Daily Bible Reading 8th April 2026 // Luke 3:1-6
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Luke, in common with the other Evangelists, asserts that John fulfils in his coming the prophecy spoken by Isaiah (40:1ff). We should be particularly careful not to miss the significance of this fulfilment, for this is the keynote of the Baptist's ministry, rightly understood. The setting and context of the prophecy is that Israel, in captivity in Babylon, is pictured as being on the eve of deliverance by the mighty hand of God. The long discipline of the exile is about to end, and God is about to break in, in power and love. Isaiah himself associates this deliverance from exile with the great exodus from Egypt, centuries earlier, and indicates that God's 'new thing' (43:19) would be a second exodus for His people. It is this idea that the gospel writers also take up: for them, the gospel is a new exodus, the exodus of which that from Egypt and that from Babylon were but illustrations and types. And John is the Forerunner, the Announcer, that this great and mighty visitation is at hand. And all the comfort, hope and promise of Isaiah 40:1-11 may very legitimately be read into the advent of John and his ministry. Basically, it was a preparation of men's hearts to receive the good news of the gospel. Isaiah proclaimed a way back to Jerusalem from exile; John proclaimed a way back to God from the dark bondage of sin.