Me with my lovely wife, Kathy:

Monday, July 12, 2010

The consequences of a life lived based on lust:

Last Sunday we dealt with the horrendously ugly story of John the Baptist's death by beheading in Mark 6.
The consequences for John were obviously tragic. I found that it didn't work out so well for Herod, either.
William Hendriksen comments based on extra-biblical records:

a. "The increased displeasure of many of the Jews." Matthew records that Herod Antipas had been afraid to kill John because he feared the people. They recognized John as a Prophet. (Matt. 14:5)
b. "The wrath of Areta, the father of Herod’s rejected wife.
Aretas bitterly resented what Herod had done to his daughter. He therefore waged war against him and “in the ensuing battle the entire army of Herod was destroyed” (Josephus, Antiquities XVIII.114, 116, 119, for points a and b)."
c. "Banishment.
Herod Antipas later allowed himself to be persuaded by Herodias to go to Rome in order to be elevated to the rank of king, the same rank that had been granted to her brother Herod Agrippa I. However, when the latter informed Emperor Caligula about the aspirant’s plotting against the very ruler whose special favor he was now seeking, the result for the conspirator was perpetual exile to Lyons in Gaul."

Antipas was driven by a habitual pattern of giving way to whatever he wanted, and an unwillingness to do the right hard thing.

It didn't work out well.