Life's Inanities and Ironies

The house was small, the village smaller, and the night had been long—four centuries long. Then came a cry. Not the cry of the Messiah (not yet), but the cry of a baby born to a barren woman and a doubting priest. And with that cry, the silence of God shattered like dawn over the Judean hills . Elizabeth ’s neighbors expected the child to be named Zechariah Junior. Tradition demanded it. But when the Holy Ghost begins a new thing, He does not ask permission from family custom. “His name is John ,” the mother declared. The mute father wrote the same on a tablet, and instantly his tongue sprang free after nine months of divine discipline. The first words out of Zechariah’s mouth were not apology but prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel , for He hath visited and redeemed His people!” Church, when God names something, the debate is over. He named that child “John”—the LORD is gracious—before he ever drew breath. And He has named every blood-washed believer “redeemed,” “forgiven,...

In the rugged wilderness of Judea, a voice echoed with unyielding urgency: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" This wasn't the polished sermon of a temple priest, but the raw proclamation of John the Baptist, a man dressed in camel's hair, cinched with a leather belt, surviving on a diet of locusts and wild honey (Matthew 3:1-5). To the casual observer, John seemed utterly strange—an outlier in a world that prized conformity and comfort. Yet, God chose him to prepare the way for Jesus Christ, fulfilling Isaiah's prophecy of a voice crying in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3). As fundamentalist Christians who hold the Bible as the inerrant, inspired Word of God, we often find ourselves at odds with modern culture. But Scripture is full of "strange" preachers—men whose lives and methods defied human norms yet powerfully advanced God's kingdom. Drawing from Matthew 3 and other biblical accounts, let's explore seven such figures. Their stories...