The Revival of Israel

John the Baptist - Rodin

In Vol. VII of The Glory of the Lord Balthasar's prelude speaks of the the revival of his people from their long exile after the destruction of the temple. His description of the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ and the way in which the news of the coming Kingdom was to occur is quite moving. Pay attention as well to Balthasar's use of  various scriptural sources to weave his exposition of John's mission. It would be difficult to use scripture in this way with merely a cursory or even very attentive reading.

"… Israel must set out afresh, for since the exile it has existed no more. The messenger, sent out by God before his face in Malachi (3:1) has also the commission to ‘turn again’ the hearts of the fathers to the sons, and of the sons to the fathers (4:6); this is taken over by the grandson of Ben Sirach and receives explanation and expansion in the ‘restoration of the (twelve) tribes of Jacob’ (Sir 48:10) The word ‘restoration‘ (apokatastasis) is applied to the Baptist by Jesus himself (Mk 9:12; cf. Lk 1:17) before it is applied to Jesus (as his own forerunner for the day of the Parousia) in Peter’s sermon (Acts 3:21).

God’s word comes upon John in the wilderness. He was of priestly descent, but the name which the angel ordered to be given him indicated that he had been chosen out of all the priesthood of the Old Testament. His dwelling in the wilderness was not like that of the men of Qumran, but was in solitude, ascetical clothing and extreme frugality; nor was his message like that of the political messianic movements which mostly started out from the wilderness, for his message was one of pure salvation history. This permits the origins of Israel in the concept of the wilderness to awaken once more. The wilderness is the place to which God wishes to woo back the apostate Israel, as a bridegroom his beloved, so that he may speak to her heart there (Hos 2:16); but not without 'stripping her naked and making her like a wilderness' (Hos 2:5). The wilderness is the dreadful and glorious state of being handed over to God: the greatest temptation (among demons and wild beasts) and the greatest nuptial intimacy (Jer 2:2). The 'journey through the wilderness' is unavoidable for Jesus, but also for Christians (1 Cor 10:6; Heb 3:8-11), for whom it is the place where God's Word like a two edged sword pierces to the inmost division of joints and marrow, thoughts and intentions, and lays all open before him (Heb 4:12f). It is the place where one learns to pray and where one can then teach others to pray (Lk 11-1). It is the place where there are no fixed points, but where only a nomadic existence is permitted upon earth (Lk 3:3), such as the existence of which Israel once led under God's guidance, and which Jesus too, driven by the Spirit, will lead once more (‘nowhere to lay his head’, Mt 11:18)."