<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">4:17&nbsp;</span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">From that time began Jesus to preach and to say: Repent!-</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">&nbsp;The Lord&rsquo;s first public word was the challenge to change. His opening words were surely carefully chosen to verbatim repeat those of John (Mt. 3:2). He wanted to show the continuity of the message from John to Himself. For He was building upon John&rsquo;s work, which had been intended to prepare the way for Him to come triumphantly to Zion over the &lsquo;way&rsquo; which had been prepared in the hearts of repentant people. The exact repetition of John&rsquo;s message could suggest that the Lord saw John&rsquo;s ministry as not having been responded to- and therefore his message and appeal needed repeating.</span></p>
<p><i>For the kingdom of heaven is at hand</i>- Gk. 'approaching'. The idea was that John the Baptist had attempted to prepare the way, the highway, over which Messiah would come. So now, Messiah was approaching. &quot;The kingdom of God&quot; was a title for Messiah, seeing that He was the King of the Kingdom; and the term is used like that in Scripture too, e.g. Lk. 17:21. The Kingdom could have been then established, the glory of Yahweh could have come to Zion if John's work of preparing the road for it had been successful. But ultimately, Israel would not. But the Greek can also mean that the Kingdom was being &lsquo;made near&rsquo;, it was being drawn near by repentance- which is why the Lord was appealing for repentance. This is a significant theme in Bible teaching- that the exact calendar date of the Kingdom&rsquo;s establishment is dependent upon the repentance of Israel. This repentance appears a prerequisite to the Lord&rsquo;s coming in glory and the establishment of the Kingdom. Our focus should therefore be upon appealing to Israel to repent.</p>