Vengeance, Honor and the King

Listen along here:  Vengeance, Honor and the King

Sometimes it seems like God takes it on the chin.  

Think of it--in many respects, God is painted as a bit of a weakling, hoping people will consider he is real, hoping they will recognize he is powerful and can do all things.  It is strange to think how this could ever be thought true, but it is--

In today's world, God is oft cast in a weak impotent position, in that of the beggar, just hoping someone will look His way.  

Picking up my Bible I look back again at Acts chapter 12, which surely captures both the joy and the great suffering in the early church in Jerusalem. And I wonder 'how could God allow wicked Herod Agrippa to kill James, one of Jesus' 12 disciples--who figured prominently in Jesus' time of ministry? And then James, along with Peter, is leading the church, when Herod ruthlessly kills him? And wait - then God allows wretched Herod to imprison Peter as well, planning to kill him too? (right after passover) First century folks must have thought the line of ‘Herods’ got away with murder…right?  Well, it turns out that God does not lose sight of any of this, but rather keeps his word, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”1

Herod Agrippa heads up to Caesarea - the Roman seaport along the Mediterranean - the same town in which we recently encountered Roman officer, Cornelius.  [If you have traveled to Israel, this is certainly one of your stops. The amphitheatre pictured]

One proud Herod Agrippa dresses himself in finery, stitched even with silver threads so as to glisten, to fairly shine as he addresses the crowd gathered in those rows of seats facing the Mediterranean Sea.   They laud him by shouting, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.”2 But then, because Agrippa did not turn that praise toward God, but accepted it as his own, God struck him down, and he died. 

Interestingly, Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian on record for the Romans, cites that it actually took Agrippa five days of agony before he died. Some of you wonder 'what really happened to his body?' Josephus provides the details. See note below - it is gruesome.3

No man escapes the judgment of an almighty, all-righteous God. 

Why does this matter to you and me today?  Because there are a lot of wrongs that need to be righted.  

Wrongs?

->there’s the young dad and husband who was struck by a drunk driver who fled the scene, leaving him for dead. More than three months later, and a thousand miles away in a rehabilitation facility, he fights every day to regain any sort of normalcy, but the culprit is free - where is the justice?

->my friend who lost her precious daughter to an evil husband…

->and how many women do I know who had their innocence and so much more stolen by someone they should have been able to trust? 

->there's the husband of 30+ years whose wife has left him, wants their home, wants his money too...where is the justice in that? why, life has been turned upside down!

->injustices in the world, injustices in the workplace . . . 

You can name people who have been wronged, others who may have literally gotten away with murder . . . except they. will. not.  God has the last word--just as he did with a villainous, murderous, prideful Herod Agrippa.  That is good news. 

But in the mean time, you and I must not let bitterness win; some of us must hit the shut-off valve and find the good in each new day.  

God sees.  

God saw.  

He keeps the score so you and I do not have to do so any longer.

Rest your case with God - he will set the record straight.

And then we remember the first part of Acts 12 and see the response of God to the prayers of his children. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts 12.1-18&versi... No chains or Roman guards could keep Peter in prison - why, the King of the Universe heard the fervent prayers of his children, and He does the miraculous to set Peter free!

He wants to do the same for you. Peter's chains were obvious - yours may be less so. In fact, perhaps you think you hide them. What keeps you locked up--guilt, anxiety, fear, depression, addiction or regret?

Time to look to the Lord your God who alone can set you free.

Time to fervently, persistently pray that God,

your strength and your shield, will cause you to stand.

A prayer: O God, King of Creation, I come to You and ask you to come near to me. I am tired of this life of defeat, sometimes dread. Please show me the life you meant for me to have, to live and to know. Give me the courage and follow through to go where I can learn more about you and what it is to walk out a joy-filled life. Joy?! Why I can't even imagine, but I know that you meant for me to experience it. Show me, God. Amen.

Let’s let God be God, and then honor him as such!

King of Kings: listen - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTWFsi3AYyo&list=RDdTWFsi3AYyo&a...

Christine - PastorWoman.net

Acts, no. 35

^{1 - Deuteronomy 32.35; Romans 12.19}

^{2 - Acts 12.22}

3 - Josephus writes of what struck Herod: “The distemper seized upon [Herod’s] whole body, and greatly disordered all its parts with various symptoms; for there was a gentle fever upon him, and an intolerable itching over all the surface of his body, and continual pains in his colon, and dropsical tumors about his feet and an inflammation of the abdomen,—and a petrification of his privy member, that produced worms. Besides which he had a difficulty of breathing upon him, and could not breathe but when he sat upright, and had a convulsion of all his members.” from the Complete Works of Flavius Josephus