There’s an interesting thread of the prophetic running through today’s readings, both Numbers and Mark. While many of them see the events of the future coming, they aren’t sideshow fortune tellers. A prophet’s job is to see a better future (and sometimes a worse future) and portray it to the people. What God is capable of doing, the prophet sees first. So as Caleb and Joshua see what God is able to do, so could John the Baptist. This kind of authority to speak for God was probably what the religious leaders feared most, and Jesus was certainly capable of doing the same.