Dear Explorer,
Now there's a story within a story here, so I'm going to try to separate them so that we can cover them one-at-a-time. The first incident we'll deal with is the death of John the Baptizer. Then, we'll come back to the earlier verses.
Read Matthew 14:3-12
And
Read Mark 6:17-29
So, John the Baptizer was arrested for preaching against Herod's marriage to his brother's wife, Herodias (since her husband was still alive).
Apparently, according to Mark, Herod did not intend to kill John. Why?
But his new wife, Herodias had other plans. When her daughter danced for Herod and was offered any gift she wanted – what did she ask for?
What a terrible thing to ask for!
So, John the Baptizer was killed, and his body buried by his disciples and then they came and reported it to Jesus.
This is a good example of being totally obedient to God – but still being persecuted. Don't equate earthly problems with not being right with God. It's not always true.
Now a few weeks or a few months later, Jesus sent His disciples throughout Judea to minister and heal and preach the gospel and Herod hears about it.
Read Matthew 14:1-2
And
Read Mark 6:14-16
And
Read Luke 9:7-9
Herod felt guilty about killing John and because of it, he was certain that Jesus was really John the Baptiizer who had come back from the dead.
What do you think Luke meant by the phrase “And he tried to see him.”?
Wouldn't you think the Governor of the area could order Jesus to come to him? Did Jesus refuse? Did Herod go to hear Him preach and couldn't get through because of the crowds? I don't know.
But I do think that if he really, truly wanted to see Jesus, he could have. So, I don't know what this means. But I do know that God worked it out so that Herod got to meet Jesus. We'll see that later after Jesus is arrested.
I told my Growth Group in California that I felt that God wanted me to write a Bible study but that I was having trouble finding time. I asked for them to pray for me to find time. After a couple of weeks of asking for the same prayer request and reporting that I still hadn't found time to get started, one of the ladies in my group very boldly said, “Have you scheduled a time – made an appointment with yourself to do this study? Because a lot of time we “say” we want to make time – but we don't ever do it!” Wow! That really, really helped me to see that if I felt that God was calling me to do something, I still needed to do my part – to schedule a time to do it! And I did.
It's hard to “find” time for quiet talks with Jesus. You must make time. It's not enough to just want it. You must take action: Set a time, write it down on your calendar or scheduler. Make it a priority to spend time with Jesus and He will honor You for the effort and transform your life!
In His service, dale
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