May 18

With awed yet exultant spirit he searched in the prophetic scrolls the revelations of the Messiah's coming,--the promised seed that should bruise the serpent's head; Shiloh, "the peace giver," who was to appear before a king should cease to reign on David's throne. Now the time had come. A Roman ruler sat in the palace upon Mount Zion. By the sure word of the Lord, already the Christ was born.

          Desire of Ages, page 104 from the chapter, 'The voice in the wilderness'

     This paragraph answers the question, “Did John know Jesus?” What the paragraph doesn’t settle is, “When did this happen?”

     We can see that John did not know Jesus and did not have contact with Jesus because John is the one who searches the prophetic scrolls for news about the Messiah. He doesn’t call on his cousin for news. He doesn’t have a word with Mum or Dad. He has to check it out in the Scriptures for himself.

     In answer to the question you haven’t asked, “no, I don’t know where John got his copy of the Bible from.” However I can give you a clue. There was a group of Jews who lived in the Judean desert, my wife and I have walked among the remains of their settlement. They were called the Essenes. It was the Essenes who had the excellent copies of the Scriptures we now know as the Dead Sea Scrolls.

     Do I know of John the Nazirite was a member of the Essenes? I don’t know, but I can say this. Just like Jesus and just like John, there were people who were looking for something better than was provided up in Jerusalem.

     You could say that the Essenes and John the Baptist had come out of Babylon. There are still people who want to come out of Babylon.

      Bryn has chosen a song by Ricky Van Shelton, ‘Family Bible’. I think this is the first video I have featured that is based on a slideshow, with some lovely pictures. Click on the picture to see the video and hear the song.