Section 2
Simply for the purpose of exposing the tail of the fox. What is this tail? It is the matter of who will have the crowd and the following. Today many people's attitude is, "This is one who follows me. All of these are my following. Why should some of them go to you?" What we find today was also present in the time of John the Baptist.
John's reply begins in verse 27. "John answered and said, A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. You yourselves tes tify of me that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him" (vv. 27-28). If I had been there, I would have said to John, "Brother, if this is the case, you should go home and not baptize any more. Since the One of whom you tes tified is now baptizing, you should stop your bap tizing. If you continue to baptize, you will surely be cast into prison." John was good, but he was not clear. The problem was that after Jesus came upon the scene, John was still there. John should have withdrawn and allowed the Lord Jesus to occupy the whole scene. There should have been only one main figure, not two. When I was young, I did not understand why John was cast into prison. Later I came to realize that he was put into prison be cause he did not withdraw from the scene.
Nevertheless John said, "He who has the bride