The Ultimate Sacrifice Matthew 14:17-10
1.At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,
2.And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
3.For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife.
4.For John said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.
5.And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
6.But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
7.Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.
8.And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.
9.And the king was sorry: nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her.
10.And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison.
So John paid the ultimate price of death for daring to confront King Herod with the sin of taking his brother's wife. With the delay in the decision of what to do with him, he may have thought he could be set free. But Herodias is like many powerful forces that control rulers even in our time, by their ruthless and unforgiving spirit. Many after John have been similarly wasted. J ohn was probably surprised when the king ordered his execution. We read in Hebrewll, of many who faced the difficulties of their time with defiant equanimity. So he anticipated the exploits of the glorious comp'any mentioned in Rev.7:14-16 who sealed their testimony by their death.
However the experience of most of us would probably not be that gruesome. Not too long ago, the stories of the valiant refusal of believers in communist Russia to compromise their faith inspired many Christians to fight against the wrongs in their own societies. Some in Moslem dominated countries, as well as, some Western countries like UK and the US are doing the same today. Though our experience may notbe more than what we read in Heb 12: 4, we must be prepared to Confront evil and wrong in our own lives, as well as in our environment with the same resoluteness and humility.
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Upvoted & Resteemed
J8.
As the forerunner of Jesus Christ, John the baptist did a fine work in letting others know about the promised Messiah. We want to try to do our very best today.
Juan was killed for telling the truth and being against sin. In this case adultery and betrayal. For this reason we will also be attacked ... for not agreeing with the sin of this world.
(John 10:40-41 NIV) Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed {41} and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true."
It would seem that John never performed a miraculous sign. As opposed to what Herod believed.
Well John was a great front runner, Herodias and her daughter was a real disaster to the continuation of his marvelous ministry.
At the point when Jesus heard what had happened, he pulled back by pontoon secretly to a single place. Becoming aware of this, the group tailed him by walking from the towns.
At the point when Jesus landed and saw an extensive group, he had sympathy on them and mended their wiped out.
the pupils came to him and stated, "This is a remote place, and it's now getting late.
Convey them here to me," he said. 19 And he guided the general population to take a seat on the grass. Taking the five portions and the two fish and admiring paradise, he expressed gratefulness and broke the portions.