From the Scriptures Translation:
And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his immersion, he said to them, “Brood of adders! Who has warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Bear, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as father. For I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” Matthew 3:7-9
Yochanan the Immerser (aka John the Baptist) stood clothed with Eliyahu’s mantle, and cried out to the crowds to make teshuvah as the Kingdom had the potential of arriving in their day. Among the listeners stood the supposedly pious leadership, who saw no personal need to change anything, as they were sons of Avraham, Elders of Yisrael, and prayed daily. No one knew the Torah and Prophets as well as they. Yochanan identified them as Y’shua did in Yochanan 8:44, as being sons of the serpent, espousing the serpentine lie that they were of such elite knowledge that they were like the Most High.
To this perceived pious group Yochanan demanded the evidence, the fruit of repentance, of the turning of their lives to return to righteousness and obedience. They had only their robes and significance to exhibit. They failed the test.
When we have prayed our prayers and offered our tears as we mourn our deeds of unrighteousness; when we have fasted and sought to restore broken relationships, the evidence of our success will be change. We will exhibit a different heart, different words, and a humility that says, “I am not the same.”
May our Days of Prayer bear fruit that would satisfy the request of Yochanan the Immerser and the One To Whom he pointed.
