The Death Of Herod
THE DEATH OF HEROD
ACTS 12:18-25
You can’t stop God working out his plans—as Herod proved to his cost.
Not unnaturally there was an immediate sequel to the news of Peter’s escape from prison. His guards suffered as a result of Herod’s displeasure (12:19). But Herod himself was soon to meet a fateful end: 12:20-23 are a piece of secular history which is also recorded by Josephus in Antiquities, Book 19. Both accounts agree that he suffered a divine sentence of judgment on the score of his pride. In fact, both records are complementary, and throw light on each other.
It appears that the “appointed day” in Caesarea on which the people of Tyre and Sidon were to make a representation to the king (12:20-21) was a festival in honor of the emperor, possibly the emperor’s birthday (August 1). Both historians describe how Herod was greeted as a god (12:22), and Josephus adds: “he did not rebuke them, nor did he repudiate their impious flattery.” His story goes on: he saw an owl, which he recognized as a messenger of evil tidings, and a pang of grief pierced his heart. Luke attributes this to a divine action (12:23), and his terrifying phrase, “he was eaten by worms and died,” corresponds to the description which Josephus gives of violent abdominal pains which led to his eventual death five days later. The date is about AD 44.
By vivid contrast “the word of God grew and multiplied” (12:24)—a reminder that earthly tyrants come and go, but even their cruel animosity is powerless to arrest the onward progress of the cause of God and his church. In the bitter days of Julian the apostate, a scoffer asked a Christian, “What is your Carpenter doing now?” His quiet reply was: “Making a coffin for your emperor.”
12:25 poses a difficulty, the RSV and RSV margin giving two different versions of the direction in which Barnabas and Saul moved. As the story left them last at Jerusalem (11:30), the RSV reads more naturally, but it translates a corrected text. As a third possibility the phrase “at Jerusalem” might be taken with what follows rather than with what precedes. Translate, then: “Barnabas and Saul returned (to Antioch), having completed their task in Jerusalem.”
Meditation Philippians 1:28-29.