Raging Against God S31e13

Join me for 7 minutes as we look at a man who rages against God. Unfortunately, he then enacts his fury upon the innocent. In the end, his fury against God results in fury toward the innocent--newborns, infants, and toddlers.

Herod could have stopped when he was merely troubled.  Doesn't exposure to God trouble us all?  Let's be careful what we do with the Lord's troubling. 

If you have ever raged against God, these 7 minutes are for you.

https://youtu.be/P0wU-2OG46A

Transcript

Raging Against God S31e13

Join me to hear of a guy who has an encounter with God that starts in FURY, and it results in the killing of the innocent. Mt 2First:

Summarize the threat to the unborn Jesus was to be disowned by His earthly father

Threat of stoning to death of Mary/Jesus because of infidelity

Threat of Herod

         He’s a king of many years that now hears of a new King foreighners coming at great length and at great expense and bringing great gifts and maybe the most threatening: WORSHIP

Threatened

         No question herod wants to kill Jesus and probably the witnesses, aka Wise Men. Remember, Herod killed own children

Lord protects the Wise men, in a dream, go back another way

Let’s see how Jesus is protected by His father Joseph and Father in Heaven

         Joseph, has already obeyed an angel who came to him in a dream about not breaking the Bethrothal. Changes HIS MIND.

Angel of the Lord aappeared to Joseph in a dream

Flee to Egypt—traditional enemy of Israel, a neighboring country whose fate is wrapped up, and always will be wrapped up, by the fate of Israel.

Herod is searching for the CHILD

         Imagine your infant is the object of a military-grade Investigation and will be pursued with the commitment of a very threatened Herod.  All that is at the disposal of the state will be brought to bear in this search. The end point is this v13 Herod is about to search for the child TO DESTROY HIM.

         They want to find your child to KILL HIM. Serious stuff.

Back to Joseph Rose and took.—no delay Joseph

Killing of the Children 2:16  Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, becamefurious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 

18    “A voice was heard in Ramah, 

weeping and loud lamentation, 

       Rachel weeping for her children; 

she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 

Earlier herod was TROUBLED, stirred up, agitated, in distress, be confounded by , to be disquieted by 

Now he is furious. Why ?

         Herod tried to trick the Wise Men into finding Jesus’ location and reporting back to him under the guise that Herod too was aligned with them in their purpose: that Jesus would be WORSHIPPED by him.

         Now Herod finds out that rather than tricking the Wise me, he himself “has been tricked.” Lord tricked the tricker!

                  He thinks it is the wise men who tricked him

                  That they acted duplicitously, but NO!

                  Herod is tricked by God Himself. He sends a dream

Pro-tip: If you ever find out that you are at the forefront of the mind of God, and His attention is directed at you, you likely have a choice: yield, obey, submit. Or in Herod’s case:

FURY: rage, exceeding anger.

Herod is front and center of the attention of God

         Does he put his hand over his mouth because of holiness?

         Does he reconsider his personal trickery towards the wise m.?

         Does he get on his knees for what he is considering?

No: rage and even worse: Kill them all

Kill the infants, kill the newborns, kill the toddlers

Talk about rage against the innocents

This could have been strategic, but the beauty of scripture is we also see the INTERIOR LIFE of Herod.  We see his ACTIONS and the motivation. He started as troubled when he heard about the Lord.

Many people should indeed be troubled when we find out the power and purpose of the Lord.  Perhaps we ALL start out as troubled. But stop before fury.not at the wise m. but the fury at God.

Herod is a wonderful example of exactly what not to do when you are furious at God. When your sin has been exposed. When your relationnshiop with Him has been laid bare

Why do we kill children, born and unborn in society then and today

         Is it because of their sin? Their violation of their position with God? No. 

         Is it because of some thing THEY. Have done? No.

         It is because of something we have done. Who? The adults in the room.

Why might we kill innocent children?

Because of our sin.

Let’s be very careful, in our troubling. Herod had choices in his troublingbefore God.

         He too could have really wanted to worship, and yield and obey.

         Or he could have raged. Raged with power. Certainly power over innocent lives.

         Let’s be careful what we do to the lives of the unborn and born. Let not our rage against God result in the rage against the innocent. Fury? No. bend us towards faith. Guard our hearts