Today we consider ‘a man of the world’ who used cruelty and murder to further his ambition. His life ended in a remarkable way under the governmental hand of God. All the scriptural mentions of him are found in Acts chapter 12.
The first king to reign in Israel since before the Captivity was Herod the Great. Kingship for Israel had been stated by Jacob in Genesis 49. 10; it was to be from the line of Judah, a son of Jacob. Herod was an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, a family which did not have divine sanction for the throne of Israel, and of whom God had said ‘the elder shall serve the younger’, Gen. 25. 23. This created a similar situation to the days when Saul the Benjamite was on the throne. Both were the people’s choice, but not God’s. Our subject is his grandson, Herod Agrippa the First.
He was a Man of Cruelty. As Barnabas and Saul were arriving at Jerusalem with practical relief, in that same city Herod was stretching forth his hands to vex ‘certain of the church’. James the brother of John became the first martyr of the apostolic band, and Peter was imprisoned, v. 4. Just as his grandfather had used murder to try to frustrate the fulfilment of God’s purpose, so he was doing the same.
He was Man of Compromise. When he saw that the murder of James ‘had pleased the Jews’, he took Peter and put him in prison. He acted just as his uncle Herod Antipas had done, who put John the Baptist ‘in prison for Herodias’ sake’ and later beheaded him, Matt. 14. 3-11. The lives of the godly meant little to them.
He was a Man of Confrontation. He was ‘highly displeased’ and hostile to those in Tyre and Sidon. No doubt the anger felt at Peter’s release from prison still rankled in his breast. He vented his anger on others.
He was a Man of Conceit. His apparel, his throne and his oration were to impress, and his pride was displayed for all to see. The angel of the Lord smote Peter to deliver him, v. 7, but here the angel of the Lord smote Herod to destroy him, v. 23. Normally men are eaten of worms after death, but he was eaten of worms and then died. How severe is the judgement of God.
