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The Desire of Ages
The sinfulness of sin was revealed in such a manner that men trembled.
Satan’s power over many who had been under his control was broken.
He had been unwearied in his efforts to draw away the Baptist from
a life of unreserved surrender to God; but he had failed. And he had
failed to overcome Jesus. In the temptation in the wilderness, Satan
had been defeated, and his rage was great. Now he determined to bring
sorrow upon Christ by striking John. The One whom he could not
entice to sin he would cause to suffer.
Jesus did not interpose to deliver His servant. He knew that John
would bear the test. Gladly would the Saviour have come to John,
to brighten the dungeon gloom with His own presence. But He was
not to place Himself in the hands of enemies and imperil His own
mission. Gladly would He have delivered His faithful servant. But
for the sake of thousands who in after years must pass from prison
to death, John was to drink the cup of martyrdom. As the followers
of Jesus should languish in lonely cells, or perish by the sword, the
rack, or the fagot, apparently forsaken by God and man, what a stay
to their hearts would be the thought that John the Baptist, to whose
faithfulness Christ Himself had borne witness, had passed through a
similar experience!
Satan was permitted to cut short the earthly life of God’s messen-
ger; but that life which “is hid with Christ in God,” the destroyer could
not reach.
Colossians 3:3
. He exulted that he had brought sorrow upon
Christ, but he had failed of conquering John. Death itself only placed
him forever beyond the power of temptation. In this warfare, Satan
was revealing his own character. Before the witnessing universe he
made manifest his enmity toward God and man.
Though no miraculous deliverance was granted John, he was not
forsaken. He had always the companionship of heavenly angels, who
opened to him the prophecies concerning Christ, and the precious
promises of Scripture. These were his stay, as they were to be the stay
of God’s people through the coming ages. To John the Baptist, as to
those that came after him, was given the assurance, “Lo, I am with
you all the days, even unto the end.”
Matthew 28:20
, R. V., margin.
God never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to
be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the
glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him.
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Not Enoch, who was translated to heaven, not Elijah, who ascended in