‘And in those days comes John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying,'
‘In those days' is a loose connection timewise with what has gone before. ‘Those days' in context probably refer to the pre-Messiah days, the days of preparation prior to the revealing of the Messiah, which commenced with His birth and continued with what followed, and has culminated in John's ministry. It indicates the ‘then' and ‘now' idea so common in the New Testament. Note in this regard how later in Matthew Jesus distinguishes the time of His own ministry from all that has gone before, thus thinking in terms of ‘these days' and ‘those days' - Matthew 11:11-13). Thus ‘in those days' deliberately connects with the central themes which have gone before, indicating that they were a part of the preparations for the presentation of the Messiah which were now well on their way to fruition.
‘John the Baptist.' John stands out from all others because he ‘baptises', drenches people with water. This is so regularly connected in the present day with Old Testament ‘washings', (and was so even by Josephus who also did not understand it), that it is difficult to remove the impression. Nevertheless we must seek to do so. There is in fact no hint anywhere in John's preaching of ritual washing (which in the Old Testament never cleansed, but only preceded cleaning), nor indeed of being washed. The thought is all of fruitfulness and growth, (or otherwise), resulting from the pouring out of rain, (or the lack of it) (Matthew 3:8; Matthew 3:10; Matthew 3:12). Thus John's baptism is a symbolic acting out of the promises about the pouring out like rain of the Holy Spirit as described by the prophets, promising the soon coming pouring out of the Holy Spirit through the Messiah on those who come for baptism in genuine repentance (Matthew 3:11; compare Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:1-5; Isaiah 55:10-13; Ezekiel 36:25-28). His baptism therefore depicted the spiritual rain, and was administered by him personally (baptised by him - Matthew 3:6; Matthew 3:11), something never true of ritual washings. It is noteworthy in this regard that the Pharisees never raised any objection to his actual practise of baptism, only to what he was claiming to be by doing it (John 1:25). They would certainly have raised an objection to the practise if they had thought that he was depicting proselyte washing for Jews, which they would have found offensive, or was saying that their own washings were insufficient.
While not wishing to go into the matter in depth here, we should note that the vast majority of references to baptism in the New Testament have nothing to do with ‘ritual washing'. They have to do with the coming of the Holy Spirit on men, and on the idea of dying and rising again to a new life (Romans 6:3-4), in a similar way to seeds springing up into fruitfulness (John 12:24). They have to do with the washing of new birth and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Indeed Peter denies that baptism should be seen in terms of ritual washing, connecting it rather with spiritual change and with the resurrection (1 Peter 3:21).
John comes in the wilderness of Judaea. The ‘wilderness' is not desert, but is nevertheless not fruitful land. Here it is the hot, dry land by the River Jordan. Both Moses and Elijah were also closely connected with the wilderness, so that John is being depicted as in the true prophetic line, leaving the distractions of the world, and coming to a place where men can hear the voice of God. And if men wanted to hear that voice, they too must come out into the wilderness in order to hear what he has to say. It is there that God will speak with them.
Furthermore it was in the wilderness that God was to plead with the people once their trial by exile was over (Ezekiel 20:35-36; Hosea 2:14). Thus there is in this an indication that God is now seeking to speak to His people. But the chiasmus also suggests that we may see an indication in this that Judaea is itself ‘a wilderness' because of the state of its people, a wilderness that needs to be transformed in order to become fruitful (Matthew 3:4; Matthew 3:6).