Matthew 11:10

“This is he, of whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send my messenger before your face, Who will prepare your way before you.' ”

‘It is written.' This always signifies words which have the authority of God because they come from the Scripture. What is so written is God's truth.

And what was written? That the prophet that they had gone out to see was the one announced beforehand by Scripture, the very messenger of God, who was sent by Him to announce the coming of His Chosen One. The words are taken from Malachi 3:1 as affected by Exodus 23:20, and are as found in both Mark and Luke. But they are slightly different from LXX. For while LXX has God sending a messenger to prepare the way for Himself, here the messenger is sent to prepare the way for His Messiah, that is, for Jesus. This application of verses which speak of God to Jesus is common in the New Testament. It is interpretive translation. But for Jesus to so casually apply it to Himself brings out the unique status that He claimed as ‘the Son' (Matthew 11:27).