over and safeguard his herds of sheep and goats. John's life as a shepherd afforded him a great deal of time for thought. He talked much with Ezda, an orphan lad of Beth-zur, whom he had in a way adopted, and who cared for the herds when he made trips to Hebron to see his mother and to sell sheep, as well as when he went down to Engedi for Sabbath services. John and the lad lived very simply, subsisting on mutton, goat's milk, wild honey, and the edible locusts of that region. This, their regular diet, was supplemented by provisions brought from Hebron and Engedi from time to time.
Elizabeth kept John posted about Palestinian and world affairs, and his conviction grew deeper and deeper that the time was fast approaching when the old
order was to end; that he was to become the herald of the approach of a new
age, "the kingdom of heaven." This rugged shepherd was very partial to the
writings of the Prophet Daniel. He read a thousand times Daniel's description of
the great image, which Zacharias had told him represented the history of the
great kingdoms of the world, beginning with Babylon, then Persia, Greece, and
finally Rome. John perceived that already was Rome composed of such polyglot
peoples and races that it could never become a strongly cemented and firmly
consolidated empire. He believed that Rome was even then divided, as Syria,
Egypt, Palestine, and other provinces; and then he further read "in the days of
these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. And this kingdom shall not be left to other people but shall break in
pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." "And there
was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom never shall be destroyed." "And the kingdom
and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him."
John was never able completely to rise above the confusion produced by what
he had heard from his parents concerning Jesus and by these passages which he
read in the Scriptures. In Daniel he read: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold,
one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and there was given him
dominion and glory and a kingdom." But these words of the prophet did not
harmonize with what his parents had taught him. Neither did his talk with Jesus,
at the time of his visit when he was eighteen years old, correspond with these
statements of the Scriptures. Notwithstanding this confusion, throughout all of
his perplexity his mother assured him that his distant cousin, Jesus of Nazareth,
was the true Messiah, that he had come to sit on the throne of David, and that he
(John) was to become his advance herald and chief support.
From all John heard of the vice and wickedness of Rome and the dissoluteness and moral barrenness of the empire, from what he knew of the evil doings of Herod Antipas and the governors of Judea, he was minded to believe that the end of the age was impending. It seemed to this rugged and noble child of nature that the world was ripe for the end of the age of man and the dawn of the new and divine age—the kingdom of heaven. The feeling grew in John's heart that he was to be the last of the old prophets and the first of the new. And he fairly vibrated with the mounting impulse to go forth and proclaim to all men: "Repent! Get right with God! Get ready for the end; prepare yourselves for the appearance of the new and eternal order of earth affairs, the kingdom of heaven."
