Matthew 14:6-12

Matthew 14:6-12

But after the birthday of Herod became, the daughter of Herodias danced in their midst and pleased Herod.  For this reason, he promised her with an oath to give her whatever she should ask.  And after being encouraged by her mother, she says, “Give to me her upon a plate the head of John the Baptizer.”  And after being distressed because of the oaths and the ones who reclined at the table with him, he commanded it to be given.  And after sending, he beheaded John in the prison.  And his head was being carried upon a platter and it was being given to the girl.  And she carried it to her mother.  And after his disciples came they took the body and buried it and after going they proclaimed it to Jesus.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

The first place that I would like to focus on today is Herod’s foolishness.  Herod makes a foolish oath.  Then, he allows himself to feel obligated to keep such a foolish oath.  His own public appearance and an oath-keeper is more important to him than his reputation for righteousness.  I think this is often true of human beings.  We are often more interested in being seen as a good person than we are interested in actually being a good person.

Where is your focus: your public image or your actual character?  Is it easy for you to get those two things confused?

Second Thought:

Let’s also pay a little attention as to what leads up to this situation.  John found disfavor with Herod because Herod had taken his brother’s wife to be his own wife.  In other words, this whole situation is brought about because of sexual sin.  Then we hear that Herod has his own step-daughter dance at his birthday party.  The Greek word used in this passage to describe Salome (Herod’s step-daughter) is korasion (κοράσιον), which is a word used to describe a young girl about the age of starting puberty.  In other words, Herod has this young girl who isn’t even through puberty dancing in front of the men at his birthday party.  In other words, we have a very depraved lifestyle being described here.  What we can learn from this is clear.  We need to be very careful about our sexuality, as our sexuality often has consequences that reach out into the community and affect the people around us.  John the Baptizer is quite literally beheaded because Herod allows himself to be governed by his sexual urges and not his mental capacity for thought.

Have you ever been in a situation that was negatively affected by human sexual urges?  Why are we as human beings so prone to lives sadly affected by our sexual urges?

Third Thought:

If we take the story as a whole – that is, take both the verses for today and the verses for yesterday – we can learn a really important lesson.  We can alleviate neither the consequences of sin nor the guilt of sin by getting rid of those who would speak truth into our lives.  We do not make our lives easier by ignoring God’s ways.  We do not make our lives better by ignoring God’s people.  When we act out of guilt or anger we resolve nothing when it pulls us away from God and into our own humanity.

When have you ignored the people that God put into your life?  What were the consequences of such action?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 14:13-14