Scripture
Instantly an angel of the Lord struck Herod with a sickness, because he accepted the people’s worship instead of giving glory to God. So he was consumed with worms and died.
Observation
Herod starts to persecute the church by having James put to death. This pleases the Jewish leaders, so he has Peter arrested. The night before Peter’s trial, an angel of the Lord comes to release him and lead him to safety.
The people of Tyre and Sidon send a delegation to make peace with Herod. Herod makes a fine speech which the people present proclaim to be the speech of a god not a man. Because Herod accepts this false worship, the Lord strikes him down with sickness, and he dies.
Application
Many people like to think that God does not punish people, that He does not judge sin. Of course this is nonsense. The Bible is full of warnings against the judgement of God.
Here Herod is struck down with a fatal illness because he is praised as a god. It is interesting that it is this blasphemous pride rather than the murder of James and the attempted murder of Peter which God punishes.
While few of us would be tempted to think that we are gods, many can be prone to pride at various times. We might be proud of our abilities, proud of our talents, proud of our ministry.
At these times, we run the risk of being judged by the Lord.
Every now and again we hear of pastors falling into sin of some kind, sometimes even committing a crime. Very few of them start off in ministry with this or other immoral goals. But pride, even a sense of entitlement, starts to find its way in. Eventually they find themselves doing things that once they would not have considered themselves capable of doing.
God’s judgement is real, but not because He gets pleasure from inflicting pain on us. God judges because He loves us and wants us to turn to Him before it is too late.
Prayer
Father, please help me to walk in your ways every day. May I live in a way that honours you. Amen.
