Let us imagine him looking through the Old Testament, especially the books of Moses and the prophets, and finding what is said of Him; and see if we can what impressions are made on this young Bible student of prophecy.  His search goes back many years.  He finds the first Gospel promise.  It was made while Adam and Eve, having sinned, were yet in the Garden of Eden.  It was the promise of a Saviour to come from heaven to earth, through whom they and their descendants could be saved from the power of Satan and the consequences of sin.  We do not know how much our first parents understood of this coming One:  but we feel assured that they believed this promise, and through repentance and faith in this Saviour, they at last entered a more glorious paradise than the one they lost.  That promise faded from the minds of many of their descendants and wickedness increased.  But God had not forgotten it.  John could find it renewed by him to Abraham, in the words, “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,”—­meaning that the Messiah should be the Saviour of all nations, Gentiles as well as Jews.  The promise was renewed to Isaac, the son of Abraham; and then repeated to his son Jacob, in the same words spoken to his grandfather.  Jacob on his dying bed told Judah what God had revealed to him, that the Messiah should be of the tribe of which Judah was the head.

Many years later God made it known to David that the Messiah should be one of his descendants.  This was a wonder and delight to him as he exclaimed, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is mine house! for Thou hast spoken of Thy servant’s house for a great while to come.”  John must have been taught by his mother that they were of the honored house of David.  They, in common with other Jews, believed that the “great while to come” was near at hand.

John read in Isaiah of her who would be the mother of the Messiah, without thought that she was his aunt Mary.  He read that she should call her son Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” without thinking this was another name for his cousin Jesus.  John would find other names describing His character.  His eye would rest on such words and phrases as these—­“Holy One;” “Most Holy;” “Most Mighty;” “Mighty to Save;” “Mighty One of Israel;” “Redeemer;” “Your Redeemer;” “Messiah the Prince;” “Leader;” “Lord Strong and Mighty;” “King of Glory;” “King over all the earth.”

Most of all John would think again and again of a wonderful declaration of Isaiah, writing as if he lived in John’s day, saying, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulders, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.  Of the exercise of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David.”

Had John known that these words of Isaiah referred to Jesus, he might have repeated them, not as a prophecy, but with a present meaning, saying, “The Child is born!” As he read the prophecy of Haggai, uttered more than five hundred years before—­“The desire of all nations shall come”—­he might have exclaimed, “He has come!”