“Prepare ye the way of the Lord” is an invitation, in some ways even a warning, but it is not a statement about what John the Baptist was doing. It was his call for THE PEOPLE to prepare THEMselves. It was the perennial cry from a prophet for the people to repent. John did not baptize anyone unless he felt they were humble and repentant.
When some Pharisees and Sadducees showed up at the river Jordan to see the baptist everyone was talking about, John greeted them with immediate condemnation. He called them the sons of poisonous snakes.
7 … O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 3:7-8
8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus also uses the phrase “generation of vipers” to describe the scribes and the Pharisees. In fact, the entire chapter is devoted to specific criticism, and heavy condemnation, by Jesus, of the scribes and the Pharisees.
33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
Matthew 23:33
Clearly these groups, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes, are made up of people who have great need to repent. It should surprise no one that the same types of people are behaving in the very same ways today. Learning about these people in the New Testament can help us better understand what is going on now.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees were the religious leaders in Israel during New Testament times. The Pharisees were strict traditionalists while the Sadducees were the wealthy ruling class. The scribes were essentially the lawyers of the time who recorded and kept the laws, policies, decrees, and contracts, made by the ruling elite. The scribes were usually Pharisees themselves.
The overarching sin of the scribes and Pharisees, like that of the wealthy and powerful in our day, was hypocrisy. As Jesus pointed out, “They say, and do not.” (Matthew 23: 3).
In Matthew 23, Jesus is very specific about the types of sins they were guilty of: burdening others, narcissism, arrogance, ostentation, denying heaven to others, profiting from the poor, corrupting converts, and worshiping gold.
23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
Matthew 23:23-25
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Ultimately, Jesus does not mince words. He says that the scribes and the Pharisees “are the children of them which killed the prophets.” (Matthew 23:31).
Can we imagine a situation today in which wealthy, well-dressed, successful, seemingly respectable leaders are actually arrogant, corrupt, selfish, hypocrites, with blood on their hands? (Hint: The most recent tell-all book by a former White House insider has the revealing title “Team of Vipers.”)
Don’t be fooled. Even if someone is a member of the chosen people, they are not necessarily righteous. John the Baptist shut down this argument before the Pharisees and Saduccees at the river’s edge could even bring it up.
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Matthew 3:9
Both John and Jesus taught that it does not matter if you are a member of a favored group. What matters is your individual behavior – and your willingness to sincerely repent of your sins and accept Christ.
Source:
“Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord,” Come, Follow Me—For Sunday School: New Testament 2019, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Why did John the Baptist refer to the Pharisees as a brood of vipers?” Got Questions.