f the angel’s words. He was not to
speak again until they were fulfilled. “Behold,” said the angel, “thou
shalt be dumb, ... until the day that these things shall be performed,
because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their
season.” It was the duty of the priest in this service to pray for the
pardon of public and national sins, and for the coming of the Messiah;
but when Zacharias attempted to do this, he could not utter a word.
Coming forth to bless the people, “he beckoned unto them, and
remained speechless.” They had waited long, and had begun to fear,
lest he had been cut down by the judgment of God. But as he came
forth from the holy place, his face was shining with the glory of God,
“and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple.” Zacharias
communicated to them what he had seen and heard; and “as soon as
the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own
house.”
Soon after the birth of the promised child, the father’s tongue was
loosed, “and he spake, and praised God. And fear came on all that
dwelt round about them: and all these sayings were noised abroad
throughout all the hill country of Judea. And all they that heard them
laid them up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this [100]
be!” All this tended to call attention to the Messiah’s coming, for
which John was to prepare the way.
The Holy Spirit rested upon Zacharias, and in these beautiful words
he prophesied of the mission of his son:
70 The Desire of Ages
“Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest;
For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare
His ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto His people
By the remission of their sins,
Through the tender mercy of our God,
Whereby the Dayspring from on high hath visited
us,
To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the
shadow of
death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the
deserts till the day of his showing unto Israel.” Before the birth of
John, the angel had said, “He shall be great in the sight of the Lord,
and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled
with the Holy Ghost.” God had called the son of Zacharias to a great
work, the greatest ever committed to men. In order to accomplish this
work, he must have the Lord to work with him. And the Spirit of God
would be with him if he heeded the instruction of the angel.
John was to go forth as Jehovah’s messenger, to bring to men the
light of God. He must give a new direction to their thoughts. He must
impress them with the holiness of God’s requirements, and their need
of His perfect righteousness. Such a messenger must be holy. He
must be a temple for the indwelling Spirit of God. In order to fulfill
his mission, he must have a sound physical constitution, and mental
and spiritual strength. Therefore it would be necessary for him to
control the appetites and passions. He must be able so to control all his
powers that he could stand among men as unmoved by surrounding
circumstances as the rocks and mountains of the wilderness.
In the time of John the Baptist, greed for riches, and the love
of luxury and display had become widespread. Sensuous pleasures,
feasting and drinking, were causing physical disease and degeneracy,
benumbing the spiritual perceptions, and lessening the sensibility to
sin. John was to stand as a reformer. By his abstemious life and plain
[101] dress he was to rebuke the excesses of his time. Hence the directions
Voice in the Wilderness 71
given to the parents of John,—a lesson of temperance by an angel
from the throne of heaven.
In childhood and youth the character is most impressible. The
power of self-control should then be acquired. By the fireside and at
the family board influences are exerted whose results are as enduring
as eternity. More than any natural endowment, the habits established
in early years decide whether a man will be victorious or vanquished in
the battle of life. Youth is the sowing time. It determines the character
of the harvest, for this life and for the life to come.
As a prophet, John was “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready
a people prepared for the Lord.” In preparing the way for Christ’s first
advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people
for our Lord’s second coming. The world is given to self-indulgence.
Errors and fables abound. Satan’s snares for destroying souls are
multiplied. All who would perfect holiness in the fear of God must
learn the lessons of temperance and self-control. The appetites and
passions must be held in subjection to the higher powers of the mind.
This self-discipline is essential to that mental strength and spiritual
insight which will enable us to understand and to practice the sacred
truths of God’s word. For this reason temperance finds its place in the
work of preparation for Christ’s second coming.
In the natural order of things, the son of Zacharias would have
been educated for the priesthood. But the training of the rabbinical
schools would have unfitted him for his work. God did not send him
to the teachers of theology to learn how to interpret the Scriptures.
He called him to the desert, that he might learn of nature and nature’s
God.
It was a lonely region where he found his home, in the midst of
barren hills, wild ravines, and rocky caves. But it was his choice
to forgo the enjoyments and luxuries of life for the stern discipline
of the wilderness. Here his surroundings were favorable to habits
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of simplicity and self-denial. Uninterrupted by the clamor of the
world, he could here study the lessons of nature, of revelation, and
of Providence. The words of the angel to Zacharias had been often
repeated to John by his God-fearing parents. From childhood his
mission had been kept before him, and he had accepted the holy trust.
To him the solitude of the desert was a welcome escap