After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Imperial Japanese troops spread out across Southeast Asia, conquering one Allied outpost after another. Manila fell on December 22. Brave little Wake Island held out until the twenty-third. Hong Kong, with its 12,000-man garrison, surrendered on a very unmerry Christmas Day, 1941.

The Allies consoled themselves with the impregnability of Singapore. The giant guns and battlements of that fortress city faced the sea. Impenetrable jungle protected the rear—or so they believed. The Japanese confounded British strategy by landing on the Malay Peninsula and advancing rapidly through the “impenetrable” jungle. Because all the city’s formidable weapons permanently confronted potential threats from the sea, they could not be brought to bear on invaders from the land. The commander of “Fortress Singapore” had little choice but to surrender.

The defenders of Singapore lost the city, not because they failed to prepare, but because they prepared for the wrong attack. Had they been uncertain about the direction of attack, Singapore’s defenders would have prepared for every possible contingency. To paraphrase Will Rogers: “It wasn’t what they didn’t know,” that defeated them, “but what they knew for sure that wasn’t so.” What they thought they knew made them vulnerable.

Reason for Caution
Not only soldiers in wartime but ordinary people may be led astray by elevating expectations to certainty. And even a prophet can fall prey to such expectations.

Few people have exhibited more clearly the marks of divine calling and godly leadership—or with greater courage—than John the Baptist. Where sages stumbled at the scope and meaning of Christ’s ministry, John recognized Him as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).* “‘He must increase,’” John said of Jesus, “‘but I must decrease’” (John 3:30). Later, Jesus would Himself testify to the authenticity of John the Baptist’s calling: “For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28, KJV).

Despite all this, however, John later became confused. “Time passed,” said Ellen White, “and the kingdom which John had condently expected was not established. In Herod’s dungeon, cut off from the life-giving air and the desert freedom, he waited and watched. There was no display of arms, no rending of prison doors.”² Sending two of his disciples, he wanted to know from Jesus, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (Matt. 11:2, 3, KJV).

What explains this turnabout? How could one who’d seen the Spirit descend upon Jesus as a dove come to the place where he needed to ask such a question? Matthew gives us a clue: “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing . . .” (Matt. 11:2, NIV), we know that Jesus’ actions didn’t match the general expectations of a conquering, kingly Messiah. Apparently, they didn’t match John’s expectations either. When Pharisees and Sadducees came to John for baptism, he said to them, “‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to ee from the wrath to come? . . . The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree . . . that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. . . . I baptize you with water . . . , but He who is coming after me . . . will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand . . . and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire’”(Matt. 3:7, 8, 10-12).

Seemingly contrary to these expectations, John heard that “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness” (Matt. 9:35). John had expected judgment, but Jesus brought forgiveness; destruction, but Jesus brought healing; John expected bad news for the proud, but Jesus brought good news for the humble. That’s when John dispatched the messengers.

In response, Jesus pointed John to another group of messianic prophecies. “‘Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me’” (Matt. 11:4-6).

Receiving this explanation, John realized his expectations had been mistaken. But for a time, based on them, he’d been led to question the messiahship of Jesus. The greatest of the prophets had temporarily lost sight of the function of prophecy. Dening that function, Jesus said: “‘Now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe’” (John 14:29).