Little Did He Know

February 11, 2016

Little Did He Know

“When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about Jesus, he said to his advisers, “This must be John the Baptist raised from the dead! That is why he can do such miracles.”

Matthew 14:1-2

John the Baptist was the last and the greatest of the old prophets. Yet Herod had him killed on a whim. For me, the greatest attribute of the people of God, the one that truly distinguishes them in this fallen world, is their belief in the sanctity of human life. In Herod’s culture, and in our own time, the world is populated by many with little or no regard for human life. This is true in the maddened world of the terrorists, and it is true in the streets and byways of our home land.

Herod was grasping at straws when he wondered aloud if John had been raised from the dead, for he was clueless to the ways of God. But in his ignorance, he pointed to the truth that sustains the people of God; John may have been dead, but God wasn’t. And it wasn’t John raised from the dead, but God’s own son performing the miracles that astounded Herod.

The First Century church preserved the story of John’s death for two reasons. First, it affirmed the teaching of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount: “God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” (Matthew 5:10). Secondly, they remembered John’s death because it pointed to Jesus’ own persecution and death, and unlike John, Jesus is risen; He is risen indeed!   

We live in very troubling times. There will continue to be death of innocents. The first church was sustained on the eve of the destruction of Jerusalem by remembering the death of John, and the resurrection of Jesus. May we be as well!

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.