Author: anita

John the Baptist began preaching when he was thirty years old, the typical age for men of
the times to enter ministry. Having heard his parents repeat the prophecies about him for his entire
childhood, having studied in the desert with the Essenes, and having read the Scriptures for
himself, John came out swinging.

The Jewish people were ripe to hear what John had to say. Harassed by the Romans and
disgusted with their in-name-only-Jewish king, Herod, the people desperately wanted change. And
until John began preaching, they had not realized that ‘change’ needed to start in their own hearts
before they would experience a change in anything external, including the political climate they
lived in.

John the Baptist was a fireball of a preacher. The roughly-dressed preacher in the
wilderness with no pre-sermon worship team attracted thousands of hearers—equivalent to what
some mega-churches see today. People traveled miles from home to hear him preach at the Jordan
River. Some came out of curiosity to see the fiery-talking weirdo, some came because they were
anxious to hear from a genuine prophet, and some came to try to catch him in blasphemy so they
could tattle to the synagogue on him. Matthew 3:5 says, “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the
region around the Jordan went out to him.” ALL came. Thousands of people. Multitudes. John
achieved the ultimate earthly success: he was faithful to his calling, and he delivered God’s
message courageously.

It’s said that if you want to start a Revival, set the church on fire, and people will come to
watch it burn. And John did start a Revival among the people—as well as an upheaval in Herod’s
court. Yet, John wasn’t concerned about Herod’s misgivings; he continued to preach his message
courageously. His message was simple; in fact, it had only two points:

1) Repent (turn from sin and to God; change your thoughts and conduct)
2) The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand (it’s on its way)

The two points were connected by the word ‘for,’ or as we would say nowadays, ‘because.’
John said, “Repent, for [because] the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

It may be difficult for people today to understand why John’s message of repentance was
so popular. It is, after all, it’s so…well, negative! But, John didn’t preach a prosperity gospel, and
he wasn’t an ear-tickler. The first part of John’s message demanded that people turn from their sins
and to God.

Turning from sin in John’s time, much like today, included everything from giving up their
dirty thoughts to giving up their means of earning a living. Under John’s preaching, prostitutes
repented, publicans stopped taking more taxes than they were entitled to, and soldiers quit taking
bribes. And they were publicly baptized into a new life!

John the Baptist brought the second part of his message, “For the kingdom of heaven is at
hand,” with a thundering urgency that brooked no dilly-dallying in the repentance department.
John pulled no punches; he spelled out exactly what people needed to do to show their hearts were
ready—that they were making way for the kingdom that was ‘at hand.’ Besides his instructions to
soldiers, prostitutes, and tax collectors, he told everyone who had an extra coat, or food to spare,
to give it to someone who had none. A few years later, one of the leaders of the young Messianic
church in Jerusalem would echo John the Baptist’s sentiments with, “Someone will say, ‘You have
faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by
my works (James 2:18).

Today, we can empathize with John’s first-century congregation that was disgruntled with
its government leaders. Just as they did back then, some of us today fear our government when we
see how its departments have been weaponized against those who speak out against wrongdoing.
John the Baptist’s unflinching courage in speaking truth to power cost him his head. He always
knew that was a possibility and did it anyway.

Most of us aren’t in a position to witness to “powerful” people, but we can all share John’s
imperative message of repentance with our family and friends. In watching the news of the war in
Israel for the past couple of weeks, we are more certain than ever that God’s Kingdom is indeed
at hand; He is coming soon.

God had been reaching out to the dysfunctional Herod family for generations, and Agrippa II was the last of the Herodian line. Agrippa II was only 17 when God struck his father down with parasites for basking in the adoration of a crowd instead of deflecting their worship and giving glory to God (Acts 12:21-23). Because Agrippa II was young when his father died, he ruled Judea under the tutelage of a Roman-appointed procurator, who was the one really in charge. Agrippa had not been raised in a bubble, so he knew about the People of the Way—the Christians, as they had come to be known.

Agrippa II also knew about the growth of the Christian movement; he knew how that growth made the Jewish leadership writhe in fury. He knew that Christians willingly suffered and died rather than recant their faith in Jesus—and it piqued his curiosity.

Regardless of whether it was simply a morbid curiosity or an intellectual interest in what made people give up everything for their faith, the king wanted to learn more. God gave Herod Agrippa II the opportunity to hear straight from the mouth of one of the most famous men in Christian history. Ironically, this particular Christian, the Apostle Paul, had been a persecutor of Christians just as Agrippa’s father, grand-uncle, and great-grandfather had been.

Paul the Apostle, a highly educated Pharisee, had been radically saved 20 years before right in the middle of a brutal crusade against the People of the Way. After that, Paul was harbored by a brave Christian named Ananias, and mentored by the Holy Spirit before publicly and boldly preaching for the One Whom he had formerly preached against.

God had told Ananias that He was going to use Paul to bring souls to Himself but in the process, Paul would reap what he had sown. Before he was saved, Paul had ‘sown’ the persecution and death of Christians and God was not going to supernaturally override His natural law of sowing and reaping. Instead, he would allow Paul to harvest on Earth what he had planted (Acts 9:1-21) before going to his glorious reward in Heaven. God keeps His promises; He did use Paul to bring tens of thousands of converts to Himself, and his ministry did include whippings, beatings, stoning, shipwrecks, and ultimately, a martyr’s death.

Fast forward through many years of ministry. Now back in Jerusalem, Paul was facing yet another inhumane flogging at the hands of the Roman guard, simply because the incensed Jews had requested it. Paul mentioned to the captain in charge of the ‘interrogation’ one small fact that gave the man pause (Acts 22:25). Turns out Paul was a Roman citizen (having been free-born in the province of Tarsus), and as such, he carried a get-out-of-a-whipping-without-trial-free card. Over the many years of his ministry, Paul could have verbally presented that card at any time in any of the small towns that flew the Roman flag and had abused him for witnessing there.

Shocked at Paul’s revelation, and fearful of getting into trouble by proceeding with the flogging, the captain ordered Paul held safe in the barracks until he could be extradited to the Roman governor in Caesarea. Once there, Paul was held in Herod’s praetorium, the palace where the governor lived, as he awaited trial.

It may seem that we’ve taken a vast detour from God’s reaching out to the generations of the evil and dysfunctional Herod family. That is until we discover that the Roman governor was married to Agrippa’s sister, Druscilla. Acts 24:22 says that Governor Felix had “rather detailed knowledge of things connected with the Way” (CJSB, The Complete Jewish Study Bible). Acts 24:24 says,

After some days, Felix came with his wife Druscilla, who was Jewish. He sent for Sha’ul and listened to him as he spoke about trusting in the Messiah Yeshua. But when Sha’ul began to discuss righteousness, self-control, and the coming Judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “For the time being, go away! I will send for you when I get a chance.”

“When I get a chance.” It would be two years before God would reach out again to draw the Herod family to Himself through His emissary, Paul. Meanwhile, Paul was allowed to come and go freely and share the Gospel in Caesarea—as long as he spent every night in the praetorium!

After two years, Festus replaced Felix as governor and Paul’s old accusers from Jerusalem started in again. This time, they insisted he be sent back to stand trial before the Sanhedrin. Knowing that they would try again to ambush him en route, Paul asked to be tried by Caesar, as was his right as a Roman citizen. His appeal was granted, but before he could leave for Rome, God in His infinite mercy gave the last of the Herodian family line a final chance to hear the gospel clearly.

Agrippa II and his sister/wife arrived in Caesarea to pay their respects to the new governor. (Yes, history records that he was in an incestuous relationship with his other sister, Bernice!) Festus told them about Paul, and Agrippa remarked, “I myself have been wanting to hear the man” (Acts 25:22).

King Herod Agrippa II and both of his sisters got to hear the plan of salvation from the lips of Paul the Apostle. Did they respond in faith? The Bible doesn’t tell us whether they later pondered Paul’s words in the quietness of their rooms and silently accepted Jesus’ gift of salvation. However, we are told what happened right after Paul concluded and Governor Festus told him he was out of his mind to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Ignoring Festus, Paul turned to Herod Agrippa II and said,

“On the contrary, I am speaking words of truth and sanity. For the king understands these matters, so to him I express myself freely, because none of these things have been hidden from him. After all, they didn’t happen in some back alley. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe!” (Acts 26:24-26, CJSB).

Herod Agrippa’s response to Paul’s plea for his soul is one of the saddest recorded in the Bible: “In this short time, you’re trying to convince me to become Messianic?” Or, as the King James Version puts it, “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, ‘Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.’”

Almost persuaded. It is said that ‘almost’ only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. When it comes to our eternal souls, there is no ‘almost.’ It is either eternity in Heaven with Jesus or eternity in Hell with the enemy of our souls—and the enemy will do anything to keep our souls from Heaven.

With Herod Agrippa II, the enemy used procrastination. It’s easy to put off such a decision until another time—a more convenient time; like, maybe, tomorrow. The trouble is none of us are guaranteed ‘tomorrow.’ Agrippa II should have learned that lesson when his father dropped in his tracks and died of worms.

God sums up 2 Corinthians 6:2 with, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (NKJV). He emphasizes the word “now” by repeating it.  God also asks us at the beginning of Hebrews 2:3, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him?” (NKJV)

God didn’t want the dysfunctional political family to neglect the great salvation He offered them. From the very beginning and throughout their generations, God reached out to them. Agrippa II and his sisters Druscilla and Bernice were the last of the Herodian political dynasty. Unless those three later reflected on Paul’s testimony and accepted Jesus as Savior, they died in their sin just like the rest of the Herodians.

God reaches out to all of us and if we stop to think about it, He has always been calling to us in various ways. Sometimes He uses circumstances that nearly shout at us to acknowledge His Lordship. Sometimes He calls with a still, small voice that pleads with us to come to Him now.

If you haven’t been saved, will you accept Jesus’ perfect blood as atonement for your sin and step into His loving Lordship today? Now?

And if you have questions about exactly how to accept Jesus’ gift, or you don’t know what to say when you talk to God, please email us at info@steveberger.org or call our office at (615) 667-6679. We’d be honored to guide you.

Instead of schooling her nice Jewish boy in their home in Jerusalem, Herod the Great’s daughter-in-law sent Agrippa to be educated in the most wicked city in the world at the time: Rome, the Imperial Capital.

Agrippa’s mother, Berenice, was the best friend of Caesar Augustus’ daughter-in-law, Antonia; his wife, Livia, was like an aunt to her. It made perfect sense to Berenice to get her son, Agrippa, away from the political intrigue/executions/suicides surrounding who would succeed Herod the Great. The trouble was, sending the innocent and impressionable six-year-old to Rome was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.

While in Rome, Agrippa lived at the palace, and the princes, Claudius and Germanicus, became like brothers to him. The new Emperor Tiberius—who was in power when Jesus was crucified—was also fond of the boy. Agrippa grew and learned from his Roman tutors and friends. One of the chief things he learned was, ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Sadly, the political leaders in his adopted city were every bit as evil as the ones back in Judea.

After his mother died, Agrippa lost his part of the family fortune and, having no other way to pay his considerable debts, appealed to his older sister’s new husband/uncle, Herod Antipas, for a loan. Herodias, who wore the pants in that family despite the fact that her husband was king, insisted that her little brother be given a job instead of a loan. After having spent his formative years in Rome, Agrippa moved to the little town of Tiberius on the Sea of Galilee and became its magistrate.

Agrippa was charismatic and popular with the Galilean Jews, but he chafed under his new job. The excitement of Rome called to him. As soon as his debts were paid, Agrippa quit his job and returned to Rome.

Since he had to make a living, he used his influential connections to become a tutor to the up-and-coming Roman leaders. Not only was he his tutor, but Agrippa became a good friend to his young charge Caligula, who would someday become emperor.

In his role as friend and mentor to the future Caesar, Agrippa was in a unique position to mold the young man’s character into one who would rule with justice, mercy, and gratitude to the God Agrippa had learned about at his mother’s knee. Instead, the opposite happened.  One (anonymous) Roman historian said, “Caligula is on a very short list of the worst people in the history of civilization.”

Thanks to his friendship with Caligula, Agrippa was given rule over the territory formerly held by his Uncle Philip the Tetrarch. From there, it was a natural step for Rome to place him on the throne of Judea—over all of what had been Grandfather Herod the Great’s kingdom. In doing so, he replaced his uncle/brother-in-law, Herod Antipas, the one who’d given him the miserable magistrate job. Antipas and his wife, Agrippa’s big sister Herodias, found themselves on Rome’s bad side and were banished to Gaul.

Agrippa was popular with the Jews he ruled, supporting them in their orthodoxy and oppressing those they didn’t like. Chief among those the Jews didn’t like were the followers of Jesus. These rebellious people—also Jews—insisted that Jesus had risen from the dead after their Jewish leaders had called for His crucifixion. Nothing would stop them from testifying to their belief. The fast-growing number of Jesus’ followers, the ‘People of the Way, continued to be a thorn in the flesh to the Jews in power because so many were joining them. And almost as bad, they were beginning to allow Gentiles to worship with them!

Despite warnings, the People of the Way, who were sometimes called ‘Christians,’ continued to spread the word that Jesus was alive. They said He lived in Heaven and would someday return to Earth to establish a new kingdom—and place THEM in positions of authority! If a person wanted to keep his head, that was not a good rumor to spread under the nose of a cruel and powerful king. Agrippa decided to stem the tide of the movement by seeking out its leaders and setting an example of them.

The apostle James, John’s brother, and a member of Jesus’ inner circle, was the first Christian leader Agrippa got his hands on (Acts 12:2). Foxe’s Book of Martyrs reports that, at James’ trial, his guard listened intently to his testimony. Dr. R. L. Hymers, Jr. writes, “Later, that Roman soldier walked beside James to the place of execution. The soldier was so overcome with conviction that he declared his own faith in the resurrected Christ to the judge, and knelt beside James to accept martyrdom, and was beheaded as a Christian with James” (2007).

Stalwart Apostle Peter—the same one who had denied Jesus three times on the morning of His execution—was the next apostle Agrippa apprehended. Four squads of guards were set around the prison to put down any violent trouble with the People of the Way. Unbeknownst to Agrippa, Christians didn’t operate that way. Instead, they gathered at Mary’s home (Mark’s mother) and prayed without ceasing for Peter’s release (Acts 12).

The night before Herod Agrippa was going to bring him out (Acts 12:6), Peter was freed by two angels while everyone else slept. We can’t help but pity the four squads of guards who paid for Peter’s miraculous release with their own deaths by torture, but that particular night wasn’t God’s time for Peter to die. Peter’s time for martyrdom would be later, under Roman Emperor Nero’s rule.

Herod Agrippa was raised a Jew, was a friend to Jews, and was their ruler. He’d heard the testimonies of many Jewish Christians and had witnessed them accepting torture and death rather than denying Jesus’ resurrection. After experiencing all that, anyone would think Agrippa would have known better than to participate in emperor worship—something he had, at one time, tried to talk Caligula out of.  Acts 12:21-23 tells the rest of the story:

On a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. And the people kept shouting, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” Then immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and died.

Herod Agrippa died painfully. Josephus says it took him five days to die after he was struck down by the worms in his gut. Unless Agrippa made a deathbed conversion to Christ that history hasn’t recorded, he is still—even now—being tormented by worms in the fire of Hell. God gave the king many opportunities to hear about Him and believe in Him, a fact which will leave Herod Agrippa without any excuse on the Day of Judgment.

It’s not just kings and it’s not just the Herod family—God wants everyone to hear about His wonderful gift of salvation. That’s the reason the last thing Jesus said before He ascended to Heaven was, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

ASI’s mission is to prepare people for Eternity. God has graciously given ASI a platform to be a witness to our government leaders in our own Jerusalem: Washington, DC. God has also graciously provided partnerships with those around the world whom He has positioned to help rescue some of our brothers and sisters from seemingly impossible situations of persecution.

Romans 10:14-15(a) says, “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?”

Thank you for ‘sending’ ASI on its mission with your financial support. Thank you for volunteering—for coming alongside us physically—sharing with ASI the time and talent God has gifted you with. Thank you for praying for ASI’s mission, for the ‘Herods’ right here in our own country to be saved, and for God to bring about our next Great Awakening soon!

It is said that ‘hurt people hurt.’ Herodias was no exception.

Born to Herod the Great’s son, Aristobulus, in the middle of family conflict and dysfunction, Herodias’ childhood was full of pain. Grandpa Herod had had her paternal grandmother executed before Herodias was born, and when she was eight years old, he had her father strangled to death. After her father’s death, her mother was forcibly married to an elderly uncle-in-law and sent away. Her younger brothers were sent to Rome to be educated there; her older sister was betrothed to an uncle and sent away to live with him. And at the tender age of eight, Herod the Great espoused the orphaned girl to her Uncle Philip, heir apparent to his throne. Someday, Herodias would be Queen.

Herodias may have been young, but she had ears to hear what was going on—and the smarts to stay out of arms’ reach of her grandfather. To protect itself from further pain, little Herodias’ heart began to harden.

Herodias and Herod Philip were married when she turned fifteen. They moved to Rome, where they lived safely as private citizens. In the seven years between their betrothal and marriage, suspicious Grandpa Herod the Great routinely had any and all rivals for his throne either murdered, executed, or persuaded to commit suicide. Many of the victims were Herodias’ and Herod Philip’s siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Herodias’ heart continued to harden. Her comfort was that someday she would be queen, and then everything would be different.

Herod the Great was told that Herod Philip was implicated in one of the plots to take his throne. This, despite the fact the throne would be his upon the Great’s death anyway. At almost the last minute, Herod the Great changed his will and had Herod Philip removed from succession. When Herod the Great died, Rome divided his kingdom among three of Herod Philip’s brothers: Antipas received one quarter, Archelaus received half, and Philip received a quarter. (Yes, you read that right: Herod the Great had TWO sons named Philip—at the same time—by different wives).

And what did Herodias get from Grandpa’s will? Nothing. At that time, royal women were simply pawns of the rulers. Anything they had they obtained by means other than inheritance. Herodias’ dreams of rule died with Herod the Great, and her hard, power-hungry heart grew harder.

A woman’s heart usually softens when she has a child. However, there is no biblical nor extra-biblical evidence that Herodias’ heart softened when she gave birth to her daughter, Salome. In Matthew 14:3-10, we find the opposite. After Salome was born, Herodias decided to take her future into her own hands, making a series of bad choices that affected not only her but her precious daughter. With each bad choice, Herodias’ heart grew harder. She was living up (or down) to her name.

When her daughter was twelve, Antipas, one of Herodias’ uncle/husband’s brothers, came to Rome for a visit. History is silent about what Herodias did or said at that time, but Mark 6:16-19 paints a picture of a woman who had long harbored hatred in her heart—and ultimately acted on her hatred. Whatever happened, by the end of the visit, Antipas had fallen hard for Herodias.

Herod Antipas asked Herodias to marry him, even though he already had a wife back home. Herodias accepted his proposal on the condition he divorced his wife. To marry her powerful Uncle Herod Antipas–King Herod–Herodias divorced her husband/uncle, Herod Philip. She and Salome moved with Herod Antipas to Machaerus, a beautiful Herodian palace overlooking the Dead Sea.

Did obtaining her heart’s desire for power soften Herodias’ heart? There is no historical evidence that it did.

Instead of taking advantage of this fresh start and vowing to break any generational curse, Herodias—once an innocent child just as her daughter was now—began to teach Salome how to be powerful; how to conquer powerful men. Once a victim herself, Herodias wanted her daughter to always be victorious, no matter what situation the girl might find herself in. Herodias schooled Salome in wicked women’s wiles, and as she did, Herodias’ heart continued to harden.

A consequence of having a hard heart is that it affects one’s internal hearing. When your heart is hard, it’s difficult to hear the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit calling you to Himself.

At Machaerus, Herodias would have been surrounded by people who’d been baptized by John, and at least one, Joanna, who was a believer in Jesus (Luke 8:3 and 24:10). Granted, they were soldiers and servants, but sometimes a trusted guard or a loyal servant is able to speak a word into his or her master’s ear at an opportune time—when no one else can—and it makes all the difference. But Herodias’ years of bad choices had gradually made her heart hard and ears dull. It got to the point where it was going to take some fire-and-brimstone preaching to get through to her. Enter John the Baptist.

John the Baptist was just the man for the job. According to an early 20th-century expert on John’s life, he was “not the kind of preacher who made an absolute divorce between religion and politics. He tried to put religious principles into politicians” (Robertson, p. 39)[1]. John boldly called Antipas and Herodias out for their sin. Herodias hated him for it and leaned on Antipas to have him arrested.

Even though the Baptist was never charged with a crime, everyone knew he was imprisoned because of what he’d said about Herod’s sin. Whenever a person is unjustly incarcerated, the source of the injustice is political. Injustice is when the worst things happen to the best person.

Having John imprisoned in the Machaerus dungeon wasn’t enough punishment for him, in Herodias’ cold-hearted, dull-eared, hate-filled opinion. Her husband was visiting John and after every visit, Antipas was thoughtful—and instead of torturing John, he appeared to be protecting him! Herodias looked for an opportune time to have John the Baptist killed, and she found it. Enlisting her daughter’s help, Herodias set a trap for the king.

Right up until the axe fell across John the Baptist’s neck, there was a chance for Herodias’ heart to soften and to recall the executioner. She didn’t. We can hope that there was a time after that when Herodias’ heart softened enough to hear God’s gentle, loving voice as he called her soul to Himself, but there is no record of that ever happening.

Tragically, as far as we know, the once heartbroken little orphan girl who became the most wicked woman in first-century Judea died in her sin.

 

 

[1] Robertson, A.T., John the Loyal: Studies in the Ministry of John the Baptist. (Nashville, Broadman Press, 1977). 39.

The Herodian Dynasty was, for the most part, historically evil.

Client-kings for Rome who crossed over the end of BC and the beginning of AD in their rule of Judea, the Herods were infamous for their cruelty to the people they conquered and their own subjects.

Their history of cruelty ran in the family, as they were directly descended from Alexander Jannaeus, who had ruled Judea before the Romans came along. Around 84 BC, Alexander Jannaeus had 800 ‘rebels’ crucified in one day. Their wives and children were killed in front of them as they died. These men, who were from the ‘conservative’ party (the Pharisees), had formerly fought with him but he turned against them as soon as his victory was assured. The event served as entertainment for the king and his courtiers.

Just like God withheld judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah for years, allowing their residents time to turn back to Him, so He did with the dysfunctional political Herodian family. God is merciful, and patient (longsuffering). 2 Peter 3:8-9 says,

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing: that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Herod Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, the one who’d had Bethlehem’s babies killed trying to get to the infant Jesus. If that had been Herod the Great’s one big chance to be saved, he blew it. However, someone must have been praying for his son, Herod Antipas, because he had several chances.

After his father’s death, Herod Antipas ruled a fourth of the territory. He was married to a Nabatean princess but fell in love with his niece, Herodias, during a visit to his half-brother’s palace in Rome. Herodias wasn’t that particular half-brother’s daughter; she was his wife. She was the daughter of one of their other brothers, one whom dear old dad, Herod the Great, had executed, thinking he was plotting a takeover.

Antipas asked Herodias to marry him, but wanting an exclusive, she insisted he divorce his wife first. Their plan was to marry after she had divorced her first husband/uncle. Herod’s wife, Phasaelis (the Nabatean princess), found out about the plan before he could tell her and ran home to tell her father.

Phasaelis’ father was not at all happy that Herod Antipas had spurned his daughter. King Aretus began to look for an opportunity to attack militarily. King Herod’s Jewish subjects did not like the situation either. Divorce and incest were both condemned in Leviticus.

Despite what anyone thought or said, Antipas and Herodias married and moved to the beautiful mountaintop palace of Machaerus, a fortress that overlooked the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. Although beautiful, Machaerus’ sunset silhouette earned it the nickname, ‘The Black Fortress.’ The fortress’ situation, with steep slopes that would make an enemy attack very difficult, was considered impregnable. Hence, Machaerus’ threatening nickname became a double entendre.

Over at the Jordan River, the forerunner of Jesus Christ had just begun his preaching ministry. This prophesied ‘Elijah who was to come first’ (Matthew 17) preached repentance for all of Israel. He baptized those who wanted the public to know their hearts were prepared for the Messiah’s arrival.

John the Baptist’s message of repentance was for everyone: Publican and Pharisee, Harlot and Herod. Herod didn’t like John’s message and Herodias hated John for it; she wanted him killed. At her insistence, Herod had John arrested, chained, and thrown into a pit-like prison cell in Machaerus’ dungeon.

But, curious about the man and “knowing that he was a just and holy man,” Herod visited John in prison. He protected John from Herodias’ wrath: “And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly” (Mark 6:20).

Unfortunately, repenting was NOT one of the many things Herod did. He ultimately caved to Herodias’ hatred and his own lust. After his stepdaughter’s/grand-niece’s erotic dance, Herod offered to give the girl whatever she wanted—and her mother Herodias told her to demand John the Baptist’s head.

We’d think that with John the Baptist out of the picture, Herod’s chance to be saved was, too. Not so! God was ‘longsuffering’ with him. He gave him another chance, an opportunity to meet with the Savior personally.

When the Savior was going through His series of bogus trials prior to giving Himself as the sacrificial Lamb, the One Whom John the Baptist had said would, “Take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), Pilate found out that Herod Antipas was in town. As a Galilean, Jesus was in Herod’s jurisdiction, so Pilate sent Jesus over to be tried by him.

Herod had heard about Jesus’ miracles and wanted to see one. He quickly found out that Jesus was not going to perform for him on demand. In fact, Jesus would not even speak to him; He didn’t answer Herod’s questions even though Herod (thought he) had the power to free Him. As the sacrificial lamb, Jesus was fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah 53:7,

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.

Thinking Jesus was no threat, the tetrarch sent Him back to Pilate. Jesus then gave His Life to take away the sins of the world, just as John the Baptist had likely told Herod during his visits to Machaerus’ dungeon. With this official rejection of the Savior, Herod Antipas had just blown his last chance at an eternity in Heaven. He now faced God’s judgment.

In addition to eternal judgment, there was earthly judgment still to come for Herod Antipas. His first wife’s father, King Aretas, came after him, his nephew/brother-in-law tried to wrest the kingdom from him, and he fell into disfavor with Caesar. He and Herodias were humiliated and died in exile.

Machaerus the Impregnable, the Black Fortress where John the Baptist was beheaded, was leveled—and forgotten for 2000 years. Edersheim (1825-1889), a Jewish convert to Christianity, said of the pile of rubble that was once Machaerus:

 . . . descending a steep slope about 150 yards towards the west, we reach the oblong flat plateau that formed the fortress, containing Herod’s magnificent palace. Here, carefully collected, are piled up the stones of which the citadel was built. These immense heaps look like a terrible monument of judgment.

Judgment is something we all want to avoid. God, in His merciful patience, gave Herod Antipas many opportunities to be saved and avoid His judgment. Herod preferred to stay in his sin and wound up dying in it. As he had no children, Herod’s terrible legacy died with him.

Let’s continue to pray for today’s leaders. And let’s pray for their successors—maybe they’ll come from among the young staffers who attend the Bible studies that ASI holds in our ministry center in Washington DC!

It’s bad enough to harbor a dysfunctional family behind closed doors at home, but it’s much worse when it is on the newspaper’s front page for the entire world to see.

Every day, we read about the escapades of wealthy, high-profile individuals who seem to think they’re above the law, and we react with either eye rolls, snorts of disgust, rants to our friends, or Tweets. If we wait to read the news until after our daily devotions, we may pray for the person and his family. Regardless of our reactions, we wonder why God continues to let them get away with their sins.

Some political leaders have been unable to hide their dysfunctionality for generations. The Herodian family is one example.

Roman-appointed rulers of Judea who spanned the Gospels from Matthew 1 to Acts 26, the Herod family was universally hated by their subjects. And for good reason. Besides their incest, power grabs, inter-family murders, and carefully orchestrated ‘suicides’ of political opponents, they were cruel to their subjects who were mostly Jews. They put down any dissension—or even rumors of dissension—with swift imprisonment which usually led to death without the benefit of a trial.

Their people hated them, but God loved them.

Not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), the Lord began reaching out to the Herod family as far back as the Magi’s visit, and probably before that.

When the Magi followed the star they knew would lead them to the ‘King of the Jews’, naturally, they went straight to Jerusalem, where the king of Judea lived. There, they met with Herod the Great, the patriarch of the Herodian political family. He shrewdly told them to look for the baby and come back and tell him so that he could also worship him. We know what happened next: Having been divinely warned in a dream, the Wise Men didn’t report back to Herod after finding baby Jesus but instead went home a different way.

Herod the Great, himself a Jew, could have had his own Bible scholars/advisers/wise men investigate further about the prophesied king — other than just where he was to be born. If he had thoroughly searched the Scriptures, he’d have discovered that this baby, born King of the Jews, would pose no threat to him but would, instead, make a way for him—despite his wicked past—to go to Heaven for Eternity instead of to Hell, a destination he was on the fast-track to. Whereas people today get saved by looking back to Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross, Herod could have gotten saved just as the people in the Old Testament did: by looking ahead in faith.

The New Testament book of Hebrews explains how people were saved thousands of years before Jesus was born. Chapter 11:4-7 lists the examples of Abel, Enoch, and Noah, for starters:

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.

By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

The writer of Hebrews sums up his examples of the ancients’ faith in Hebrews 11:13-16:

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.

Even if Herod had read the Old Testament Scriptures examples, he may have dismissed them as not applying to him; after all, he already HAD a city of his own—in fact, he had a country! Furious at having had one put over on him by the Magi, Herod the Great ordered all the toddlers and babies, aged two and under, in the Bethlehem region killed. With that terrible act, King Herod the Great blew his big chance of meeting the King of the Universe and being saved by Him.

Herod the Great, who practiced a convenient Judaism, died at 70. Before he went, Herod had several family members killed for one suspected plot or another; three were his own sons. The fact that, as a Jew, Herod did not eat pork was famously alluded to by Caesar Augustus at the (sham) trial of two of his (Herod’s) sons. Caesar joked in Greek, “It is better to be Herod’s hua (pig) than it is to be huia (son).” The cruel truth was that Herod wouldn’t butcher his pig, but he wouldn’t hesitate to butcher his son.

All we can do is shake our heads sadly for the descendants of this powerful ruler. How different things would have been for them had Herod the Great done what he told the Magi he would do! How wonderful could the children’s lives have been had their father kept his promise, looked ahead in faith, and worshipped the King?

Instead, the evil in the Herodian Dynasty continued for four generations. And God, in His mercy and unfailing love, continued to reach out to each generation.

What if God’s people had prayed for these influencers? The Bible gives us specifics of some who did just that. Daniel 4:26-27, & 37, and Acts 26:19-32 are two examples.

ASI prays for America’s influencers and political leaders. We pray and ask God for opportunities to get in front of them—to be agents of Hope—just as the Magi were given an audience with Herod the Great. When they submit their hearts to God, we know what a positive difference it makes to their families—and what a positive difference it will make to their descendants. And since every congressperson represents around 708,000 people, what a positive difference we’ll see in our country when they submit their lives and votes to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Thank you for praying with us.