SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2022 9:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “Herod’s Reasons”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew 14:3-11
Message of the verses: “3 For when Herod
had John arrested, he bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip. 4 For John had been saying to him, "It is
not lawful for you to have her." 5 And although he wanted to put him to
death, he feared the multitude, because they regarded him as a prophet. 6 But
when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them
and pleased Herod. 7 Thereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever
she asked. 8 And having been prompted by her mother, she said, "Give me
here on a platter the head of John the Baptist." 9 And although he was grieved,
the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths, and because of
his dinner guests. 10 And he sent and had John beheaded in the prison. 11 And
his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl; and she brought it
to her mother.”
As you probably can tell this section will take a
number of days to get through just because of the number of verses we find in
it. We begin by talking about how
Herod and his wife Herodias were continually incensed at John’s presumption,
and Herodias was more than Herod wanted to put him to death. The problem was that Herod feared the
multitude, because they regarded him as a prophet. We see in this case that Herod’s fear was
good, as if it were not for this fear John would have been executed right away.
One
of the great things we can learn from John’s life was that he was neither a
compromiser nor a diplomat, as his only fear was of the Lord, and he no more
hesitated confronting Herod and Herodias with their wickedness than he had
hesitated confronting the unrepentant Pharisees and Sadducees who were the ones
that he, like Jesus would later on call them a brood of vipers (Matt. 3:7).
MacArthur
writes “So godly boldness, which does not consider the consequences, is the
hallmark of prophetic greatness. The faithful
man of God confronts sin wherever it is and by whomever it is committed,
regardless of the power they might have over him—including power over his
life. That holy boldness was a mark of
Stephen, or Paul, or Peter, and of innumerable other saints of God who,
throughout the nineteenth centuries of the church, have forfeited their lives
rather than their message. The great New
Testament scholar A. T. Roberson wrote, ‘It cost him his head; but it is better
to have a head like John the Baptist and lose it than to have an ordinary head
and keep it.’
“Josephus
said of John: ‘Now when many others came
in crowds about him, for they were greatly moved by hearing his words, Herod,
who feared lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into
his power and inclination to raise a rebellion, thought it best by putting him
to death to prevent and mischief he might cause.’”
We
have talked about how Herod feared almost everything, but John only feared God,
and that is the perfect way to be, although it is at times hard, but something
we all need to have is that kind of trust in the Lord, for in fearing God we need
not fear anything. Herod not only feared
the multitude but also he was in fear of John the Baptist, and his own wife,
and as seen in verse nine his peers.
Herod feared another attack by Aretas, and, according to Josephus reporting
he feared a rebellion by his own people—inspired by, and perhaps even led by,
John the Baptist, although we know that is not something that John would ever
do. Herod also feared the emperor might
replace him with someone more in favor with Rome. The truth is that that fear was well
grounded, because as John MacArthur writes “some years after this, his jealous
and scheming nephew Agrippa (the brother of Herodias), convinced the emperor
Caligula that Herod was planning a rebellion.
Perhaps because Caligula did not fully trust Agrippa’s word, Herod and
Herodias suffered exile to Gaul (modern France) rather than execution, which
was the normal penalty for treason.
“Herod’s
feelings about John were ambivalent; (undecided), he was both fearful and
fascinated. Mark reports that ‘Herod was
afraid of John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him
safe. And when he heard him, he was very
perplexed; but he used to enjoy listening to him’ (Mark 6:20). The king enjoyed listening to the man he
wanted to put to death! These audiences
with Herod no doubt were John’s only respite from the torments of prison; but
to John they were not an escape but opportunities to witness for his Lord and
to try to bring his persecutor to repentance and salvation.”
What
we can see from the passage in Mark’s gospel, and then our passage in Matthew
14:9 is that Herod may have desired to speak to John, but when it came down to
it he had more fearfulness for his wife and his friends, than feelings for John.
Lord
willing we will write more about Herod’s evil wife in our next SD as she had
few equals in immorality, evil cunning, or vindictiveness that most women found
in the Word of God with the exception of Jezebel, and we know what happened to
her as the dogs ate her body after she was thrown out of a third story window
and because of that she was spread over different places in Israel, which I
think may have been prophesized about her.
6/3/2022 10:43 AM
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