And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins, and he did eat locusts and wild honey. Mark 1:6
Most of us would turn up our noses, and maybe our stomachs too, at the idea of eating one locust, let alone making locusts the anchor of our diet. Various experts have speculated as to those locusts that John the Baptist ate, but there is no reason to suppose they were not the insects that are known today as locusts. These creatures are approved as clean in the Levitical law, and are commonly eaten by many people today. Specially prepared, locusts are considered a delicacy, but it is highly likely that John consumed them as part of a very humble fare. Locusts would have been freely available to anyone with the time and energy to collect them. The honey John ate with the locusts was also freely available in the wilderness, as the bees would store it in the rocks and trees. By his diet alone, John ranked a humble man. His clothing added to that ranking.
A crude camel hair robe and a rawhide belt would never qualify John as a fashion model, although it would allow him to fit in nicely with the poorest folks in the country. As with his diet, John simply did not place any kind of priority on his clothing or anything related to his personal comfort and care. John had a God to serve and a job to do, and he was not going to allow anything of himself to stand in the way of his service to God. He had enough food to supply his needs, and his clothing was everything that necessity required. He had his priorities in line, and the Lord Jesus would comment him highly for his service. I don’t know anybody today who sets personal needs and desires aside for the sake of serving his Lord like John did. He set the bar pretty high for us to follow, maybe too high.
I don’t think the Lord is calling on us today to adopt John’s diet, or to dress ourselves in crude camel hair robes. In that way, we are not called to follow John’s example. But maybe we could consider John’s passion to be faithful to his Lord. Maybe we could start to allow our appetites for the world’s dainties and frills to take a second place to what our God desires for us. Maybe we could think a little less of our next meal and a little more about our responsibility to be a good testimony. Maybe we could look a little less in the mirror and a little more in the Word of God.
We don’t need to go as far as John the Baptist in subduing our personal desires for our Lord’s glory. But we could see much done for Him if we made a start in that direction. -Jim MacIntosh