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Bible Biographies
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of Him whose representative he was. And “the Lord restored Job’s
losses. ... Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
... The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.”
Job 42:10-12
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Jonathan and John the Baptist
The names of Jonathan and of John the Baptist stand with those
who through self-sacrifice entered into the fellowship of Christ’s
sufferings.
Jonathan was by birth heir to the throne, although he knew he
had been set aside by the divine decree. He was a most tender and
faithful friend to his rival, David, shielding his life at the peril of his
own. He also stood steadfast at his father’s side through the dark
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days of his declining power, and at the end fell at his side. The name
of Jonathan is treasured in heaven, and on earth it is a witness to the
existence and power of unselfish love.
John the Baptist at his appearance as the Messiah’s herald, stirred
the nation. From place to place his steps were followed by vast
throngs of people of every rank and station. But all was changed
when the One came to whom he had borne witness. The crowds
followed Jesus, and John’s work seemed fast closing. Yet there was
no wavering of his faith. “He must increase,” he said, “but I must
decrease.”
John 3:30
.
Time passed, and the kingdom that John had confidently ex-
pected was not established. In Herod’s dungeon, cut off from life-
giving air and the desert freedom, he waited and watched.
There was no display of swords, no rending of prison doors; but
the healing of the sick, the preaching of the gospel, the uplifting of
human souls, testified to Christ’s mission.
Alone in the dungeon, seeing the direction his path, like his
Master’s, tended, John accepted the trust—fellowship with Christ
in sacrifice. Heaven’s messengers ministered to him as he went to
the grave. The intelligences of the universe, fallen and unfallen,
witnessed his vindication of unselfish service.
And in all the generations that have passed since then, suffering
souls have been sustained by the testimony of John’s life. In the
dungeon, on the scaffold, in the flames, men and women through