THE KING HEROD WITHIN US

days before his own death, Herod even had his nephew killed. Herod had only one purpose in life and that was to be the only king of the Jews.

Who does that sound like in modern times? Doesn’t it sound a lot like Saddam Hussein? Whenever he thought somebody was going to give him strife, he had them killed very brutally. Just like Herod, and many others throughout history, Saddam wanted everyone to know that there was no other but him. See, that is what happens when we try to make God our co-pilot. When we try to lead God, we end up trying to take His place. The problem is that we can’t take His place. There can only be one head, and that head is not us.

We wonder how people can be so evil, but the answer should not surprise us. We are merely men, yet we too often, try to be God. We have a desire for power and in some people, it is just a lot more obvious. In Herod, as with all dictators, there is absolutely no compromise; it is all or nothing. Herod had to be the only king.

God established Jesus Christ as the only king, and He does not want anyone trying to upset that order of things. Nobody can serve two masters. You will end up hating one and loving the other. The world wants us to be our own masters, and to do that, we will end up hating Christ. God wants Jesus to be our Master, and when we allow this, we end up hating the world. There is no in-between and no compromise on this.

Many people don’t want to see the baby grow up to be the King, because that would mean they would have to be committed to doing things His way, and they want to keep doing things their way. In reality, they want to be the pilot, and they are only willing to let God be the co-pilot while only paying lip service to Christ.

Sometimes, I think Christians are worse than Herod. See, Herod was truthful. He did not want to give up his authority for anyone, even Christ. Today’s Christians say they want Christ to be the head of their lives, but they are not willing to let Him have authority over their lives. We pray, but what do we pray for? We pray for things that we want, not to ask what God wants for us. We need to simply bow down before Jesus and make ourselves and our families available to Him. After all, He is the King.

Another lesson we can learn from our passage is this:


2. IMPOSTERS ARE FURIOUS

When Jesus came, as a Jew, to be the real King of the Jews, how did Herod respond? In MATTHEW 2:3, we find that Herod was greatly disturbed. He had to do something, but what?

Being the imposter he was, he put on an act. He pretended that he cared about this new child and so he asked the Magi to find out where Jesus was so Herod could go worship Him, too. But, worshiping Jesus was not the real plan Herod had. He wanted to kill the baby like he had killed so many of his other competitors.

But what happened? God tipped Joseph off in a dream.

Turn with me to MATTHEW 2:13-16.

‘When they (the Magi) had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and His mother, and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him.”

So, he got up, took the child and His mother during the night, and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord