Even as Christians, we have to remind ourselves that the Bible was written by the Lord and not by men. “Holy men of God spake [and wrote] bas they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” And that means that the Lord had a purpose in recording the death of King Herod. I think that it is quite obvious what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell us, but just in case it’s not as obvious to you as it is to me, let’s spend just a few minutes thinking about it.
I’ve entitled this message “Herod (the Great)” just to keep you on your toes. As I explained a month ago, King Herod was actually the grandson of the so-called Herod the Great. Herod the Great tried to kill the Lord Jesus, when he was still a little child. And then his son, Herod the Tetrarch was involved in the Saviour’s crucifixion. Herod the Tetrarch was the man who killed John the Baptist. This grandson of Herod the Great and nephew of Herod the Tetrarch, tried to kill Peter the Apostle of the Lord Jesus. Tonight, I’ve called him Herod (the Great) because I want to use the word “great” in each of the six points to my message: Great anger, a great reception, a great speech, a great shout, a great sin, and a great death
Verse 20 says that Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: it was a GREAT ANGER.
Tyre and Sidon were two major cities on the coast of the Mediterranean on the north side of Mt. Carmel. They have usually been classified as some sort of country, but they were really city states, something relatively rare in our world today. To the best of my knowledge the only city-state left today is the Vatican. It is no larger than a city, but it is treated as an independent country. Tyre and Sidon were two major commercial cities, with some influence over the Lebanese mountains to the east, but they were not a kingdom or a large nation. In fact their only claim to fame in the days of the New Testament was their international commerce. They were totally dependent upon other nations for their food and their wealth. Through trade they have become very wealthy, but no man can live by eating silver and gold. If the king’s country, or other countries weren’t interested or capable of trading with Tyre and Sidon, they were in trouble.
As with any important political leader, Herod had a lot of things going on in his political life. And most recently he took a beating in his loss of Peter. He was expecting to solidify his alliance with the Jewish Sanhedrin, but with the escape of Peter the Jews disdain of Herod undoubtedly intensified. So he was still stinging and angry about that. But now as summer approached, he moved his capital to Caesarea and began to deal with other matters.
We have no idea what it was that so irritated the King. Josephus the secular historian describes Herod’s move to the coast, but doesn’t tell us about the cause of problems with Tyre and Sidon, but the Bible does tell us that Herod was really, really angry. He had a hostile mind against them, and it appears that he was ready to wage war. In light of the increasing famine had there been some sort of quarrels over wheat sales? Was the problem something substantial, or was it caused by merely the petty personality of the king? And that raises the question about what it takes to make you angry. There are times when anger is not only justifiable but absolutely necessary. But I fear that those occasions are far less than the number of occasions when we get actually angry. “Be angry and sin not.” There is very often sin involved in our anger.
Secondly consider the GREAT RECEPTION that was made for King Herod.
First, the Sidonians somehow made friends with one of the King’s most important counselors. I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t somehow involve a great deal of money; some of which stayed in Blastus’ pocket. So with his help there was arranged some sort of reception to bring the two parties together. And obviously, the purpose of this meeting was so that the visitors could placate the Roman government.
Luke gives us some interesting incidental facts with agree with other writers. For example it is said that there was a SET DAY arranged. There was an appointment for this meeting, so you can be sure the Sidonians were well prepared. Everything that could have been done to make this a spectacular meeting was done to the nth degree.
And notice that Herod was dressed in his royal apparel, sitting upon his throne.
This is what Josephus wrote about this occasion: “Herod, having reigned three years over ALL Judea, (he had reigned over the tetrarchy of his brother Philip four years before this,) went down to Caesarea, and there exhibited shows and games in honour of Claudius, and made vows for his health. On the second day of these shows, he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture most truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the first reflection of the sun’s rays,
Shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those who looked intently upon him.” Those heathen Phoenicians probably didn’t know much about God’s angels, but in some ways that is what Herod might have looked like from the other end of the arena. Wow, what a sight; hardly even human!
How does it make you feel when people make a fuss over you? Have you had a birthday party or an important anniversary lately? Isn’t it nearly impossible to be the center of attention without being overcome with just a little bit of sin? 90% of that meeting in Caesarea was all about VANITY. If there was food there you can be sure that it wasn’t good and wholesome, it was extravagant to the point being nearly poisonous. There was might have been wine. There were banners commemorating the house of Herod and the victories of Rome. The introductory speeches were flowery and vainglorious. You can be sure that everything about that gathering was excessive.
Oh, but it was a great reception. Beware of great parties, even not so great parties. Remember Herod’s uncle Herod at his birthday party. It was very expensive; it cost the head of John the Baptist. Remember the party that Absalom threw for his brothers. If someone wants to honor us for some reason, go into that gathering as prayerfully as possible: “Lord, keep me from sinning against you.” The sin of pride, the sin of over-eating, the sin of too much talk, the sin of the wrong kind of talk. Oh what a party it was that day.
Then there was the GREAT SPEECH.
Herod made an oration unto them. Neither Luke nor Josephus tell us what sort of things were said that day. Was it like the speeches of Hitler addressing tens of thousands with words we can’t understand, and yet we can feel the emotion? Was it like the war-time speeches of Winston Churchill, with words that we can’t understand? Was it like a political candidate addressing his supporters at the Democratic National Convention? Was it like the charismatic Charismatic preacher. Was it full of lies? Was it full of Herod? Was it full of threats or of promises? We don’t know what was said, but we do have a hint as to the attitude and atmosphere of those words.
Permit me exhort you to pray for me. Four times every week you expect me to address you on behalf of the Lord. You expect something interesting, something Biblical, something helpful, something eternal. But I wish that you knew how hard this work is. It’s hard to make each message different enough to keep your attention. It’s hard to anticipate your needs. It’s hard to work through my own problems to stay focused on the study and preparation necessary. It’s hard to say the things that need to be said and not to say the things which ought to be avoided. And it’s hard to keep David Oldfield to a minimum in the course of message after message. It’s hard not to use myself as illustrations for either good or evil things. It’s hard not to speak in a manner that elevates the preacher. It’s hard not to want to impress people – you or whatever visitors we might have.
Every preacher wants to make a great oration sermon after sermon. But just as there can be great blessings in those great sermons, there can be great sins as well. Pray for your pastor.
And speaking of GREAT SIN.
“And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory:”
No one can speak with authority about the intent of the crowd when they shouted: “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.” I can’t tell you whether they meant those words or not. I can’t tell you if, like at the trial of the Lord Jesus, the crowd was salted with people who were told to start shouting those words. But no matter how you slice it, those were foolish and sinful words. But we need to remember that these were heathen idolaters. It wasn’t far from their corrupt theology to actually believe this foolishness. Was the fact that they were ignorant idolaters mean that this wasn’t sin? Absolutely not. Romans chapter one clearly declares that the heathen are responsible before God for all their sins and their idolatries.
But two greater sins belonged to the professing Jew, Herod. The first of these sins was something to which we are all prone: PRIDE. I’m not sure that there has ever been a child of Adam who at some time or other hasn’t been puffed up with pride over something that he shouldn’t have been. But it is among the most despicable of sins, because it comes so close to self-deification. “An high look and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” “All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” In keeping with our thoughts this morning, “Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice? I know not the Lord.” “By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honour, and life.” Herod is a perfect illustration of the antithesis of Proverb 22:4. “A man’s pride shall bring him low, but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.” (Prov. 29:23). “O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” O Herod, have you never heard a message from Micah 6:8? “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble.”
How good it would be if there was a little bell in our hearts that rang whenever pride began to appear there. But there is in the case of the Christian: His name is the Holy Spirit.
Besides the sin of pride there was another in Herod: “He gave not God the glory:” Of course this is one that often comes on the heels of the first. When we glorify ourselves we can’t glorify the Lord. But this is a stand alone sin as well. And it’s a sin of which WE commit all the time, because it’s one of those easy sins of omission.
Not only should we deny our pride and humble ourselves before the Lord, but if we were more spiritual and more worshipful we would be far more quick to honour the Lord. When you stop and help someone, and he thanks you, do you give God the glory? When someone stops to help you, do you give God the glory? Do you acknowledge your talents as gifts from God? When you have an extra dollar which you can share with someone else, will you admit that it was the Lord who gave it to you? Aren’t we as guilty of this sin as Herod?
Are we as worthy of as GREAT A DEATH as Herod?
When I first started studying this passage, I had to ask myself if Herod died of worms or if this is a proverbial statement about the decay of his body after his death. Not only does the order of the last two clauses in this verse indicate that worms actually killed him, but I couldn’t find a single commentary that didn’t agree with my conclusion. Herod was eaten up by worms and died.
Look at the hand of God. The Bible says that the angel of God smote the man before he could leave the arena. Josephus said that he was suddenly struck with horrible belly pains and died 4 or 5 days later. He was eaten from the inside out. He died in just about as much pain as humanly possible. It was on the same pain level as Roman crucifixion. This means that either God instantaneously riddled his body with these parasites, or he had been infected with them for weeks if not months prior to this day. The scholars speculate about what kind these worms were. They weren’t tape worms which can kill their host only by starving him to death. And they weren’t ring worms or most kinds of round worms. But there are plenty of tropical, exotic parasites which devour the flesh of their hosts; even human. We don’t know if Herod died because his stomach, heart or lungs were perforated by these beasts, or if they burrowed through his muscles and skin. There is some discussion about some sort of sack of these things exploding within him. But just to be honest, I don’t even want to think about it. What a horrible way to die, or in keeping with our outline … what a great death it was that God gave him.
Again I point out that it is no small thing to sin against the Lord. “The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.” To steal the Lord’s glory is the next thing to suicide. Let the Bible reader learn and beware.