Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
John the Baptist languishes in King Herod's dungeon. Plenty of time for study and prayer. Hopefully he had some kind of Old Testament Bible; at least he could remember the pleas of David in Psalm 25, "Teach me!" And John would plead with God, "Please teach me! Did I do wrong to rebuke the King for his affair with the woman he's with (Mark 6:18)? If I had been just a little more sophisticated, I could still be out there free, preaching and baptizing people--what You had called me to do; was it Your will that I be silenced like this? Did my righteous indignation and my zeal run ahead of You?"
King Herod halfway liked him (Mark 6:26) and would call him up to his office occasionally for discussions (vs. 20; and maybe sometimes--I hope--sent him down special trays from the royal chef's kitchen). How did the Holy Spirit answer John's prayers to be "taught"? The only apparent answer: "wait on the Lord." Even Jesus sent him only a rather cryptic message, "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me" (Matt. 11:6). John was super-lonely.
The Bible does not specifically tell us if the Holy Spirit gently rebuked him for his extra-plain speech about Herodias that landed him in his dungeon. But a wise writer on the subject firmly upholds John for telling the truth, even though it made him suffer.
Did Elijah do wrong to tell the unvarnished truth in his day about Baal worship? Did God rebuke Elijah when He replaced him with the gentle-spoken Elisha who managed to stay out of prison all his life? Did Jeremiah do wrong to oppose the popular national sentiment about Nebuchadnezzar? It landed him in worse than a dungeon--a mud hole at the bottom of a well (chapter 38), plus a life of tears.
Each hero had to suffer for his honesty. In eternity, what will be the answer to our questions?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: August 10, 2001.
Copyright © 2012 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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