JOHN 1:21-23 NKJV

And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?”

He said, “I am not.”

“Are you the Prophet?”

And he answered, “No.”

Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

He said: “I am

    ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:

    “Make straight the way of the LORD,” ’

as the prophet Isaiah said.”

JOHN 1:21-23 NKJV

John 1:21, 22 Are you Elijah: The OT promised that Elijah would come before the great day of the Lord (Mal. 4:5). Are you the Prophet: Moses had predicted that a prophet like himself would come (Deut. 18:15). John denied being either; he didn’t have a “Messiah complex.” We, like John, must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought (Rom. 12:3).

John 1:23 The voice: Christ is the Word; John the Baptist was the voice. When pressed to identify himself, John the Baptist claimed that he was the fulfillment of Is. 40:3. In Isaiah’s day there were few roads. When a king traveled, roads were built so that the royal chariot would not have to travel over rough terrain or be stuck in the mud. Isaiah was saying that before God appeared to manifest His glory, a voice would be heard, inviting Israel to make straight the way by which God Himself would come. John was identifying himself as that voice calling people to make straight the way of the LORD.