It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury—how much less for a slave to rule over princes! ~Proverbs 19:10
On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man!” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. ~Acts 12:21-23
Wow! Well, what in the world can there be to benefit us here? First of all, perhaps we should review the first Biblical definition of a fool, penned by no other than Solomon’s Father, David himself. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” (Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1) It is not fitting for the fool to live the blessed life. Why should they when they deny from whom all blessings flow?
King Herod was a fool. Now, just to be clear, this is not the Herod who ruled at Jesus’ birth and ordered the slaughter of the male children in Bethlehem. He is actually the grandson of that Herod and nephew to the Herod who was in Jerusalem at Jesus’ crucifixion. Anyway, the verses in Acts tell it all. He was just as bad as the other two, a persecutor of the church, so, was favored by the Jewish leadership. He had had James, one of the apostles beheaded and had Peter imprisoned.
He was thinking pretty well of himself. God struck him down at the pinnacle of his fame when the crowd hailed Herod as a god. Just for the sake of interest, while the Bible makes it sound like he died instantly, history tells us that he was probably in agony for about five days. In any case, he had certainly acted the fool by participating in blasphemy and God dealt with it because it was not fitting.
“Nor should a slave rule over princes.” But who is a slave and who is a prince? Paul deals with this issue extensively in the book of Galatians when he explains that those who live under the curse of the law, without Christ, are still slaves to sin. However: “You are no longer slaves, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”
The world does not rule over us unless we let it. We are sons of God, our heavenly Father is our king. We are no longer slaves to sin or slaves to our passions or slaves to the world’s way of thinking. In fact, when we let the seen world control our lives, Solomon says “it is unfitting.” It is even more unfitting for a Christian, luxuriously blessed by God, to live like a slave, than it is for an unbelieving fool to live in the lap of luxury. The unbeliever is a slave. The Christian is a prince or princess!
How does a fool end up in luxury? When does the slave rule over the son? When does satan, a slave of his own evil passions gain control and “rule over” a believer’s life? The fool is in luxury when it is handed over to him. In order to keep the unbeliever enslaved, satan often blesses materially in this life, so the fool who doesn’t believe in God never even looks for Him or thinks about eternity.
The slave rules over the royal sons and daughters when they abdicate their rightful positions in the family by neglect. For believers, satan gains a foothold when we let down our guard, take off our armor and decide to coast. When we stop taking every thought captive, stop concentrating on what is good and lovely and noble, he gets us with discouraging thoughts, questions, doubts and, we are then easily conquered.
“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:58) Do not hand over any ground, any blessing, anything of your inheritance in Christ that belongs to you from Him. It does not belong to others and is not fitting for them to have while living in unfaith. Jesus said, “Do not cast your pearls before swine!” Instead, invite them to faith so they may become wise, be set free from their slavery, become children of God, and receive their glorious inheritance for themselves from God.
Prayer: Father God! It is wonderful to know that I am child of God! I didn’t earn that. I didn’t deserve that. But You loved me. I learned about that as other free princes and princesses told me about you. I’m so glad they did. Now I want to do the same for others. Thank you that I can, because I am no longer a slave to satan. I am free in Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray, amen.
Song: Kings & Queens
Comments
Post a Comment