Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Can John the Baptist be an encouragement to people who are in distress? Jesus declared him to be such a wonderful man that "there has not risen one greater" than he in all history (Matt. 11:11). Yet Jesus left him to suffer unjustly, alone, a prisoner of the wicked Herod. He naturally wondered if God had forsaken him. He had done nothing to deserve this monstrous injustice.
There are "prisoners" today; some in jail when they know they are innocent of the crimes charged against them. History testifies of cases (even executions) of innocent people; and some suffer illness that they fear is a lethal judicial sentence; some are pained by the loneliness and rejection of those they love.
Can John the Baptist encourage them? He was never set free until the executioner came! Yes, the Lord "hedged [him] behind and before" and he could not "flee from [His] presence." Even if he "made [his] bed in hell, behold, [the Lord] was there." When John said, "'Surely the darkness shall fall on me,' even the night [became] light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, but the night shines as the day" (Psalm 139:5-12). Angels from heaven dwelt with John in that lonely dungeon; his heart was filled with the sense of the nearness of the Lord. Never was he forsaken.
Whoever you are who suffer alone in injustice, remember why the Lord Jesus did not deliver John from his prison: He knew of the millions of His loyal believers of later generations who would suffer injustice. John's experience is an encouragement to each one. Each can claim the New Covenant promises as his, even if he knows he is unworthy.
The Lord is your Shepherd; you are not alone as you walk through the valley; let Him anoint your head with oil and run your cup over and set you down to His banquet "in the presence of [your] enemies." Let His Holy Spirit melt away the bitterness in your heart. And let the happiness steal in upon your soul, for you "shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." All that the New Covenant needs is for someone to believe it, for it is the promises of the Lord.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: April 3, 2004.
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