BROOD of Vipers

Now in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the deserted places of Judea, and saying, Repent! For the kingdom of Heaven has drawn near. For this is he spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord! Make His paths straight!" And John himself had his clothing from hairs of a camel, and a belt of leather about his loin. And his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea went out to him, and all the neighborhood of the Jordan, and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. But seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Offspring of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore, bring forth fruits worthy of repentance. And do not think to say within yourselves, We have a father, Abraham. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. But already the axe is even laid at the root of the trees; therefore, any tree not bringing forth good fruit is cut off and is thrown into fire. I indeed baptize you in water to repentance; but He who is coming after me is stronger than me, of whom I am not able to lift the sandals. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire, whose fan is in His hand, and He will cleanse His floor and will gather His wheat into the storehouse. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Mathew 3:1-12)

In this scenario, we see John the Baptist asking people to repent of their sins and get baptized because the Kingdom of Heaven is near. We see that people from Jerusalem, all Judea and all the neighborhood of Jordan came to John confessing their sins and he baptized them in the river of Jordan.

The story does not end here, when some Pharisees and Sadducees approached John for confessing their sins and to get baptized, he lashes out at them and calls them brood / offspring / family of VIPERS. Why did John call them of the family of VIPERS? They were there to confess their sins and get baptized as John has commanded. Then why?

I am interested in one word and that is VIPER. Why did John call them VIPERS, why didn’t he use something else to describe Pharisees and Sadducees?

If we look at the nature of a Viper only then we will be able to understand why John chose the word Viper for some Pharisees and Sadducees.

Diet
Adders / Vipers use venom to immobilize prey and after striking their prey, they will leave the venom to take effect before following the victim’s scent to find the body. This is an economical way of hunting, avoiding any damage that could be caused by struggling with prey. BBC Fact Files

Now this is interesting to note how a viper hunts down its prey. Now when John called them Vipers, because he knew that they were there just to show off people how righteous they are and actually they will never leave their sinful lives. Due to their sinful life and high status in the Jewish society and congregation, they were misleading many. They were actually working like Vipers, going from one person to another, injecting their venom and letting the prey to die slowly.

He who covers his sins never prospers, but he who confesses and forsakes them shall have pity. (Proverbs 28:13)

The point here to note is that are we in any way becoming a VIPER as John has pointed out? This is an intriguing question and we must look deep into our hearts to answer this.