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From Heaven With Love
When Herod heard of the works of Christ, he thought God had
raised John from the dead. He was in constant fear that John would
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avenge his death by condemning him and his house. Herod was
reaping the result of sin—“a trembling heart, and failing eyes, and a
languishing soul... . In the morning you shall say, ‘Would it were
evening!’ and at evening ... ‘Would it were morning!’ because of
the dread which your heart shall fear.”
Deuteronomy 28:65-67
, RSV.
No torture is keener than a guilty conscience which gives no rest
day nor night.
The Reason Christ Did Not Deliver John
Many minds question why John the Baptist should have been
left to languish and die in prison. But this dark providence can
never shake our confidence in God when we remember that John
was but a sharer in the sufferings of Christ. All who follow Christ
will wear the crown of sacrifice. Satan will war against the principle
of self-sacrifice wherever it is manifested.
Satan had been unwearied in his efforts to draw away the Baptist
from a life of unreserved surrender to God; but he had failed. In
the temptation in the wilderness, Satan had been defeated. 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 brighten
John’s dungeon gloom with His own presence. But He was not to
imperil His own mission. 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 had passed through a similar experience!
John was not forsaken. He had the companionship of heavenly
angels, who opened to him the prophecies concerning Christ and
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the precious promises of Scripture. To John, as to those that came
after him, was given the assurance, “Lo, I am with you always, to
the close of the age.”
Matthew 28:20
, RSV.