Day 11 Herod

 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem  and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. (Matthew 2:2)



He was ' disturbed'. That translation makes us think that Herod was a little bit bothered, slightly annoyed perhaps, at the news of a possible new King arriving on the scene. But the word translated as ' disturbed' actually means
    to agitate, trouble (a thing, by the movement of its parts to and fro)
    1a) to cause one inward commotion, take away his calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity
    1b) to disquiet, make restless
    1c) to stir up
    1d) to trouble
    1d1) to strike one's spirit with fear and dread
    1e) to render anxious or distressed
    1f) to perplex the mind of one by suggesting scruples or doubts
    Herod wasnt just a little bit concerned by the message of the Magi.  He was properly scared.  Why?
    Well, Herod was terrified because he felt threatened.  I cant detail much of Herod's life here but if you go and read his Wikipedia page you will understand a lot more about why he was so bothered about news of Jesus's birth.    For a start Herod had fought a 3 year war and done some significant deals with the Romans in order to secure his place as King of Judea.  Secondly, his relationship with Judaism was debated.  His family had converted generations before, and Herod was responsible for the rebuilding and expansion of the Temple on the Mount.  But he seems to have been playing a tricky balancing act between keeping his Jewish citizens on board whilst serving Rome.  He introduced entertainments which the Jews hated and placed a huge eagle statue at the entrance to the temple which upset the pharisees and sadducees.   He had some tricky family stuff going on, including a mother-in-law who wanted to overthrow him.   He had a bodyguard of 2,000 men protecting him - he must have been constantly looking over his shoulder.
    So at the time of the birth of Jesus Herod was juggling a lot of balls.  He was building a dynasty which he planned to pass on to his sons.  He was working hard on engineering projects across the country, employing thousands, raising taxes for Rome and keeping Caesar and Mark Antony happy.  During a famine in the land he used his own resources to keep his people from starving.  He wasnt necessarily the tyrant we tend to assume he was.  He had worked really hard to gain and then build and keep hold of a kingdom. And now here come some wise men, following a star, saying that there was a new king on the block.
    How often do we feel fear rising when we think our position is being challenged?  Maybe we suspect our partner is taking just a bit too much interest in someone else.   Maybe we hear rumours that our job might be in danger or someone more talented than us arrives in church and we wonder if they might be asked to serve in the area we've been serving in for years.  My eldest son got married this year and I have had to make room for a whole new family becoming part of my family.  Dont get me wrong, they are fabulous people and I love them.  But Sam is now part of their family and all the boundary lines have shifted.  I can see how easy it can be in these situations for resentment and insecurities to fester.   There are myriad places in our lives where we can feel threatened and allow fear to take hold.  This happens when we are king of our own kingdoms.  When we hold the reins and Jesus is in the passenger seat. If we feel fear related to a possible loss of position, importance, role, title, then its probably a sign that we need to move over and let Jesus be Lord again.

Lord I thank you that everything I have comes from You and that You are the giver of good gifts.  Thank you that my security is found in being Your child, not in the positions I hold or the reputation I have or in anything I have achieved.  Show me where I am fearful and insecure and help me to surrender everything to you once again. Amen


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1. Do not fear

Image
Over the summer something unusual happened. One Sunday morning someone in our congregation came up for prayer. I happened to be on the prayer team so asked what is was she'd like prayer for and she said she was about to go on holiday and was really terrified, highly anxious, super stressed. I asked why. She said she just got really scared when doing anything out of the ordinary. She then said she had always ' suffered from anxiety'. When she said that, something triggered in me and I got really cross. Not cross with her. Cross with the lies which were causing her to be full of fear all the time about everything. I had a chat with her about fear, I prayed with her. She stood listening open-mouthed and said she had never heard anyone explain fear like that. She went off on holiday and actually messaged me half way through to tell me she was having a great time. Two weeks later I was at Summer Madness. Youth festival with 2,000 teenagers from every sort of church background ca...
Read more

Day 8 a testimony

Image
Im a very blessed person because I was brought up in an entirely fear-free family. My parents both had their fare share of troubles and difficulties. They lost a baby before I was born. They had an unhappy marriage and divorced when I was 4. They both remarried and both ran small businesses with all the stresses and hard work that that entails. They were both widowed relatively young. There was plenty of real life struggle as I was growing up. But..... I can honestly say that as a child I was never aware of an environment of anxiety, worry, fear. My parents talked about things as my brother and I got older and we knew the reality of some of the difficult ' life stuff'. But neither of my parents were fearful. Im not sure why. They were both born during the war years and maybe that generation were purposefully and strongly protected from the fears that the war must have engendered. They were most likely brought up being sheltered from truly scary things. And therefor...
Read more

Day 19 The only fear

Image
  Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,   15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  Hebrews 2 I apologise that this Advent Blog has been so serious.  When I started out this year I didnt think Id still be writing about fear on day 19.  But there is so much to talk about! This might be the last day and maybe the last few will be a bit more lighthearted. We shall see. Anyhow, what fear really all boils down to in all of its manifestations is the fear of death.  When you peel back the facade of every fear and dig down into what its all about it comes back to this.  The reason Adam and Eve had absolutely no fear in the Garden of Eden was because there was no death. Hebrews tells us that we are all, for all of our lives, held in slavery by the fear of death. This is why we can live free...
Read more