Herod’s wife was furious with John the Baptist because John had loudly proclaimed that their adulterous affair violated all that was holy. To please his wife, Herod threw John into prison. But he was spellbound by him and loved to hear him talk (Mark 6:16-20).
Everyone knew the consequences of being thrown into prison. It was sure death, especially if the supreme ruler of your providence was angry with you. John had seen the Holy Spirit descend from heaven onto Jesus. He had heard the voice of God speak that this was indeed the Christ (John 1:32; Mark 1:11). But when John was in prison, waiting for his death, Satan attacked him with doubt, and he sent two messengers to Jesus with his question (Mathew 11:1-2).
“Are you the expected one, or should we look for someone else?”
The enemy will invariably attack when we are down. He doesn’t say, “oh, well she is weak right now so I better lay off,” or “My goodness, he is so tired, I better wait until morning to attack him.” But God will never leave us to Satan’s devices. He will always come to comfort us as he did John (Mathew 11:4-6).
He reminded John of all John had heard and seen. He reminded him of the great works he (Jesus) was doing. So we also need to remind ourselves of all he has done for us in our lives and remind ourselves of the testimonies of others. It will encourage our hearts.
