2. John said, “Change your hearts and lives, because God’s kingdom is now very near.”
3. John is the one Isaiah the prophet was talking about when he said, “There is someone shouting in the desert: ‘Prepare the way for the Lord. Make the road straight for him.’” Isaiah 40:3
4. John’s clothes were made from camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey.
5. People came to John from Jerusalem and the rest of Judea and from all the areas along the Jordan River.
6. They confessed the bad things they had done, and John baptized them in the Jordan.
7. Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to where John was baptizing people. When John saw them, he said, “You are all snakes! Who warned you to run from God’s judgment that is coming?
8. Change your hearts! And show by the way you live that you have changed.
9. I know what you are thinking. You want to say, ‘but Abraham is our father!’ That means nothing. I tell you, God could make children for Abraham from these rocks.