Matthew 14:1-13: “John The Baptist Confronts Herod Antipas For
Having His Brother’s Wife, Then Is Beheaded Because Of It”
by
Jim Bomkamp
1.
INTRO:
1.1.
In this next section of the gospel of Matthew, we will
read about a story that reveals life at its most depraved and base level (similar
to the worst of today’s television soap operas), plus a huge amount of intrigue
of a political and social nature: the
beheading of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas
1.1.1.
We will look at the character of a man, Herod Antipas,
who was curious about spiritual things and for awhile entertained having a
relationship with God, however because of his lack of resolve in following the
Lord with all of his heart, he instead allowed himself to be controlled by a
very wicked wife (whom he committed adultery to marry), and thus he ends up
performing horribly wicked deeds
1.1.1.1.Herod
Antipas was the son of Herod the Great, and along with three other sons of
Herod the Great, he ruled as a ‘tetrarch’ (ruler of a fourth part) over
1.1.1.2.We will see
how the lack of resolve to commit his life fully to the Lord led from one sin
to another, with each sin more wicked than the previous
1.1.1.2.1.We will see
how this will happen to anyone who refuses to get off of the fence and commit
his way fully to the Lord
1.1.1.3.Herod
Antipas had previously been married to the daughter of King Aretus who ruled
Nabatean Arabia, and their marriage had been completed in order to enact a
peaceful alliance between the two nations.
However, when Herodias, his half brother Philip’s wife, had seduced Herod
Antipas he divorced his wife in order to marry Herodias. King Aretas was so infuriated over this
shameless act of divorce of his daughter for another woman that he declared war
against Herod Antipas and attacked his army destroying most of it, and, he
would have seen that Herod Antipas was slain, had not
1.1.1.4.Herod
Antipas was never completely resolved to follow light and truth wherever they
may lead, and thus gradually his very lusts and undisciplined lifestyle ended
up luring him into ever greater sin as he eventually is connived into
committing the murder of John the Baptist
1.1.1.5.Herod
Antipas was really a cowardly man who was filled with many fears, and these
fears continually controlled his life
1.1.1.5.1.He feared
everyone but God, and this was his downfall
1.1.1.5.2.We read in
the proverbs 29:25 that ‘the fear of man is a snare’, and the truth of this
promise is portrayed clearly in this story
1.1.2.
We will look at the character of a woman, Herodias,
whose wickedness is only comparable to Jezebel from the Old Testament, and how
she wickedly used her husband to commit murder just to silence the very voice
of God in her life
1.1.2.1.Being bored
with her first husband, Herod Philip, and his quiet lifestyle, in her greed for
wealth and power, she adulterously seduced Herod Antipas, her husband’s half
brother, and then insisted that he divorce his wife and marry her
1.1.2.2.When John
the Baptist condemned the adulterous relationship of Herod Antipas and Herodias
and insisted that they repent of their sins and separate, Herodias was inflamed
with murderous hatred for John to the extent that she was willing to sacrifice
her daughter’s modesty and decency and convince her to perform an erotic dance
before the king and those at his party in order to get him to be willing to
have John murdered
1.1.3.
We will look at the boldness and character of John the
Baptist who truly was a man who did not fear man, but God, and thereby was not
afraid to preach to any that they should repent of their sins and commit their
way to the Lord
2.
VS 14:1-2 - “14:1 At that time Herod
the tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, 2 and said to his servants, “This is
John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead; and that is why miraculous powers
are at work in him”” - Matthew
tells us here that at this point in time that Herod Antipas heard about Jesus
and the works He had been doing, and that he superstitiously wondered if this
Jesus was John the Baptist (whom he had previously murdered) risen from the
dead
2.1.
We see here in these verses what was happening at this present point in
time, and then as often happens in a novel, in the next several verses that
make up this section, Matthew flashes back in time to when Herod Antipas had
John beheaded
2.2.
These verses reveal a man whose conscience, pricked by the memories of a
murder he had committed, begins to haunt him and make him superstitious
2.2.1.
This story reminds me of the story of Raskolnikoff in the classic Russian
novel I read in high school, “Crime And Punishment”, by Dostievsky. A young idealistic Russian student,
Raskolnikoff, just because of his political beliefs, bludgeoned to death with
an axe a woman who was an aristocrat.
From that point on his conscience constantly bothered him and he always
thought about his crime. Haunted by his
thoughts he could never help himself from bringing up in conversations the
topic of the murder of this woman, and who might have committed such a
crime. Finally, after being tortured by
his conscience for months and months on end, he confesses to the crime.
2.2.2.
At the time of my study for this chapter there is a murder trial that is
being carried out against two brothers being tried for the murder of a woman
bar tender 15 years ago. In this case,
one of the brothers had been in jail for an extended time and in his sleep he
would constantly have horrible nightmares in which he was reliving an incident
in which he had committed a murder. This
man’s jail cell inmates have been testifying against the man in this case, and
their account of his dreams is being considered as evidence against the
brothers. I relate this story because it
is just further proof that a person’s conscience cannot be silenced except
through the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ applied to his life, and
people in this world are constantly being haunted in their consciences because
of past sins. Jesus is the only answer
for the healing of a person’s conscience
2.3.
Though Herod Antipas thought that because Jesus performed the miracles He
performed that He must be John risen from the dead, but according to John
10:41-42 we cannot assume that these verses teach that John the Baptist had the
gift of effecting miracles in his ministry, “41 And many came to Him and
were saying, “While John performed no sign, yet everything John said about this
man was true.” 42 And many believed in Him there”
2.4.
It is not too surprising that Herod might think that Jesus was John the
Baptist (whom he had beheaded), come back from the dead, for in Matthew
16:13-14 we read that at this same time the general populace were saying that
Jesus might be a resurrected or reincarnated John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah
or one of the prophets, “13 Now when Jesus came into the district of
Caesarea Philippi, He began asking His disciples, saying, “Who do people say
that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and
others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
3.
VS 14:3-5 - “3 For when Herod had
John arrested, he bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the
wife of his brother Philip. 4 For John had been saying to him, “It is not
lawful for you to have her.” 5 And although he wanted to put him to death, he
feared the multitude, because they regarded him as a prophet” - Herod Antipas first had John the Baptist
imprisoned because of John’s condemning of his adulterous marriage
3.1.
John the Baptist was truly a bold and courageous man, and as such he
should be our example to follow of a man who did not walk in the fear of man,
but of God
3.1.1.
In Lev. 20:21, we read that the law especially condemned the incestuous
adultery, where a man would take his brother’s wife, “21 ‘If there is a man
who takes his brother’s wife, it is abhorrent; he has uncovered his brother’s
nakedness. They shall be childless’”
3.1.2.
Notice here that John the Baptist was denouncing sin and preaching
repentence from sin, but notice also that he was not just speaking in general
terms to people with grandeous and elegant style, he was preaching to people to
repent of specific sins in their lives
3.1.3.
Most of God’s representatives all throughout history might rebuke harshly
a man of low or medium station who is found in any sin, however they will
handle very lightly a man of high esteem or station in life, glossing over any
direct rebuke or confrontation over sin.
However, John the Baptist was ‘no respector of persons’, but treated all
people the same.
3.1.4.
Even though the adulterous marriage of Herod Antipas to Herodias had
occurred several years prior, John realized that the only righteous thing that
the couple could do was to separate and repent of their sin of adultery
3.1.4.1.There are times in our lives
as Christians when even though there may have been a sin that has remained
resident in our lives for years, and even though we may have downplayed the
effect of this sin to us, that if we are to make real progress in our
relationship with the Lord we must root out this sin that has been sucking the
life out of us and keeping us from God’s full blessing in our lives
3.2.
It appears that initially when Herodias had heard of John the Baptist
having rebuked her and Herod Antipas of their adulterous relationship that she
wanted immediately to kill John, however Herod Antipas chose to protect John
from her and instead had him imprisoned
3.3.
Herod Antipas seemed to be intrigued by the preaching of John the
Baptist, and of higher thoughts of divine fellowship and forgiveness, and for
awhile he would allow John to preach to him, and in fact, he enjoyed listening
to him preach (Mark 6:20). However, it
also appears that John the Baptist just kept on preaching to Herod Antipas that
he should not have Herodias as his wife, and that finally he himself wanted to
put John to death but did not do so because of his ‘fear’ of the multitudes who
regarded John highly
3.4.
Herod Antipas kept John the Baptist in prison for 18 months, which was
equal to the entire length of John’s prior ministry, and I wonder what great
things God might have done through John had not this wickedly and weak man with
no resolve to do right not been manipulated to keep John in prison
3.4.1.
John the Baptist may have even prevented the Jews from crucifying Christ
had he not been imprisoned, but of course we know that it was from before the foundations
of the created world that God had intentioned the sending of His Son to die
upon the cross of Calvary for the sins of mankind
4.
VS 14:6-7 - “6 But when Herod’s
birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. 7
Thereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked” - For Herod Antipas’ birthday celebration,
Herodias manipulated her daughter to perform an erotic dance for the king and
his company since she knew his weakness of lust and that he could be manipulated
to kill John the Baptist
4.1.
How horrible and tragic it is to see here a mother being so driven by
evil lusts and hatred that she is willing to use her own daughter, whose
decency and innocence she was willing to sacrifice, in order to have a murder
committed to silence a man who spoke the
words of truth and life to her from God
4.1.1.
What made it worse is that it was also an incestuous act for Herod to
lust after her daughter (his step-daughter)
4.2.
This celebration was attended by the lords, high captains, and chief
estates of Galilee (Mark 6:21-23), and these types of birthday celebrations by
kings of the land in those days were filled with so much debauchery that we
read in the scriptures that Queen Vashti was stripped of her royalty because
she was unwilling even to attend one of these events (Esther chapter 1) for
King Ahasuerus, and Vashti’s refusal allowed Esther to become the
queen
4.3.
When it says here that Herod ‘was pleased’ with this dance by Herodias’
daughter, it means that he was sexually aroused
4.4.
We see the foolishness of Herod Antipas in committing with his kingly
oath anything which she may request, up to half of his kingdom
4.4.1.
We Christians would be wise to learn from this story of Herod’s folly and
never promise that we shall do anything until we first learn what it is that we
are being asked to do
5.
VS 14:8-11 - “8 And having been
prompted by her mother, she *said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John
the Baptist.” 9 And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given
because of his oaths, and because of his dinner guests. 10 And he sent and had
John beheaded in the prison. 11 And his head was brought on a platter and given
to the girl; and she brought it to her mother” -
Herod Antipas gives Salome her wish and had John the Baptist beheaded
5.1.
We know from the writings of Josephus that this daughter of Herodias was
named Salome
5.2.
In this story we see that because of pride Herod Antipas was unwilling to
go against the ‘oath’ that he had made even after finding out what a wicked
thing it was that Salome wanted. It does
say that ‘he was grieved’ about having to do this.
5.2.1.
How horrible it is when because of pride we make decisions that ending up
hurting others
5.2.2.
I mentioned earlier that Herod Antipas was a man who was controlled by
his fears. Well, it was not that Herod
Antipas was a man of his word and thus he did not want to go against his word
and deny Salome this request, rather in Herod’s day a king’s ‘oath’ was
considered sacred and could not be gone against, therefore he fulfilled this request
because of fear of what people might think of him if he did otherwise
5.2.3.
It would have been a far less evil thing for Herod to not fulfill his
foolish oath than to fulfill it but commit murder in the process
5.2.3.1.We Christians must realize
from this that God does not want us to break His commandments in order to
fulfill an oath that we shouldn’t have made
5.2.4.
We Christians should learn from this story that there will be times in
our lives when we will have moral choices to make, and we must learn to
prayerfully do what God wants us to do in these situations, and sometimes this
means that we will have to admit that we have done something wrong and sinful,
and then in those situations we sometimes must also be willing to make full
restitution for the wrongs that we have committed against others
5.3.
It is sad to see in this story that this incident was really a turning
point in the life of Herod Antipas, for he had opportunity to repent in this
test of his character by the request of Salome, and it is tragic that from this
point on in Herod Antipas’ life he just went downhill into deeper and deeper
levels of evil
5.3.1.
We will see later in the gospel that Herod Antipas had wanted to see
Christ, in order that he might see him perform some miracle (Luke 9:9, 23:8),
but Christ did not try to go and see him
5.3.2.
In Luke 13:31, we read that later on Jesus was warned by some Pharisees
that Herod was wanting to kill Him, and this shows us further about Herod’s
sliding into perdition, “31 Just at that time some Pharisees came up, saying
to Him, “Go away and depart from here, for Herod wants to kill You.”
5.3.3.
Finally, when Christ was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane that He was
brought before Herod, who treated Him with contempt and mocked Him (Luke
23:11), and before Herod Christ refused to answer even one of the acusations
which Herod Antipas had received against Him, and He did not answer a word to
Herod Antipas (Luke 23:9)
5.3.3.1.When people refuse and
refuse to heed the Lord and what He is speaking to them about and wanting them
to deal with, eventually the Lord becomes silent, and this ‘terrible’ silence
then is the silence that occurs as the judgment gavel is falling over their
life
5.4.
Tradition has passed down that when Herodias received from her daughter
Salome the head of John the Baptist on the platter that she grabbed the tongue
and pulled it out, and then she stuck a large hair pin through it so that she
could be sure that his tongue of condemnation against her for her sin had
finally and completely been silenced
5.4.1.
This woman could not silence the tongue of John the Baptist however, for
a person’s conscience will never allow them to have peace when there is
knowledge that they have committed horrible sins, and now Herodias has added
the sin of ‘murder’ to her sin of ‘adultery’
6.
VS 14:12-13 - “12 And his disciples
came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to
Jesus. 13 Now when Jesus heard it, He
withdrew from there in a boat, to a lonely place by Himself; and when the
multitudes heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities” - John the Baptist’s disciples come and get his
body and bury it, and then go and report what has happened to Jesus
6.1.
We see here the dedication of John’s disciples for at their own risk they
came and got his body so that it could have a proper and respectful burial
6.2.
We see also that their coming immediately to Jesus to inform Him of their
leader’s death just confirms further that it was John’s intention all along to
send his disciples to Jesus, for He was the ‘lamb who takes away the sin of the
world’, as John said on one occasion (John 1:29)
6.3.
Jesus loved John and had great respect for him as a man and a prophet,
even at one point saying that to that point in time no one had ever lived who
was greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11), therefore it is natural that
at the news of John’s death Jesus wanted to go and be alone with the Father
6.3.1.
We need to realize that people who are grieving the loss of a loved one
need some time to be alone and to rest in order for them to process what has
happened, however it is also beneficial to have a good friend or two close by
to share in that time of their grieving
6.4.
We see that Jesus time of prayer and contemplation alone did not last
long for soon multitudes heard of where Jesus had gone and they followed Him on
foot to this remote place