Dad (Herod the Great) killed two of his sons leaving his granddaughter with no father. So, he betroths her to one of his other sons (Herod II…some believe he was also called Herod Phillip). Because of her genealogy, her marriage to Herod II moved him to successor of Herod the Great. However, the oldest son of Herod the Great, (Antipater) protested this, and Herod II was demoted. Then Antipater tries to poison his father and take the throne..but it fails, and he is executed. You would think that Herod II would take the throne, but no…in the last days before he died Herod the Great removed his name from the will, apparently knowing that he had knowledge of what was about to happen. Instead, he puts another son in his place (Archelaus) who is declared incompetent by Caesar a few years later. Herod Antipas ends up in charge of a quarter (or more) of the original kingdom. One day while Antipas is visiting Herod II, he falls in love with his wife…yes, they would be some shirt tail relations. The problem is: he is already married to a princess from a very powerful kingdom to the south, the Nabateans. Once they get wind of Antipas’ affection for another woman, they call their princess home, and declare war on Antipas. If Herod Antipas would have listed to John the Baptist, a war would have been averted, and many lives saved. Instead, Herod Antipas loses the war.
Like I said, the family makes the rest of us look like model citizens. From what I can tell, they were models of greed, lust for power and selfishness.
On a far more refreshing note, we have the encouraging accounts of Jesus feeding the 5,000 and his walking on the water. Interestingly, if this had happened in modern times all the news channels and the newspapers would have been reporting what was going on with Herod Antipas. Scarcely anyone would have noticed Jesus changing history, except for a few stray reports….probably on page 4 or 5. I suspect that the same thing is true today. While we are fed a constant diet of politics and wars and Hollywood controversies, Jesus is making enormous changes in the lives of people around the community, and around the globe. We just don’t hear about it.
Verse 52 catches my eye this morning. How could the disciples not understand the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000? Is it even possible to miss that? And even more scary…what miracles is Christ doing right in front of me…perhaps miracles that I am a part of..and I don’t even realize it?
Do you think it’s possible to be used in an incredible way by God, only to miss it yourself? It was certainly true of the disciples…because their “hearts were hard”. So I guess the solution for us is to constantly pray that God will give us “sensitive hearts”. By sensitive I mean hearts that are so tuned in to Jesus’ speaking that they can pick up His whisper. God shouldn’t have to shout to get our attention!
Praying for an ear attuned to heaven’s voice,
PR