John the Baptist~ God's last prophet and herald

The last picture on the wall is that of John the Baptist. Before I start to tell you about John the Baptist and his great faith, I need to explain what a herald is, so that you will understand the title. A herald is a royal or official messenger who goes before a person in power, such as a Lord or King to announce his coming.They often ran ahead of the Lord or King to let those that he was coming to see know that he was on his way. This allowed them to prepare for this honored guest.  In some ways, all the prophets has been announcing the coming of Jesus-the Messiah for many years. But John the Baptist was the one God had anointed to be the one who was to run just ahead of Jesus announcing His coming and the coming of His kingdom. In this way, John the Baptist was Jesus' ambassador. 

A herald also ran ahead of an army announcing that the army was coming to attack and take over a kingdom. John the Baptist's ministry was to run ahead of Jesus' ministry proclaiming that the kingdom of God was coming to earth to fight and take over the Satan's kingdom. 

 Let us now look at this great man of faith. 

John the Baptist was the son of Zachariah the priest and his wife, Elisabeth who were very obedient to God & his laws. Go called and anointed  John the Baptist to be Jesus' Herald when he was in the womb. We see this when an angel goes to Zachariah to tell him that he will have a son and how to raise him.

We know that John the Baptist was a great man of faith, because he always did as God told him to do. Even when it is it was hard things such as call the spiritual leaders  of the day, "snakes", or tell the King  that he was upsetting God by marrying his sister-in-law. But his highest calling was to tell them that Jesus, the Messiah was coming and then pointed him out when Jesus had arrived. In the end, his obedience got him killed, but his death was the gate way to Jesus' ministry. May we be found as faithful as he!