And it was in the wilderness of Judea overlooking the Dead Sea that John lived alone in the caves until he was nearly 30 years old.  He existed on the wild honey which the bees make from the sap of certain trees (1), and locusts, which are still used for food in some parts of the world today.  His clothing – a garment of camel’s hair and a leather girdle – was a deliberate reminder of the similar clothing worn by Elijah himself (2 Kings 1:8).

So he lived there with God, engrossed in prayer and meditation and the reading of the Scriptures, until the stark fact of God’s flaming holiness and the inevitability of his searching judgement on sinners, had become part of John’s very being.  He absorbed the atmosphere of that harsh and terrible and burning land, which fitted so well the hard and disturbing message that burnt into his soul until he could contain it no longer.  His hour had come and he went down into the Jordan Valley.

The river here runs through a gigantic trench, 15 miles wide, its sides formed by the grim walls of the mountains of Judea and the mountains of Moab, which tower up above the valley.  He made for the busy ford on the main route from Jerusalem through Jericho and across the river into Transjordan.  And there, in a broad open space among the tamarisk and oleanders and willows and reeds, St John the Baptist began his life’s work as the last of God’s prophets.