SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/30/2022 10:21 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-1 “Herod’s Reaction”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
14:1-2
Message of the verses: “1 At that time
Herod the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, 2 and said to his servants,
"This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; and that is why
miraculous powers are at work in him."
I have talked about different words for time in
other SD’s and so this won’t be knew to some of those who read these SD’s. “Kairos
(time) refers to a special season or period of time and in this context
indicates the general season when Jesus was facing increasing hostility and
rejection” writes John MacArthur. Jesus
had been ministering for perhaps around a year or so and had done many great
and powerful miracles, along with teaching, preaching, along with doing many
signs and wonders. We cannot know the
exact chronology but “that time” likely covered the year and a half to two years
directly after the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.
Herod
the tetrarch was certainly not a Jew and I don’t suppose that he had a lot of
interest in the Jews or their religion, but he did eventually hear the news of
Jesus Christ and what He had been doing in His ministry. MacArthur writes “The term tetrarch technically
referred to a ‘ruler of a fourth part,’ but it came to be used as a general
title for any subordinate ruler of a Roman province or rejoin. He was not a true king in the sense that his
father, Herod the Great, was, but he coveted the title and was often called by
it (cf. v. 9). He would later ask the
emperor Caligula to proclaim him king but was refused. He was a relatively minor potentate in
Palestine who had little power or influence outside his own jurisdiction.”
In
our last SD I mentioned how interesting that I found what John MacArthur had
dug up on the history of the different Herod’s that are found in the Scriptures
and the following paragraph gives us some of that information.
“Herod
the tetrarch was a son of Herod the Great by his fourth wife, Malthake, a
Samaritan, and was a half brother of Herod Philip, the son of his father’s
third wife. Mariamne the
Boethusian. Herod the Great was an
Idumean; and because he not only was a Gentile but was a descendant of Esau and
had married a Samaritan, he had been especially despised by the Jews. His cold-blooded atrocities—such as his
having all the members of the Sanhedrin put to death for daring to challenge
his authority, his having at least one of his wives and two of his sons
executed, and his slaying all the male babies of Bethlehem in an unsuccessful attempt
to try to destroy the Messiah—made him more hated still.
In
secular history Herod the tetrarch was known as Herod Antipas, and after the
death of his father, Herod the Great, the Romans divided the kingdom (which
comprised most of Palestine) among three of his many sons. The two besides Antipas were his brother
Archelaus (see Matt. 2:22) and his half brother Philip (see 14:3). Archelaus was given the southern provinces of
Judea and Samaria, Philip was given the northern province of Trachonitis and
Iturea, and Herod Antipas was given the area in between, which included Galilee
and Perea.
I
think that is enough history for one SD, and so we will continue to look at
this history of the Herod’s in our next SD, as terrible as it was.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful to the Lord that there are many
born-again believers in it and that the Lord has done a wonderful work in the
lives of those in my family. To God be
the glory.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To trust the Lord to give me the desire to
once again to begin to memorize verses from the Bible, beginning with the 6th
chapter of Romans, something that I am in great need of going over again.
Memory verse: Romans 6:1-2 “1 What shall we say then? Are
we to continue in sin so that grace may continue? 2 May it never be! How shall
we who died to sin continue in it?
5/30/2022 11:08 AM
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