last prophet of a long line that stretched from Moses to Malachi. But unlike any before him, he saw the fulfillment coming toward him—not as a distant promise, but as a living man with sand between His toes. And his trembling hands baptized that man. This is not a metaphor. This is the moment when the old touched the new, and the curtain trembled though it hadn’t yet been torn. 

John’s birth itself was a sign. His father Zechariah was a priest—kohēn—of the order of Aviyah (אֲבִיָּה), ministering in the temple when the angel Gabriel appeared. Luke 1:6 tells us both his parents were “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.” Righteous—but childless, just like Sarah before Isaac. John’s very existence was a miracle, a preview of the impossible about to come.

And while still in the womb, John leapt when Miryam (Mary) entered the house, pregnant with the Messiah. Luke 1:41–44 makes it plain: even unborn, John recognized the King. That word “leaped” is skirtan (σκιρτάω) in Greek—used elsewhere only in Luke to describe joyous, Spirit-filled leaping, (moved excitedly) not random movement. The Spirit in John was already bearing witness to the Lamb.

Yet even with all that glory... John would die in a dungeon – before the new covenant was given.

Now watch what happens at his ministry’s peak.

He comes out of the wilderness—dressed in camel’s hair, eating locusts and wild honey (Mark 1:6). Why? Because he was a Nazarite from the womb (Luke 1:15), like Samuel and Samson, set apart for a holy purpose. But also because he stood outside the system. He was a living rebuke to the priesthood, to the Pharisees, to Herod.

His message wasn’t gentle:
“Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” (Matthew 3:2).

He baptized with water, yes—but he was clear:
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He that comes after me is mightier than I… He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

Fire. Judgment. Cleansing. Yochanan knew exactly what time it was. He wasn't a priest. He wasn’t in the temple. And yet the people came out to him, from Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region round about the Jordan (Matthew 3:5). They were confessing sins—not bringing sacrifices. They were being washed—not just ritually, but symbolically, as if preparing for a new covenant.

Then came Yeshua.

And here the skies cracked open.

Yeshua walks into the Jordan, and John—recognizing Him—tries to refuse:
“I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?”
But Yeshua answers, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:14–15)

As John lowers the Son of God into the water, he becomes the only prophet in all history to witness YHWH revealed at once:

• The Son in the water.

• The Spirit descending like a dove.

• The Father’s voice from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16–17)

That’s not just a baptism. That’s a covenantal coronation.

And yet, even after that… John’s role is finished. Slowly, the crowds fade. His disciples begin to ask why people are now going to Yeshua instead. And what does John say?
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
What humility. What ache. He wasn’t bitter. He was obedient to the end.

He never got to see it all.

He was arrested by Herod Antipas for condemning his unlawful marriage to Herodias. There’s no temple trial. No outcry. Just silence and a dark cell. He sends messengers to Yeshua with a trembling question:
“Are You the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Luke 7:19)

Was he doubting? Maybe. Or maybe he just wanted confirmation before he died. Maybe the forerunner of the Messiah just wanted to hear the King's voice one more time.

Yeshua answers gently—but powerfully:
“Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed… and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:22)

Those are the signs of Isaiah’s promised Messiah. John knew the Scriptures. That answer was Yeshua’s way of saying, “Yes, cousin. It’s Me. You did it. You prepared the way. Rest now.”

Not long after, John was beheaded at the whim of a dancing girl and a wicked queen. No angel came. No miracle. But heaven, I assure you, stood in silence as that prophet’s head was laid on a platter.

And still, Yeshua says of him:

“Among those born of women there has not risen a greater…”
But then: “Yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28)

Not because we’re better. But because we’ve been born into the kingdom he could only point toward. John was filled with the Spirit—yes—but the Spirit had not yet been given, because “Yeshua was not yet glorified” (John 7:39). The new covenant had not been sealed in His blood.

John stood in the gap. One foot in the fire of Sinai, one in the river of life. He was the voice crying out, and once the Word Himself spoke, that voice was no longer needed.

So don’t say only “poor John.” Say prophet John. Watchman John. Blood witness John.

He did not get the reward of Pentecost. He got something older and harder: the call to prepare a people for a Kingdom he wouldn’t live to enter. But he ran his race. He heard the Voice. He baptized the King.

And when the curtain tore, and the dead rose from their graves (Matthew 27:52), I’d bet everything John the Baptist was among them—no longer the least outside the Kingdom, but crowned inside it, with fire in his bones and dust on his feet. And I do believe we will see him when Yeshua raises all His believers to life.

this image was made by chatgpt at my direction.