The Prisoner in the Third Cell Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    â€œThey do not know,” he sighed. “They will know, but not here on this earth. All they will ever know in this lifetime is that I did not come to them in their hour of greatest need. Today they, like all others, have met a God they do not understand.
    â€œSo it has been in all the past, so it will be throughout all ages to come.”
    The scene changed again. The Lord of space and time was back in Galilee again, alone. Once more he spoke.
    â€œIf I ever cared for those who lived in slavery in Egypt; if I ever cared for Job on his ash heap, or Jeremiah in his miry pit; if I ever cared for my people when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar surrounded Jerusalem and carried them off to slavery; if I ever longed to give answer and explanation; if there were one day above all others that I would speak, today would be that day.
    â€œThis day I have flesh and blood. I have a human mother who loved Elizabeth and who loves Elizabeth’s son. She does not wish to see him die, and like all others, she wants so much to understand. Today I have brothers; I have sisters. I am an earthen man, with blood coursing through my veins, with human emotions, with family responsibilities. John and I are the elder sons of our two families. It is with human eyes I watch this unholy deed of Herod. Nor is that all. Everywhere I look I see my people caught up in circumstances not of their own making.
    â€œIf ever there has been a moment I have longed to answer the questions of any man or woman, it is now. And it is to you, John, I want to give an explanation of my ways.
    â€œJohn, I watched you walk into that desert as a twelve-year-old child. I saw your days turn to weeks and your weeks turn into years, as you fasted, as you ate the scraps of the desert, as you clothed yourself with the desert’s waste. I have watched your soft skin turn to leather. I have seen you age inordinately. Your faithfulness to me is without parallel. Not since Eve bore her first man-child has there ever been one like unto you.
    â€œI gave you a task greater than the one I gave to Moses. You are a prophet greater than any who has ever come before.
    â€œBut, most of all, you are my kin. You are my own flesh and blood.
    â€œIf ever, ever I have wanted to give answer to a man’s questions, to explain my sovereign ways, it is today. Yet I have been to you, as to all others, a Lord not fully understood, a God who rarely makes clear exactly what He is doing in the life of one of His children.
    â€œAngels shall plea
    to set thee free,
    Death shall weep
    when he comes for thee,
    Yet ne’er shall an answer come
    from me.”

Chapter 16
    As day dawned in the village of Nain, the multitude that had gathered there the night before received an unbearable shock. Jesus had departed the village the night before, soon after he dismissed the crowd for the evening. He was gone, and no one knew where.
    That morning a mother, who had come all the way from Damascus carrying her crippled child, would begin the long trek back home, still carrying a beloved child with a never-to-be-healed twisted foot. Throughout all the rest of her long life this mother would wonder why the Lord had not waited just a few more moments before dismissing the crowd, for she was next in line.
    â€œAnd blessed are you
    if you are not offended with me.”
    That same morning, an old man was guided back to his home by a friend, there to ever wonder, until the day he died, what sight might have been like if only he had been able to reach the master healer just a few minutes earlier. But his destiny would forever be a life of darkness . . . and wondering.
    â€œAnd blessed is he
    who is not offended with me.”
    A mother will return home with her young daughter who will forever remain disfigured because of a childhood accident. Throughout that despondent day and on into the following weeks and years, that mother will look down into the face of her child