No Small Parts - Herodius
October 18, 2020 Sunday Evening Study

When I was in high school, for about 10 months I worked in a drug store in California. This store was called Thrifty - very much like a Walgreens. What Thrifty was famous for, however, was hand-dipped ice cream. When I worked there, I was 17, so I was the ice-cream scooper since you had to be 18 to work the register since the store sold alcohol. The job wasn’t bad, and I got pretty much all the free ice cream you could ever really want.

Since I worked afternoons and evenings, I worked mostly with the same two shift managers depending on the day. One of them - Grant -  I got along with really well - most everyone did. The other - Keith - was fine as well, we just didn’t have quite as much fun on shift with him as we did with Grant. But either was welcome, especially if it meant the general manager wasn’t there.

I began to notice that one of our check out people was not getting along well with cool guy Grant. He was constantly bad-mouthing Grant, and would speak very passive-aggressively to him, even in front of customers. I couldn’t understand it - Grant was cool, and everyone liked him except this guy.

One day there was a big issue at the store, and I got called into work immediately after school. I was interviewed by police and management to see if I knew anything about Grant embezzling money - often during shifts I worked. I knew nothing about that, and I defended Grant to the bitter end because he was the cool guy! This did not seem like something he would do - besides being likeable, he seemed very good at his job.

The investigation went on for several weeks, and eventually Grant resigned. We found out later that the checkout guy had been stealing from his own register, always doing so just after Grant had been on it. Grant had suspected him, and had been watching closely. This guy knew Grant suspected him, and so launched an offensive to get Grant out of the way and preserve himself. We lost a great manager in the process and they had the checker arrested. The theft was somewhat small - something they likely would not have pressed charges for if not for his actions against Grant. So as a result of his greed and self-preservation, everyone lost.

We don’t like it when people know about the things we are ashamed of. When it comes to the dark sides of ourselves, we will only share things with people we trust implicitly, and when there is a threat that the truth will get out, we can get very panicky very fast, doing anything to preserve our shame. This is what happens when someone starts a lie, and things snowball into all kinds of untruth just to protect that first lie - until things are completely out of control.

During the time of David, we were given an example of how to nip such a thing in the bud. When David had Uriah killed because of his infidelity with Bathsheba, Nathan the prophet confronted him and David immediately repented of his sin. Imagine how things might have gone if David had continued to hide what he’d done - would he have Nathan killed? Think of the corruption that would have occurred in leadership if David had not recognized and owned his own folly in this situation.

Now in the New Testament we get another similar story, and we see both sides of the argument in this one. Open your Bibles to Mark 6:17-29. Read Passage

This is pretty gruesome. And right now, more than before, since we are studying John the Baptist more closely in our morning series, this story is much more distressing to me, as I have a deeper sense of what was lost as a result of another person’s pride and ambition. Tonight we will focus on this character of Herodius.

As a member of the Herodian dynasty, perhaps the most despicable dynasty history has ever known, the name Herodias is but the female form of Herod, the royal name for the political rulers during the time of Christ and the apostles. It was under the vile and cruel orders of the Herods that Jesus and His followers were often persecuted and punished. Herod means “heroic”—not very applicable to the Herodian family, the majority of whom, particularly Herodias, were often more hellish than heroic.

Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, son of Herod the Great and Mariamne, daughter of Hyrcanus. Her first husband was Philip I, son of Herod the Great and Mariamne, so she married her own uncle, by whom she had a daughter, Salome, whom her mother used to destroy John the Baptist. When Herod Antipas visited Rome, he was entertained by Philip and Herodias. Herod abducted his royal brother’s wife. His own wife, an Arabian princess, was an obstacle to an illicit marriage, so he divorced her, and Herodias became queen in her stead, and with her daughter was installed in the palace. According to the Christian historian Josephus “The corroding immorality of Herod’s race shows itself in his marriage with Herodias his brother’s wife and the wanton offense thereby given to Jewish sensibilities.”

Among the female characters in God’s portrait gallery there are many wicked women as we are discovering, but it seems Herodias stands out among them as one of the most vile and vicious. Amid the already sinful influence of the palace, however, there was one man who knew no fear, John the Baptist. Herod “feared” him and regarded him as “a just man” and whom “he heard gladly.” Herod found something he liked in the preacher’s message until he sternly rebuked the king by saying of Herodias, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herod recognized his sin, and while he did not repent, he respected the man and the mission of John the Baptist, knowing that he really had no recourse to do anything to dispose of him.

Instead, for his faithful rebuke of Herod’s sin, John was cast into prison, and the evil, scheming mind of Herodias began to work. She felt the sting of the truth in what John had said, and hated him for exposing her shame and threatening her lofty position. “For Herodias' sake,” he was imprisoned and thus one of the greatest of the prophets was sacrificed for this lewd and vicious woman. But the hatred of such a vile creature was more to be desired than her affection (Matthew 10:23; Luke 6:26). Herodias, with her conscience in turmoil because of her accuser, planned to silence him. She did not want Herod to listen too closely and constantly to John’s forceful preaching. She feared her illegal husband—for her first husband was still alive—might repent, and her position as queen, imperiled. More than that, it was likely that her original husband would not have her back, especially with the favor she likely lived with before.

Herodias knew Herod only too well. He easily succumbed to sensual excitement, and as his birthday drew near her foul design was hatched. On the day when drink freely flowed, Herodias used her own daughter to inflame Herod’s passions. She was willing to sacrifice her child’s modesty in order to bend Herod to her will. Herod was overcome by Salome’s form seen through the flowing flimsy garment she wore, and influenced by the act of the dancing girl took a rash and foolish oath to give her whatever she asked, even to half of his kingdom. Approaching her mother, Salome said, “What shall I ask?” Without hesitation Herodias replied, “Ask for the head of John the Baptist.” 

Returning to Herod she presented her demand, and Herod was extremely sorry at such a request. Yet, because of his oath’s sake, he sacrificed the preacher whom he regarded as just and holy, and all because of his guilty love for a vile woman. No wonder he was struck with fear when he heard of the fame of Jesus, thinking it was John the Baptist risen from the dead to torment his conscience further. One wonders how Salome felt when the gory dish of the preacher’s head was handed to her? We know very little about her except that she was likely attractive, and she had grown under the influence of her mother.

Many say Herodias' Old Testament counterpart was Jezebel. What Herodias was to Herod, Jezebel was to Ahab. Both Ahab and Herod were wicked, and in both cases the woman was more wicked. Both Jezebel and Herodias fostered hate that became deadly against a prophet of God. Jezebel hated Elijah and sought to kill him—Herodias hated John the Baptist, the New Testament Elijah, and succeeded in his murder. 

What was the end of Herodias? Since she was the source of Herod’s sin, Herodias also became the source of his shame. According to Josephus, Herodias' ambition was the ruin of Herod. Jealous of the power of Agrippa, her brother, she prodded Herod to demand of Caligula, the Roman emperor, the title of king. Agrippa saw to it that this demand was refused, and Herod was banished and ended his days in shame and exile. The pride of Herodias forced her to be faithful to her husband in the disgrace and misfortune she herself had caused. Just like at Thrifty, everybody lost.

So what do we take from this? I am not going to read this and say that ambition is wrong, although when it becomes the center of a person’s life it can be disastrous for anyone around them. I think the bigger lesson here is in the comparison between Herod and Herodius and King David. All were equally guilty of sin, which brings its own destruction. However, how we respond to that sin when confronted can mean the difference between moving forward and laying waste to everything you hold dear. This week, you are going to sin. I am going to sin - we all are. The important thing is that we own our actions, confess them to God and others when appropriate, and repent, asking God to help us stay true. Often forgiveness is all we have, and given through God’s grace, it is enough, and God welcomes back His children. Let’s pray.