At Gilboa and in the Decapolis

144:8.1The lat­ter part of De­cem­ber they all went over near the Jor­dan, close by Pella, where they again be­gan to teach and preach. Both Jews and gen­tiles came to this camp to hear the gospel. It was while Je­sus was teach­ing the mul­ti­tude one af­ter­noon that some of John’s spe­cial friends brought the Mas­ter the last mes­sage which he ever had from the Bap­tist.

144:8.2John had now been in prison a year and a half, and most of this time Je­sus had la­bored very qui­etly; so it was not strange that John should be led to won­der about the king­dom. John’s friends in­ter­rupted Je­sus’ teach­ing to say to him: “John the Bap­tist has sent us to ask—are you truly the De­liv­erer, or shall we look for an­other?”

144:8.3Je­sus paused to say to John’s friends: “Go back and tell John that he is not for­got­ten. Tell him what you have seen and heard, that the poor have good tid­ings preached to them.” And when Je­sus had spo­ken fur­ther to the mes­sen­gers of John, he turned again to the mul­ti­tude and said: “Do not think that John doubts the gospel of the king­dom. He makes in­quiry only to as­sure his dis­ci­ples who are also my dis­ci­ples. John is no weak­ling. Let me ask you who heard John preach be­fore Herod put him in prison: What did you be­hold in John—a reed shaken with the wind? A man of change­able moods and clothed in soft rai­ment? As a rule they who are gor­geously ap­par­eled and who live del­i­cately are in kings’ courts and in the man­sions of the rich. But what did you see when you be­held John? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and much more than a prophet. Of John it was writ­ten: ‘Be­hold, I send my mes­sen­ger be­fore your face; he shall pre­pare the way be­fore you.’

144:8.4“Ver­ily, ver­ily, I say to you, among those born of women there has not arisen a greater than John the Bap­tist; yet he who is but small in the king­dom of heaven is greater be­cause he has been born of the spirit and knows that he has be­come a son of God.”

144:8.5Many who heard Je­sus that day sub­mit­ted them­selves to John’s bap­tism, thereby pub­licly pro­fess­ing en­trance into the king­dom. And the apos­tles of John were firmly knit to Je­sus from that day for­ward. This oc­cur­rence marked the real union of John’s and Je­sus’ fol­low­ers.

144:8.6Af­ter the mes­sen­gers had con­versed with Ab­ner, they de­parted for Machaerus to tell all this to John. He was greatly com­forted, and his faith was strength­ened by the words of Je­sus and the mes­sage of Ab­ner.

144:8.7On this af­ter­noon Je­sus con­tin­ued to teach, say­ing: “But to what shall I liken this gen­er­a­tion? Many of you will re­ceive nei­ther John’s mes­sage nor my teach­ing. You are like the chil­dren play­ing in the mar­ket place who call to their fel­lows and say: ‘We piped for you and you did not dance; we wailed and you did not mourn.’ And so with some of you. John came nei­ther eat­ing nor drink­ing, and they said he had a devil. The Son of Man comes eat­ing and drink­ing, and these same peo­ple say: ‘Be­hold, a glut­tonous man and a winebib­ber, a friend of pub­li­cans and sin­ners!’ Truly, wis­dom is jus­ti­fied by her chil­dren.

144:8.8“It would ap­pear that the Fa­ther in heaven has hid­den some of these truths from the wise and haughty, while he has re­vealed them to babes. But the Fa­ther does all things well; the Fa­ther re­veals him­self to the uni­verse by the meth­ods of his own choos­ing. Come, there­fore, all you who la­bor and are heavy laden, and you shall find rest for your souls. Take upon you the di­vine yoke, and you will ex­pe­ri­ence the peace of God, which passes all un­der­stand­ing.”