hen the report of these things was brought to Herod, he was
exasperated, and charged the keepers of the prison with unfaithfulness.
They were accordingly put to death for the alleged crime of sleeping at
their post. At the same time Herod knew that no human power had rescued
Peter. But he was determined not to acknowledge that a divine power had
been at work to thwart his base designs. He would not humiliate himself
thus, but set himself boldly in defiance of God.
Herod, not long after Peter’s deliverance from prison, went down
from Judea to Caesarea and there abode. He there made a grand festival,
designed to excite the admiration and applause of the people. Pleasure
lovers from all quarters were assembled together, and there was much
feasting and wine drinking. Herod made a most gorgeous appearance
before the people. He was clad in a robe, sparkling with silver and gold,
that caught the rays of the sun in its glittering folds, and dazzled the eyes
of the beholders. With great pomp and ceremony he stood before the
multitude, and addressed them in an eloquent oration.
The majesty of his appearance and the power of his well-chosen
language swayed the assembly with a mighty influence. Their senses
were already perverted by feasting and wine; they were dazzled by his
glittering decorations and charmed by his grand deportment and eloquent
words; and, wild with enthusiasm, they showered upon him adulation,
and proclaimed him a god, declaring that mortal man could not present
such an appearance or command such startling eloquence of language.
They further declared that they had ever respected him as a ruler, but from
henceforth they should worship him as a god.
Herod knew that he deserved none of this praise and homage; yet
he did not rebuke the idolatry of the people, but accepted it as his due.
The glow of gratified pride was on his countenance as he heard the shout
ascend: “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.” The same voices which
now glorified a vile sinner had, but a few years before, raised the frenzied
cry of, Away with Jesus! Crucify Him! crucify Him! Herod received
this flattery and homage with great pleasure, and his heart bounded with
triumph; but suddenly a swift and terrible change came over him. His
countenance
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became pallid as death and distorted with agony; great drops of sweat
started from his pores. He stood a moment as if transfixed with pain
and terror; then, turning his blanched and livid face to his horror-stricken
friends, he cried in hollow, despairing tones, He whom you have exalted
as a God is struck with death!
He was borne in a state of the most excruciating anguish from the
scene of wicked revelry, the mirth, and pomp, and display of which
he now loathed in his soul. A moment before, he had been the proud
recipient of the praise and worship of that vast throng—now he felt
himself in the hands of a Ruler mightier than himself. Remorse seized
him; he remembered his cruel command to slay the innocent James; he
remembered his relentless persecution of the followers of Christ, and his
design to put to death the apostle Peter, whom God had delivered out of
his hand; he remembered how, in his mortification and disappointed rage,
he had wreaked his unreasoning revenge upon the keepers of the prisoner
and executed them without mercy. He felt that God, who had rescued the
apostle from death, was now dealing with him, the relentless persecutor.
He found no relief from pain of body or anguish of mind, and he expected
none. Herod was acquainted with the law of God, which says, “Thou shalt
have no other gods before Me,” and he knew that in accepting the worship
of the people he had filled up the measure of his iniquity and had brought
upon himself the just wrath of God.
The same angel who had left the royal courts of heaven to rescue Peter
from the power of his persecutor, had been the messenger of wrath and
judgment to Herod. The angel smote Peter to arouse him from slumber;
but it was with a different stroke that he
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smote the wicked king, bringing mortal disease upon him. God poured
contempt upon Herod’s pride, and his person, which he had exhibited
decked in shining apparel before the admiring gaze of the people, was
eaten by worms, and putrefied while yet alive. Herod died in great agony
of mind and body, under the retributive justice of God.
This demonstration of divine judgment had a mighty influence upon
the people. While the apostle of Christ had been miraculously delivered
from prison and death, his persecutor had been stricken down by the curse
of God. The news was borne to all lands, and was the means of bringing
many to believe on Christ.
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41: In the Regions Beyond
This chapter is based on Acts 13:1-4 and. 15:1-31.
The apostles and disciples who left Jerusalem during the fierce
persecution that raged there after the martyrdom of Stephen, preached
Christ in the cities round about, confining their labors to the Hebrew and
Greek Jews. “And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number
believed, and turned unto the Lord.” Acts 11:21.
When the believers in Jerusalem heard the good tidings they rejoiced;
and Barnabas, “a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,”
was sent to Antioch, the metropolis of Syria, to help the church there.
He labored there with great success. As the work increased, he solicited
and obtained the help of Paul; and the two disciples labored together in
that city for a year, teaching the people and adding to the numbers of the
church of Christ.
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Antioch had both a large Jewish and Gentile population; it was a great
resort for lovers of ease and pleasure, because of the healthfulness of its
situation, its beautiful scenery, and the wealth, culture, and refinement
that centered there. Its extensive commerce made it a place of great
importance, where people of all nationalities were found. It was therefore
a city of luxury and vice. The retribution of God finally came upon
Antioch, because of the wickedness of its i