“Look, look! Herod is coming!”
Soon the whole congregation knows it, and there is great excitement.
“I believe he will stop this preaching,” says one.
And if they had in those days some of the compromising weak-kneed Christians we sometimes meet, they would have said to John:
“Don’t talk about a coming King; Herod won’t stand it. Talk about repentance, but any talk about a coming King will be high treason in the ears of Herod.”
I think if any one had dared to give John such counsel, he would have replied: “I have received my message from heaven; what do I care for Herod or any one else?”
As he stood thundering away and calling on the people to repent, I can see Herod, with his guard of soldiers around him, listening attentively to find anything in the preacher’s words that he can lay hold of. At last John says:
“The King is just at the door. He will set up His kingdom, and will separate the wheat from the chaff.”
I can imagine Herod then saying to himself: “I will have that man’s head off inside of twenty-four hours. I would arrest him here and now if I dared. I will catch him to-morrow before the crowd gathers.”
By and by, as Herod listens, some of the people begin to press close up to the preacher, and to question him. Some soldiers are among them, and they ask John: