So he goes back to his palace. I can imagine he was
NOT ABLE TO SLEEP MUCH
that night; he kept thinking of what he had heard. When the Holy Ghost is dealing with a man’s conscience, very often sleep departs from him. Herod cannot get this wilderness preacher and his message out of his mind. The truth had reached his soul; it echoed and re-echoed within him: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He says:
“I went out to-day to hear for the Roman Government; I think I will go to-morrow and hear for myself.”
So he goes back again and again. My text says that he heard him gladly, that he observed him, and feared him, knowing that he was a just man and a holy. He must have known down in his heart that John was
A HEAVEN-SENT MESSENGER.
Had you gone into the palace in those days, you would have heard Herod talking of nobody but John the Baptist. He would say to his associates:
“Have you been out into the desert to hear this strange preacher?”
“No; have you?”
“Yes.”