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A.
Josephus
summarizes the life of Herod the Great like this: “A man he was of
great barbarity toward all men equally, and a slave to his passions,
but above the consideration of what was right. Yet
was he favored by fortune as much as any man ever was, for from a
private man he became a king, and though he were encompassed by ten
thousand dangers, he got clear of them all and continued his life to a
very old age.”
1.
It's
really no surprise that Josephus would describe Herod in such terms.
a.
His
first act as king was to kill the Hasmoneans, the Jewish royal family
that reigned during much of the time between the Old & New
Testament.
b.
During
his final week of life, Herod gave two important orders: the execution
of one of his sons & the execution of many Jewish nobles upon his
death. Herod wanted the nobles killed upon his
death so that the Jews would mourn when he died.
2.
The
description we have of Herod in this text fits quite well with what we
know of him.
a.
READ
TEXT.
b.
There
are many who deny that the events narrated in this text could really
have taken place, for secular history tells us nothing of Herod's
slaughter of the innocents.
i
We
need to understand that it is quite unlikely that many male children
were killed by Herod's tirade.
●
Bethlehem
at the time of Jesus' birth was a very small place with only a handful
of permanent residents—the town was not even on a major road.
●
There
are some biblical scholars who believe that the death toll from Herod's
murderous escapade may have been no more than 10.
ii
When
that is compared to the other tyrannies of Herod, it may be little
wonder that secular history records nothing of this event.
B.
Regardless
of what secular history records, we know this text narrates true
events, for it is the Word of God.
1.
Furthermore,
as the Word of God, there is much here that we need to learn about
Herod.
2.
This
morning, we examined Herod as HEROD THE DISTRESSED, HEROD THE DUMB,
& HEROD THE DECEITFUL.
3.
Tonight,
we wish to take a look at Herod as HEROD THE DECEIVED, HEROD THE
DISPLEASED & HEROD THE DESTRUCTIVE.
A.
“Then
Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became
furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and
in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the
time that he had ascertained from the wise men.”
B.
Herod,
according to the text, was “tricked” by the wise men.
1.
But,
Herod wasn't tricked by them at all.
a.
The
wise men returned to their home country another way, for God told them
to—no deceit, no trickery, but following the command of God.
b.
Herod
knew that the magi had purposefully avoided him, for the only route by
which the magi could have returned home was through Jerusalem.
2.
The
term “saw” can, like the English, refer to perception.
a.
Simply
because someone sees something does not mean that it accords with
reality.
i
Several
medications cause people to hallucinate & see things that aren't
really there. I have a friend who started a
medication not long ago & she was constantly seeing spiders crawl
all over her—they weren't there, but she perceived that they were.
ii
How
many people have thoughts that do not conform to reality?
●
Have
you ever walked into a room where people were laughing & you just
knew that they were laughing at you?
●
Have
you ever gotten dates mixed up & showed up at the wrong time for an
appointment?
b.
Herod
does the same thing here but on a more serious scale.
i
He
has not been tricked by the magi, but he believes that he has.
ii
He
had given them an order—and since, in Herod's mind, he was so much more
important than God—he could conceive no other reason the magi did not
come back to him.
C.
What
can we glean from HEROD THE DECEIVED?
1.
Just
because we believe something is so does not make it so.
a.
Herod
just knew that he had been tricked—deceived—by the magi, but he had not
been deceived at all. The magi simply had higher
orders than obeying Herod.
b.
When
Tammy & I went to the doctor for the first time & heard our
first child's heartbeat, I just knew that baby was a girl. The
heart rate was about 140 & that signifies that you're having a girl.
We had a boy instead!
c.
Religiously,
there are so many who are deceived—they believe one thing, but it's not
true at all.
i
The
apostles dealt with those who were deceived.
●
“Such
persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by
smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive” (Rm
16:18).
●
“There
are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers,
especially those of the circumcision. They must be
silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for
shameful gain what they ought not to teach” (Tit 1:10-11).
ii
There
are so many deceived in our own day.
●
How
many people honestly believe that God doesn't care how they come to
salvation as long as they do?
●
How
many people honestly believe that Muhammad was a prophet of God, even
though it was Jesus Christ whom God raised from the dead & seated
at his right hand?
iii Let us not be those deceived
by error!
●
There
is only one way to keep from being deceived & that is to know the
Scriptures.
›
When
the Jews in Berea heard Paul & Silas, “they received the word with
all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things
were so” (Acts 17:11). They had no desire to be
deceived.
›
John
tells the elect lady that many deceivers have gone out into the world.
He then writes to her: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this
teaching [the teaching of Christ], do not receive him into your house
or give him any greeting” (2 Jn 10). How would the
elect lady know who was bringing a different teaching if she did not
know the truth?
●
Shall
we be those who know the truth, or shall we be those who are easily
deceived?
2.
It
is also true that many false perceptions arise from a false opinion of
one's self.
a.
Why
did Herod believe he had been deceived by the magi? He
told them to come back & he was the king. He
was too important to be disobeyed.
b.
When
folks enter a room & are convinced that everyone is speaking of
him/her, that is really egotistical thinking. That
person believes that he or she is so important that no one else could
be possibly be talking about something else. It is
a mistaken belief that the world revolves around us.
c.
Why
are people so easily deluded when it comes to the truth of God?
i
Does
not a lot of it come from their own false perceptions of how important
they are?
●
I am a good person—God couldn't
possibly condemn me.
●
This
is the way I want to worship—this sounds good to me.
ii
We
dare not think too highly of ourselves.
●
“By
the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of
himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think sober
judgment” (Rm 12:3).
●
“Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though
he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to
be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men” (Phil 2:5-7).
iii
Shall
we be those who think too highly of ourselves, or shall we properly
understand who we are?
A.
“Then
Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became
furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and
in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the
time that he had ascertained from the wise men” (Mt 2:16).
B.
Herod
became angry when he saw that the magi had gone home a different way.
His plan had been thwarted, he did not get his way, & he
became enraged.
C.
We
clearly see here the danger of unresolved anger: Herod became angry
& then he sent people to kill all the male children two & under
in Bethlehem.
1.
Unresolved
anger is so very dangerous.
a.
“A
man of quick temper acts foolish, and a man of evil devices is hated”
(Prov 14:17).
b.
“Be
not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the bosom
of fools” (Eccl 7:9).
c.
“Know
this, my beloved brothers; let every person be quick to hear, slow to
speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the
righteousness that God requires” (Js 1:19-20).
2.
On
May 5, 1894, the Baltimore Orioles came to play a game against the
Boston Beaneaters.
a.
Legendary
Baltimore third-basemen John McGraw got into a fistfight with the
Boston third baseman.
b.
The
benches emptied as players from both teams joined in the ruckus—fans in
the stands began to fight with one another.
i
In
the midst of the melee, the fans in the twenty-five cent bleachers
began to feel a quite warm.
ii
It
was then that they discovered that Boston fans had set fire to the
stadium.
c.
By
the time firemen were able to control the blaze, 170 buildings had been
burned & 2,000 people had been left homeless.
d.
Because
of anger, 170 buildings burned & 2,000 people lost their homes!
D.
Anger
is so very dangerous! Let us be ever so careful
with anger, lest we be swept up in a fire.
A.
READ
TEXT.
B.
Herod’s
act is impulsive & is the result of his secret plan’s being
thwarted.
1.
While
I have suggested less than a dozen children may have died in this act
of terror, we must not overlook how heinous a crime this was.
a.
Surely,
those parents who lost their children knew full well the heartache that
Herod brought to Bethlehem.
b.
Furthermore,
the Jews saw infanticide as a horrible, horrible crime.
i.
Not
only did infanticide violate the command not to kill, but Pharaoh had
tried to use infanticide to keep down the population of Jews: “Then the
king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named
Shiphrah and the other Puah, ‘When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew
women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill
him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live’” (Ex 1:15-16).
ii.
Furthermore,
children are a gift of God: “Behold, children are a heritage from the
LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
2.
Herod’s
act is so horrible that Rachel’s weeping can be heard in Ramah.
a.
Rachel
was buried in Bethlehem (Gn 35:19).
b. Matthew quotes from Jeremiah
31:15.
i.
The
context of Jeremiah 31 is the deportation of the Jews to Babylon.
ii.
In
Jeremiah 31, Rachel is seen as weeping from beyond the grave for her
descendents who are being carried off into judgment. Rachel’s
weeping here is used as a figure of speech—something like our saying
that if someone knew such-and-such that he’d roll over in his grave.
c.
There
are two important notes to be made from Matthew’s use of Jeremiah 31.
i.
First,
Rachel had wept for her descendents 500 years before Jesus’ birth &
now, she has to weep again. She’s pictured as a
woman with much grief in her life.
ii.
Second,
in Jeremiah 31, God promises that in the future, redemption would come
to his people. Here, that redemption comes in the
form of Christ.
d.
Remember
that Rachel was buried in Bethlehem, but her weeping is heard in Ramah.
i.
Ramah
is 6 miles north of Jerusalem, but Bethlehem is 6 miles south of
Jerusalem.
ii.
The
picture, then, is that the lamentation is so loud that it can be heard
over a wide area.
C.
What
do we learn about HEROD THE DESTRUCTIVE?
1.
We
see the need to keep ourselves from murder.
a.
Murder
has absolutely no place among the people of God.
i.
Speaking
of the pagans before Christ, Paul says, “They were filled with all
manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They
are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness” (Rm 1:19).
ii.
“As
for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the
sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all lairs, their portion
will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the
second death” (Rv 21:8).
b.
You
might wonder why I would even mention the need to keep ourselves away
from murder.
i.
After
all, that is not who we are. As disciples of
Christ, murder would not even fit into the equation.
ii.
However,
it is Scripture & we need to be reminded of biblical teaching.
2.
We
also see the destruction that anger can cause.
a.
We
have already mentioned the dangers of anger, but here we see that anger
can destroy lives. Because Herod was angry with the
magi, he destroyed the lives of male children & the lives of their
families.
b. When we are angry, we can
easily destroy lives.
i.
Because
Ahab was angry with Naboth for not handing over his vineyard, Ahab
& Jezebel plotted & killed Naboth.
ii.
When
Jesus upset the scribes & Pharisees for healing on the Sabbath,
they began to plot as to how they could get rid of him.
iii.
Because
Demetrius was enraged by Paul’s preaching, he incited a riot in Ephesus.
c. If we allow anger to control
us, we can easily destroy the lives of those we love. We
can destroy trust, we can destroy the good example we’ve set for so
long, we can change lives forever.
d.
Let
us be careful that we are not caught up in anger.
D.
Herod
destroyed many lives more than two millennia ago.
1.
However,
he has been dead since 4 BC, and his terror is no longer felt in this
world.
2.
However,
Satan has destroyed lives since he first convinced Eve to eat of the
forbidden fruit in the Garden.
a.
Has
your life been destroyed by Satan?
b. Do you need to have your life
redeemed by Jesus’ blood?