1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,560 Season two of Love in Context podcast welcomes you. Get ready for engaging unscripted conversations 2 00:00:08,560 --> 00:00:14,240 with your hosts, Ben and Spencer. Our mission remains unchanged to explore the Bible through 3 00:00:14,240 --> 00:00:19,880 the powerful lens of love. In this new season, we'll embark on a journey together, unearthing 4 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:24,000 fresh insights and gaining deeper understanding of how we can love God and live out our faith 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,360 in practical ways. So let's dive into this season of Love in Context, where love in the 6 00:00:29,360 --> 00:00:34,760 context of the Bible intersect to transform our lives. 7 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:39,000 Welcome back, everyone. Yeah, it's been a few weeks. Yeah. Well, actually, because of 8 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:43,800 the way that I posted them, because I actually haven't posted the other one until like the 9 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:48,620 week before this. For them, it's been multiple weeks at the last episode. It's been a few 10 00:00:48,620 --> 00:00:52,140 weeks for us, though. It's been a few weeks for us. Yeah. You'll notice because I got 11 00:00:52,140 --> 00:00:56,640 my haircut, your beard grew out, you know, all those different things. Yeah. We're going 12 00:00:56,640 --> 00:01:02,880 to be continuing on in the Kings and Kingdoms, Kings and Kingdoms. So Kings and Kingdoms 13 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:06,080 are right rounding out to the last two kings. So today we're going to be talking about Herod 14 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:12,780 the Great. So we've now gone from the remnant period. Asuara's was the remnant period with 15 00:01:12,780 --> 00:01:17,320 Esther in captivity. Like people are coming back, but some Jews are remaining over in 16 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:25,040 in Persia. I was going to say Babylon, but that's not the right place. So now we're we're 17 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:28,480 coming forward and we're actually going to be a little bit before Jesus and during the 18 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:35,920 time of Jesus, Herod the Great. Yep. So he is going to be between. Yeah, not great. He's 19 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:41,660 going to be between seventy three and four B.C.E. And so just so you know, like a lot 20 00:01:41,660 --> 00:01:44,680 of who you're going to be, who that Jesus is actually going to be dealing with is going 21 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:51,480 to be Herod's kids during the life of Jesus, who, if you can guess, they've learned most 22 00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:57,240 of their stuff from their dad. Yep. And they're not great people either. So the way that way 23 00:01:57,240 --> 00:02:04,200 that Herod's life works is he is he is a he's a Roman appointed ruler of Judea. So Rome 24 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:09,040 is very similar in Persia in that they're going to go and conquer a ton of places, but 25 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:14,320 they're not going to necessarily be like Nebuchadnezzar, where there's one guy ruling everything. 26 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:18,040 They're going to have people that report back to them. And you say these are specific guidelines 27 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:21,760 of what you're supposed to be doing. Right. Now, the difference, of course, between Persia 28 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:25,440 is that Rome actually has like a military presence throughout all these countries. So 29 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:31,560 if something comes up and you disobey Rome, it doesn't end well for you. Yeah. And so 30 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:39,200 Herod the Great is is placed in here. He's an Edjimian, which means that he is a Edomite. 31 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,920 And if you remember the Edomites, that is descendants of Issa and traditionally seen 32 00:02:42,920 --> 00:02:50,200 as rivals of Israel. And his mother, however, is an Arab. She's Nabataean and was from the 33 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,640 Nabataean royal family in the modern day Jordan. So hence why he's in this position at all 34 00:02:54,640 --> 00:02:59,120 is that his family is actually associated with royalty. Being an Edomite, he kind of 35 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:03,880 used himself as maybe like the real king of Israel because he has ties to Israel, ties 36 00:03:03,880 --> 00:03:09,080 to their heritage. And you're going to see that a lot in some of his life. Yeah. Now, 37 00:03:09,080 --> 00:03:17,640 one of the defining things about Herod the Great is he was incredibly, incredibly wealthy. 38 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:22,760 We've talked about how Israel is at the crossroads of the world. And one of the things that is 39 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:28,360 becoming a real big thing during this time is the spice trade. Right. By the way, that 40 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:34,360 is not a reference to Dune. That is like the just the spice trade that developed in life. 41 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,160 For those of you have read Dune, we're not talking about some mythical thing you inhale 42 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:43,200 to see the future. Yeah. We're talking about like spices that you eat and spices that you 43 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:50,440 do things with. Yeah. So Herod just has just an enormous amount of wealth because being 44 00:03:50,440 --> 00:03:55,080 at the crossroads of this major trade route in both the Roman and Parthian Empire, he 45 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:59,680 develops this infrastructure, ports, roads, and capitalizes on the trade to increase the 46 00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:07,200 amount of trade going through his flagship city called Caesarea Martima. Sorry. You can 47 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:12,160 tell that I'm really good with these names. And Caesarea becomes like this vital point 48 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:17,760 for Mediterranean trade and generating significant revenue. Now, the other portion, which is 49 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:21,040 what the Israelites are really struggling with and Spencer can speak a little bit more 50 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:29,560 on is he's responsible for making sure the people are being taxed and taxed for Rome. 51 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:36,420 And it's not a little bit of tax. No. So Roman tax was very significant. The Roman tax was 52 00:04:36,420 --> 00:04:41,080 actually so heavy that it actually taxed farmers and livestock and people who traded livestock 53 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:47,000 out of existence. Yeah. Like it was so heavy that once you paid the tax, you're like, I 54 00:04:47,000 --> 00:04:52,760 can't feed my family. And so I was listening to Brad Gray and he said there was an estimated 55 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:59,960 85% tax when you're looking at all the other taxes that kind of combine. Yeah. Yeah. There's 56 00:04:59,960 --> 00:05:06,040 been some debate around that. Some people say closer to 60, some say closer to 85, but 57 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:12,240 regardless, if you're living in a place where they took 60 to 85% of your income, I would 58 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:15,840 have to make a whole lot more money. Well, and it's not even the way that we think about 59 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:22,040 income because like if you're a farmer, that's like 85% of your crop or your herd, right? 60 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:30,840 If you're a shepherd, 85% of your herd. Yeah. So, and on top of that, if you were collecting 61 00:05:30,840 --> 00:05:37,480 tax for Rome, you often collected more than that. Correct. And, and kept some for yourself. 62 00:05:37,480 --> 00:05:41,480 Yeah. I was, I was having this conversation with an expert in that, in that field and 63 00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:46,320 they were talking about how people like Herod who were over in a region, one of the reasons 64 00:05:46,320 --> 00:05:49,480 they wanted to pick local people is because local people have a better idea of what's 65 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:59,840 actually being generated for income. And so they would actually, they would actually have 66 00:05:59,840 --> 00:06:05,320 bids from the people in that area to try to be the person who's the taxation person in 67 00:06:05,320 --> 00:06:10,320 there. And so you actually will see this even under Herod, like in the life of Zacchaeus, 68 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:15,680 he's a chief tax collector in Jericho. Yep. Right. And so he would have actually bid for 69 00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:20,160 that job. And so part of the bid is you bring X amount of dollars in to be the person who 70 00:06:20,160 --> 00:06:24,080 collects tax there. And then if you bring a bunch of money to do that, what are you 71 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:28,520 going to have to do to the taxes in order to recoup that? Yeah. Right. And so if you, 72 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:33,080 if you pay a 20% surplus for the area, that place is actually going to have a taxation 73 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:38,200 of over 20% just so that you can recoup your revenue. Yeah. And then once they recoup their 74 00:06:38,200 --> 00:06:42,360 revenue, they're not lowering that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I don't know if you know 75 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:45,800 this, but typically when people get greedy, they just stop as soon as they get what they 76 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:52,360 want. Well, it's a, it's a, yeah, that's a hundred percent what they do. But I mean, 77 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,240 you know, think of it like a grocery store a little bit when, you know, inflation hits 78 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:01,280 and cost of food goes up, right? When inflation goes down, cost of food doesn't drop back 79 00:07:01,280 --> 00:07:05,840 down. Right. It rarely does. It rarely does. It might go down a pinch or a little bit, 80 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:09,000 but it's never going to go back to what it was. Yeah. Typically the only way that you 81 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,800 end up driving prices down is when you start having competition, right? But in taxation, 82 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:16,760 when you're actually taxing an area, there is no competition. Exactly. Right. So, so 83 00:07:16,760 --> 00:07:23,520 in reality, these people have probably closer to 90%, 90 to 92% of their money being taken 84 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:29,520 or 90 or their belongings. Right. So this tax was huge. So not only are you under a 85 00:07:29,520 --> 00:07:33,360 occupational rule, you like, you have these people that are over you that have conquered 86 00:07:33,360 --> 00:07:38,120 you. They, um, but also you're getting basically taxed into oblivion. Um, I mean, you still 87 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,280 have technically enough to live because they don't want to take everything because they 88 00:07:41,280 --> 00:07:46,420 want you to then generate more money. But, um, so then you got Herod, who's just benefiting 89 00:07:46,420 --> 00:07:50,400 from this, but he is increasing and there's tons of money coming through, uh, because 90 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:54,400 of the spice trade, because of Mediterranean trade. So he's doing like these massive projects, 91 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:59,320 which we'll talk about in just a minute, but all this time you can't like rebel against 92 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:05,120 Herod because if you rebel against Herod, you're rebelling against Rome and Rome's going 93 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:09,040 to come after you. Yep. Which is one of the reasons why the movement of the zealots picks 94 00:08:09,040 --> 00:08:13,680 up a lot of steam during this time. Right now, zealots being people who are coming from 95 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:20,400 the, the idea of zeal, right? They're, um, guerrilla fighters of, of a sort that are, 96 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:25,800 um, trying to through assassination and covert ops is what I'm going to call it, uh, overthrow 97 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:30,160 Rome and overthrow the local society. So they'll assassinate Roman soldiers and they'll assassinate 98 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:35,460 people. They would even go after people like Herod, um, to try to drive a political message 99 00:08:35,460 --> 00:08:41,760 and to bring the kingdom of God back into their midst. And we got to talk Roman culture 100 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:46,600 a little bit and how, how Rome set up their governments a little bit. So like you were 101 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:50,280 saying Rome would go in and they would find a local leader. Part of that was because the 102 00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:54,320 local leader knew what was going on, stuff like that. But, uh, what Rome would do is 103 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:59,200 they'd find that local leader. They'd appoint them. And I think they call them proctos or 104 00:08:59,200 --> 00:09:02,960 something like that. I can't remember exactly, but basically they'd be like, you can govern 105 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:08,000 your community. Now, if you mess this up, we're going to come in and correct this for 106 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:12,080 you and you're not going to like how we do that. Right. Like that was, that was how Rome 107 00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:18,200 rolled. So they're like, we'll give you a very, very short leash. Yeah. Right. And so 108 00:09:18,200 --> 00:09:23,120 don't mess this up or we're going to come fix it for you. And which usually resulted 109 00:09:23,120 --> 00:09:29,460 in them killing the local leader and appointing someone else. So Rome had little to no grace 110 00:09:29,460 --> 00:09:35,240 when it came to local leaders failing. Um, and so you actually see this like fast forward. 111 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:39,720 Just a little bit off topic, but you actually see this with a Pontius pilot where he was 112 00:09:39,720 --> 00:09:44,560 actually on thin ice. And so in his whole trial of Jesus, he's trying to keep his hands 113 00:09:44,560 --> 00:09:49,560 clean. Yeah. Well, not only that, he doesn't want them to rebel because he's like, man, 114 00:09:49,560 --> 00:09:52,280 if they rebel, we're going to have to call in the army and this is not going to be a 115 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:55,560 good situation for me. Like, cause Rome will absolutely bring them in and wipe everybody 116 00:09:55,560 --> 00:09:59,600 out. Like, yeah. And if Rome brought the army in to wipe everybody out, they would have 117 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:04,000 blamed that on pilot and probably executed. Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of, a lot 118 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,720 of political things going on there too. So, so there's, there's Rome, like you read the 119 00:10:09,720 --> 00:10:14,960 history books and you're like, okay, Rome started to set up like structured government. 120 00:10:14,960 --> 00:10:22,320 Yes. But they still had that taste for blood. Right. After all their entertainment was we're 121 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,760 going to put a bunch of slaves, call them gladiators in our arena. Some are paid, some 122 00:10:26,760 --> 00:10:32,520 are slaves. Right. And there's going to kill each other and that's going to be entertainment. 123 00:10:32,520 --> 00:10:35,960 So how do you think they do against a lion? If we gave somebody a sword and had to fight 124 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:42,000 a lion, what do you think would happen? Right. So, so Romans, Rome's culture was not one 125 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:46,120 of forgiveness. It was not one of grace. It was not one of, okay, you messed up here. 126 00:10:46,120 --> 00:10:51,120 We're going to give you a second chance. Like if you got a second chance, you were one of 127 00:10:51,120 --> 00:10:56,840 the lucky ones or you most like, or most likely had someone of influence that was related 128 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,640 to you or something like that. Yeah. This is going to be really important next week 129 00:11:00,640 --> 00:11:04,160 when we talk about Caesar Augustus, because we're going to talk about his Pax Romana, 130 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:10,920 this portion of you enforce peace through force. Yeah. Right. And it's going to be really important 131 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,840 that we understand a lot of those aspects of Rome, because a lot of the messaging in 132 00:11:14,840 --> 00:11:21,320 the gospels and in the letters about Jesus is a direct opposition to Rome and the way 133 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:28,640 that they govern. And yes, the way that life is in general, but the authors are doing this 134 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:33,880 almost like double play on what's going on there. So, so knowing those things about Rome, 135 00:11:33,880 --> 00:11:38,080 one of the reasons I think it's important to set that up is because Herod actually played 136 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:45,160 into Roman ideology really well. Yeah. So the same, he figure headed himself as a Jew, 137 00:11:45,160 --> 00:11:50,520 but he was basically a Roman in every other way. Yes. The saying about Herod was it's 138 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:57,600 better to be Herod's dog than his own family. Right? Like that's, that is how much Herod 139 00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:03,080 cared about himself and how much grace he had. Yeah. Right. He was more gracious towards 140 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:08,160 the animals in his life than he was to the people. Yeah. So we're not talking about Herod 141 00:12:08,160 --> 00:12:12,160 the great or talking about Herod the horrible. Well, and, and some of the, some of the hate 142 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:18,240 are the horrible is what you're thinking. No, that's, that's the, the old comic book. 143 00:12:18,240 --> 00:12:25,400 It's the, to your point, other places his wealth came from is actually when he had political 144 00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:30,720 enemies, he would like take them out, loot them and seize all their stuff. Yep. Right. 145 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,520 You come up with a reason that they're not supposed to be there because he's in really 146 00:12:33,520 --> 00:12:37,100 good with Rome. Like he's able to have these conversations, these back, back door deals 147 00:12:37,100 --> 00:12:41,480 and basically eliminate his political rivals. Yep. Right. So he's, he's playing the good 148 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:47,240 boy for Rome and they basically, as long as he keeps the money flowing, which by the way, 149 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:53,720 like I said, how much money does he have? It's a lot of money. Rome's happy. Well, and, 150 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:58,360 and Rome, because they're not a gracious nation, they don't care how he's playing the quote 151 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:02,480 unquote good boy for them. Right. Right. They're like, okay, he's doing what we want. And oh, 152 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:07,800 by the way, the people who want to take him out, they're becoming less and less because 153 00:13:07,800 --> 00:13:13,800 he's to handling business from a Roman, from a Roman perspective. Well, and so, and, and 154 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:17,680 he tries to kind of buy goodwill. So like one of the things that happens is, is that 155 00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:22,000 Herod the great, he does build a ton of things. So one of the things that he's most famous 156 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,920 for is the second temple, right? In Jerusalem. And so it's probably, if you're thinking of 157 00:13:26,920 --> 00:13:30,400 the temple during the time of Jesus, this is actually, yes, this is the one that Herod 158 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:37,520 renovated and continued to build. Now it is, of course it's based on the original, but 159 00:13:37,520 --> 00:13:42,120 he, he does renovation expansion of the one that they built when they came back from captivity 160 00:13:42,120 --> 00:13:47,520 and it include these enormous courtyards, these towering walls, these gold plated features, 161 00:13:47,520 --> 00:13:52,080 and it was so expensive, it required years and years of labor and an enormous amount 162 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:56,200 of resources. So, you know, in his, in his mind, he's like, well, yeah, I'm taking your 163 00:13:56,200 --> 00:14:02,620 money, but look what I did to your temple. Right. And it's actually funny because they 164 00:14:02,620 --> 00:14:07,120 have this conversation about the temple and with Jesus and his disciples. And he's like, 165 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:11,000 yeah, by the way, not one of these stones is going to be on top of the other. Yeah. 166 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:14,360 And I wouldn't think for a second that doesn't have something to do with the way that it 167 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:18,920 was built through Herod. Right. It's not talking about the temple itself, but rather what the 168 00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:27,200 temple represents. Yeah. Right. So I talked about his, his flagship city, Caesarea Martima, 169 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:31,040 and it's this port city arrivals, every other great city in the Roman empire, especially 170 00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:37,260 on the ports. It had a artificial massive artificial Harbor. It had these massive aqueducts. 171 00:14:37,260 --> 00:14:43,880 It had a Roman style theater and luxurious palaces. Now I was talking to our small group, 172 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:49,420 a few months ago, and we were talking about some of these palaces that, that Herod built. 173 00:14:49,420 --> 00:14:57,720 And so we were talking about the fortress at Masada. Right. And they, when they excavated 174 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:02,920 it, like this is up in the mountains, there's no water source and there's these massive 175 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:08,960 baths. Yeah. And then like two miles away along this like rickety path, right, is where 176 00:15:08,960 --> 00:15:12,880 they're getting the water from. And so when they're actually putting water into these 177 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:17,360 baths, like they're having it's, it's a servants and it's paid people and all sorts that are 178 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:21,200 actually taking this water and they're trucking it all the way there to the baths. And of 179 00:15:21,200 --> 00:15:24,480 course you can't just leave the water in there over and over again as people are using it, 180 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:27,600 because otherwise it's going to get gross. So they're actually having to replenish and 181 00:15:27,600 --> 00:15:35,760 cleanse. And so it's not, it's not just, it's not just rich. It's almost like indulgently 182 00:15:35,760 --> 00:15:43,080 rich. Like it's, it's like, it's like you have a piece of cake and then you take hot fudge 183 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,560 and you pour it over it. And then you spray your whipped cream on top of that. And then 184 00:15:46,560 --> 00:15:50,240 you put cherries on top of that. Then you cover the whole thing in chocolate again. 185 00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:54,480 Yeah. Right. It's not just indulgent. It's like crazy indulgent. Like this is the life 186 00:15:54,480 --> 00:16:00,940 of Herod. Herod is like, I'm trying to paint for the picture. He's rich and we don't have 187 00:16:00,940 --> 00:16:06,600 anybody in our life nowadays that's like this. Yeah. Right. Like we've talked about, we've 188 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:10,960 joked about Jeff Bezos a lot, right? Jeff Bezos has got nothing on Herod, not on the 189 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:16,040 kind of life he had and the kind of power he had. Cause he's got, he's got Masada. He's 190 00:16:16,040 --> 00:16:21,160 got another fortress called Herodium. He's got another one, Machaeris. It served as both 191 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:25,920 military strongholds and palatial retreats. By the way, why do you have so many fortresses? 192 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:30,320 Cause he makes a lot of enemies and he doesn't trust his kids. So he's finding lots of places 193 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:39,320 to hide, right? And there's just, there's so much stuff from Herod the great. Other 194 00:16:39,320 --> 00:16:45,280 things he did is he funded the construction of entire cities. One was called Sebasté. 195 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:49,920 It's also found in Samaria. He rebuilt in honor of Augustus Caesar. He also constructed 196 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,760 amphitheaters, hippodrones, public buildings to promote Roman culture and win favor for 197 00:16:53,760 --> 00:17:01,360 the people. Okay. It's a lot. It's massive. So, I mean, the impact of his wealth is you 198 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:06,780 have all this economic growth and infrastructure. So a lot of people have work, right? Which 199 00:17:06,780 --> 00:17:11,300 also means that during this time, like the theater is starting to really blossom in Rome 200 00:17:11,300 --> 00:17:14,880 and Greek. And, but because he's building all these things, the theater is becoming 201 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:18,920 an even bigger thing, which is one of the reasons you start seeing Jesus actually making 202 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:24,240 reference to the theater. I'm talking about, uh, hypocrites, right? The upacritas, right? 203 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:29,600 And you have, uh, like, uh, pub conversations about like these pubs that have been created 204 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:34,040 that Paul is talking about in his letters. And, and all these things we're mentioning 205 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:37,720 on the podcast is because when you're reading these things in the new Testament, they're 206 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:43,960 set in a context. Like they're very familiar with these because this is where they are. 207 00:17:43,960 --> 00:17:47,120 These are things that Herod the great had done. They've grown up in the, in these, it's 208 00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:51,640 like it's second nature to them. And so they use these metaphors and then we read it and 209 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:56,760 we're like 2000 years later, we're like, well, clearly that's what this means. And we have 210 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:02,220 no context. Yeah. Right. Yeah. One of the things Harry did is he expanded. He also expanded 211 00:18:02,220 --> 00:18:06,520 trade routes in the local, uh, in the local area. You're talking about the port cities, 212 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:12,900 fortresses. So like it's also road infrastructure that he built. And so it's really interesting 213 00:18:12,900 --> 00:18:20,160 because this time period, you see a lot of between the Persians, between Persians, Romans 214 00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:27,160 and Herod right here, you see a lot of infrastructure being built and it, and then it's no coincidence 215 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:32,280 that God picked this time to send Jesus. Correct. Right. Cause when it came time for the gospel 216 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:37,520 spread and persecution amongst believers was happening and they retreated and they spread 217 00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:42,440 out, guess what? It was easy for them to go huge distances. Well, and not, not just spreading 218 00:18:42,440 --> 00:18:46,680 out once that happened, but even in the gospel of John, when Jesus is coming during Holy 219 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:51,640 week, like there are, um, people that are not Jewish that come to Jerusalem cause they 220 00:18:51,640 --> 00:18:55,960 heard about Jesus. Yeah. Right. And he's like, he's like, Oh look, the Gentiles are here. 221 00:18:55,960 --> 00:19:00,920 That's cool. You know, and, uh, and in, then you think about even in the, in the book of 222 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:06,400 acts chapter two, um, I, one of a few years ago, pastor Nick and I preached this together 223 00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:09,800 and I had the best time because we were going through and I was like, everybody heard them 224 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,640 in their own language and, and reading from Acts two and I said, Hey pastor Nick, can 225 00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:17,840 you read that? And then it gets into every culture and it's like the Jebusites, the nevusites, 226 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:22,960 the, he goes into it and he like starts looking, he's like, Whoa, that's a lot of names. You 227 00:19:22,960 --> 00:19:28,120 know, we're going to skip down to this one right here. And, uh, but like there's these 228 00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,000 Jews because the Jews have now, to your point, like there's these trade routes have been 229 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,000 built and Herod has, has put in this infrastructure. And so the Jews are everywhere, but when then 230 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:41,320 they come back for, um, they come back for the, the, uh, Passover. Yeah. And then they 231 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:49,160 stay for, um, Shavuot, which is 50 days later, which is what we call Pentecost. Yeah. And, 232 00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:55,600 um, so a lot of this is also bringing, I'm going to call it relative political stability. 233 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:58,800 And I call it relative because it's, it's very stable compared to what they've had because 234 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:04,140 you go, uh, Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Roman, Greek, you know, like you're having 235 00:20:04,140 --> 00:20:09,320 all these like turnovers of like Kings and places. Um, now you got these countries actually 236 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,160 starting to maybe trade and work with each other. Yeah. So the other thing now is happening 237 00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:18,720 and Herod had a part to play in this, I believe too, was actually the development of ships 238 00:20:18,720 --> 00:20:22,840 and naval warfare a little more, right? Um, there was actually a battle that took place 239 00:20:22,840 --> 00:20:29,700 between Rome and was, um, what was the country in Northern Africa? Wasn't Egypt. It's hard, 240 00:20:29,700 --> 00:20:35,360 but there's sorry, um, butchering that, but there is, and that was a deciding naval warfare 241 00:20:35,360 --> 00:20:40,520 that actually gave Rome dominion over the Mediterranean. Yeah. And, um, which is not 242 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:45,000 surprising that there would suddenly be a lot more naval battles. If you're now trading 243 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:51,120 via seaports, then you get people who want to steal that stuff. They do it on the water, 244 00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:55,800 which then you're going to have to have send protection to protect these ships. And, and 245 00:20:55,800 --> 00:21:01,080 so, but what happens when it comes time for the apostles to actually spread the gospel, 246 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:07,560 the journey that Paul was able to make, like from, from going from Jerusalem to Rome, to 247 00:21:07,560 --> 00:21:12,640 Crete, to Corinth, to all these places, right? Uh, the journey that he was able to make, 248 00:21:12,640 --> 00:21:17,000 he would not have been able to do that 2000 years ago. Correct. Right. Well, 2000 years 249 00:21:17,000 --> 00:21:21,400 ago now, but yeah, his time 2000 years prior, 2000 years prior to his time, right? Yeah. 250 00:21:21,400 --> 00:21:25,400 He wouldn't have been able to do that because simply just the infrastructure and technology 251 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:31,240 wasn't there. And so you have, you have the Lord sending Jesus at a critical time and 252 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:37,200 using, using these, uh, characters in history that a lot of people would say are horrible 253 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:43,200 people. Yeah. Right. Like Herod the great was not a great guy. Um, Xerxes in Persia, 254 00:21:43,200 --> 00:21:49,240 not great, not great. Nebuchadnezzar, not great, not great. Right. Uh, a lot of the 255 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:54,340 Caesar's we can, we could just go down the list, but not, not great people. Even the 256 00:21:54,340 --> 00:21:59,680 good Caesar's were not great Caesar's. Yeah. Um, not great people. And the Lord said, okay, 257 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:02,560 but we're going to use this. We're going to lay infrastructure. So when it comes time 258 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:09,520 for the gospel to spread like wildfire that it will. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And it's, 259 00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,920 it's, it's one of the things, the reasons I say in the fullness of time, like when the 260 00:22:12,920 --> 00:22:16,960 time was right and you think you're like, you're like, oh, when is the Messiah coming? 261 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:21,400 When is Messiah coming? And like, we have such a finite view because at best we see 262 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:27,320 a hundred years of life. Yeah. Right. And if you were born in 1500 BC, you're like, oh 263 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:32,200 man, when is, when is Messiah coming? Yeah. Right. Like since creation, we've been having 264 00:22:32,200 --> 00:22:36,800 this issue with the snake. Right. And we, you know, like this, this issue of like, are 265 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:40,120 we going to trust God or not? Uh, we need Messiah to come in and, you know, make us 266 00:22:40,120 --> 00:22:45,080 a new heart. Yeah. Not understanding that 1500 years from now, there's the right time. 267 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,720 Like it's the fullness of time when, when, when it's actually going to be able to, uh, 268 00:22:49,720 --> 00:22:55,680 feed into the redemption of mankind, not just to the Jewish people. Yeah. Right. I mean, 269 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:58,640 that's, that's one of the issues that Jesus keeps running into as he's having these conversations 270 00:22:58,640 --> 00:23:02,720 that they're like, are you going to now restore the kingdom? He's like, well, yeah, it's just 271 00:23:02,720 --> 00:23:07,560 not the kingdom you think. Yeah. Right. It is. Am I absolutely going to restore the kingdom 272 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:13,360 that we were always trying to build? Yeah. And it was always about all nations, you know? 273 00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:18,320 Um, I think some of the interesting things about, uh, heritage heritage. So I talked 274 00:23:18,320 --> 00:23:24,840 about, he's a German and his, and his, um, mother is, uh, Arab, uh, it's Nabataean, um, 275 00:23:24,840 --> 00:23:33,120 his father and anti-powder and anti-pointer. If any of you are expecting child, yeah, anti-pointer. 276 00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:36,800 That's not actually not his name. That's just, uh, the, uh, he's, uh, he was actually, uh, 277 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:43,840 that is actually his name. Sorry. I said, yeah, what's barf? Antipater. Yeah. I just, 278 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:49,800 I could just see him, uh, see, uh, Herod goes up to his dad. He says, uh, to Potter. No, 279 00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:55,640 uh, he's a, so, but he's really influential in, uh, as an injury and he was, uh, was called 280 00:23:55,640 --> 00:24:00,920 a, uh, uh, procurator of Judea under the normal rule. So that actually like both him, his 281 00:24:00,920 --> 00:24:05,560 mom came from royalty. His dad was like a political person. So when Herod is born, he's 282 00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:13,480 kind of in this special nexus of where to go. Uh, but Herod wanted to be like Jewish, but 283 00:24:13,480 --> 00:24:18,760 he's only technically like half Jewish. Right. Yep. And, uh, while he was a quote unquote 284 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:23,640 practicing by tradition, he was like the, the very much of the, you do these things, 285 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:28,320 but your hearts are really far from me. Yeah. Right. Uh, many of the Jews saw him as half 286 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:33,160 Jew and, and they, and they didn't trust him entirely. Um, but he embraced a lot of the 287 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:38,000 Jewish laws publicly, but also adopted a lot of the Greco-Roman practices. He basically 288 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:42,720 tried to blend them into one thing. Yeah. Um, the, uh, that never happens to correct 289 00:24:42,720 --> 00:24:48,880 with Christianity. Nope. Never happens. Never, never, never. No one would ever read, uh, 290 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:56,480 nationalistic American identity into Christianity. That's just called Christianity. Hopefully, 291 00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,040 you know, we're being tongue in cheek. If you don't, then you have not been listening 292 00:24:59,040 --> 00:25:05,520 to us long enough. Um, one of the things that he did though, to try to legitimize his rule 293 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:11,080 is he actually married a Hasmonean princess, right? He tried to legitimize his role, but 294 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:17,920 then she made him angry and he executed her. So we got a little bit of a Xerxes, his impatience, 295 00:25:17,920 --> 00:25:24,360 like I'm going to make swift decisions without thinking about the repercussions. Um, so groups 296 00:25:24,360 --> 00:25:30,000 like the Pharisees and the Essenes tended to oppose him. Groups like the Sadducees and 297 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:34,400 the Herodians loved him. I mean, Herodian, it should be fairly obvious that they were 298 00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,680 like Herodians get their name from the fact that they were very similar to Herod. They 299 00:25:37,680 --> 00:25:46,320 just blend the two things together. Yeah. Right. Um, so even though he wanted to be accepted, 300 00:25:46,320 --> 00:25:50,560 one of the, some of the craziest stuff that, uh, there's some crazy stories about Herod 301 00:25:50,560 --> 00:25:53,200 the Great. So I'm just going to share, share one of them because I thought this one was 302 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:59,040 super interesting. So he, uh, he got after killing the Hasmonean princess, they're all 303 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:03,280 really upset. He then executed members of the Hasmonean dynasty, including the high 304 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:08,880 priest, Arab Bullis the third, which was his wife's brother, right? Whom he viewed as a 305 00:26:08,880 --> 00:26:15,280 threat to his role. And any sages that opposed the Hasmoneans or opposed Herod's appointment, 306 00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:21,240 he also targeted and killed. Then, uh, once he got his throne, he went and he took the 307 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,520 majority of the members of the Sanhedrin. So we've heard Sanhedrin before, this is the 308 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:28,660 Pharisees, Sadducees, the get together, the Jewish ruling council, and he replaces them 309 00:26:28,660 --> 00:26:32,520 with individuals loyal to him. So he goes through and just wipes out the Sanhedrin, 310 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:38,080 um, not everybody, but like a lot of people and, uh, the Pharisees known for their, you 311 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:41,680 know, their strict adherence to the law, right? Because they think obedience to the law is 312 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,920 going to bring kingdom. Yeah. Right. So like credit them that they actually stick to their 313 00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:50,840 guns, right? Even if they kind of miss the mark and Jesus tells them that, like they're, 314 00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:55,700 they're sticking to their guns. Uh, they openly criticize him for his Hellenistic practices 315 00:26:55,700 --> 00:26:59,800 and his collaboration with Rome. And he retaliates by suppressing phariseitic leaders and limiting 316 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:03,840 their influence in the Sanhedrin. Right. It's one of the reasons that the Pharisees don't 317 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,840 have as much influence in Jerusalem and why, when, when Jesus is in the triangle, he's 318 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:12,960 spending a lot more time with Pharisees than he is with like Sadducees. It also starts 319 00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:18,120 to in your head, why, why are Sadducees and Pharisees always fighting? Why don't they 320 00:27:18,120 --> 00:27:24,400 get along? And when they do get along, trouble's brewing. Right. There's a lot of history there. 321 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:30,480 Um, he also, we've, we've, we've talked about Shilla, uh, Shamai and Hillel. Yeah. Um, so 322 00:27:30,480 --> 00:27:35,640 he specifically targeted their disciples because, um, fearing that they would teach the people 323 00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:41,280 to inspire rebellion. And then this is the crazy one. So towards the end of his life, 324 00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:46,680 he got even more paranoid, which doesn't seem possible. Uh huh. Right. And he feared that 325 00:27:46,680 --> 00:27:52,560 no one would mourn him at his death due to his own popularity, which by the way, if you 326 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:58,160 spend your life like killing people for political reasons, this might be the case. Yeah. Um, 327 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,800 so to ensure his mourning, this is what he did. He took prominent Jewish leaders, elders 328 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:07,560 and sages, and he imprisoned them at the hippodrome in Jericho. And these leaders are going to 329 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:15,680 be executed immediately after his death to force public mourning. Okay. Like this is 330 00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:20,360 his plan. Quality guy. Like this is who Herod the greatest. So he's like this wealthy guy 331 00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:24,440 does all these, these crazy things, uh, doesn't trust his kids. In fact, I think at one point 332 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:30,560 when he actually has one of his kids assassinated, um, and, uh, and he's like, well, when I die, 333 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,640 nobody's going to mourn me because I'm a jerk. You know what I'm going to do is I'm going 334 00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:36,480 to get a bunch of people everybody cares about. And when I die, we're going to kill them so 335 00:28:36,480 --> 00:28:40,520 that everybody cares. And so I'll just pretend like that morning is for me. What would have 336 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:45,440 been more effective probably as if he actually repented. Yeah. Right. Right. But, uh, he 337 00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:51,560 didn't do that. Right. He's, he, he, he kind of reminds me of like the random, like multi 338 00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:56,560 millionaire type guy who then goes and builds a bunker in the middle of the door and stocks 339 00:28:56,560 --> 00:29:01,280 it full of all sorts of firearm and crazy and booby traps his land and stuff like that. 340 00:29:01,280 --> 00:29:04,600 And then he's like, well, why don't people like me? It's like, well, there's really, 341 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:09,680 yeah, really there's, I mean, people can't talk to you. Do you want an annotated list 342 00:29:09,680 --> 00:29:15,400 or do you want to chronologically, geographically, alphabetically, you know, this hair is just 343 00:29:15,400 --> 00:29:20,360 not a great guy. Yeah. And, um, so I will tell you one of the, one of the pieces of 344 00:29:20,360 --> 00:29:24,680 that story where he's going to kill the sages that I really love is his wife, uh, Miramind 345 00:29:24,680 --> 00:29:29,960 the second, because he killed his first wife, right. Um, and Salome, who's her, it's sister, 346 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:34,280 uh, after his death, they went in and they defied his final order and released everybody. 347 00:29:34,280 --> 00:29:38,000 Yeah. And, uh, before they could actually be killed, they went, they went in like when 348 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:42,160 they knew he was dead, but nobody else knew they went and released everybody. And so by 349 00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:47,320 the time like the guards went to actually go fill out the orders, they were gone. Yeah. 350 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:52,000 And, uh, God bless those women, right? Because that's, that is, that is very courageous because 351 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,640 they could have easily lost their lives doing that. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so Herod, not a 352 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:02,840 great guy, not a great guy, not a great guy. Um, but we do need to focus a little bit on, 353 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,600 on which you've talked a little bit about, but how does the life of Herod, how did that 354 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:13,040 actually impact the gospel? Right. So direct references, first place, we see him, Matthew 355 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:19,200 two, uh, one to 23. If you have been in church any period of time around Christmas time, 356 00:30:19,200 --> 00:30:23,680 you're probably going to hear this, this verse, uh, he's the ruler of Judea when Jesus is 357 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:29,760 born the Magi visit. And he tries to use them to figure out where Jesus is. And, uh, and 358 00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,520 they're like, well, you know, it's going to be here. And so what does Herod do? Cause 359 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:37,200 he's not a good person. Uh-huh. Kill all the kids. Yep. All the kids under, under a certain 360 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,360 age. He's all the boys. He's going to kill them under a certain age. Uh, definitely Herod 361 00:30:41,360 --> 00:30:44,840 takes on the role of Pharaoh. Like there's, there's definitely meant to be this picture 362 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:50,120 of, of Herod as Pharaoh, uh, with coming back to the Exodus and Jesus as a second Moses. 363 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:54,720 Like this is a picture you're supposed to see, right? Uh, but here it's not a good man. 364 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:59,520 So the Herod Herod, uh, sending his army to kill all the boys under, I think his age of 365 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:04,140 two. Yeah. Um, there was, it's not the action Bible, but there was a different comic Bible 366 00:31:04,140 --> 00:31:09,200 that came out a long time ago when I was a kid. Yeah. And, and like, I was reading through 367 00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:13,120 it and it got, and I got to that page and I opened it up and it literally like showed 368 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:18,600 like bloody babies. Oh no. Oh no. And I was like, I probably can't find this anymore. 369 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:22,960 Uh, but I was like, I was like, oh, they did not hold back on this. I was like 10 or 12 370 00:31:22,960 --> 00:31:27,320 when I was looking at those, like they did not hold back on this story. I started reading 371 00:31:27,320 --> 00:31:31,960 action Bible with, uh, with my son because, and, and just so, so, you know, kind of where 372 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:35,600 I fall on it, I think the action Bible is a really helpful tool for you to sit down 373 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,480 and read with your kids. Yeah. Because sometimes like the action Bible is going to say things 374 00:31:40,480 --> 00:31:45,840 in a way that's probably not helpful. Um, I, I love the people who did it, but I'm going 375 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:50,240 to kind of redirect that in the life of my son. Yeah. Right. And, uh, just like most 376 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:53,020 of the time when you're, when your kids study the Bible, like you should be there. It's, 377 00:31:53,020 --> 00:31:56,420 it's getting the bullet points of the story. Correct. Like it's not, it's not doing the 378 00:31:56,420 --> 00:32:01,240 big nuances or getting into the finer details or the Hebrew Greek. It's getting the bullet 379 00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:05,260 points. Like this is, these are the characters that were at the story and here's the rough 380 00:32:05,260 --> 00:32:12,520 sketch of what happened. So with the death of all the, the kids, you completely understand 381 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:19,100 one that Joseph is told to go to Egypt. Yeah. But why they, why do they go to Egypt? Right. 382 00:32:19,100 --> 00:32:23,320 Because here it's powerful and he'll find you. Right. And they head off to Egypt and, 383 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:30,020 uh, until Herod is dead and he's no longer, uh, around to be pursuing them. And then even 384 00:32:30,020 --> 00:32:35,400 then with his kids, they go to Nazareth, which is kind of like nowhere's nowhere. Yeah. Like 385 00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:40,120 what good thing comes from Nazareth? That's what Philip asks. Right. It's because now 386 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:45,600 the rest of Nazareth is a nowhere town and they go there on purpose. Being Alaskan and 387 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:50,000 be like, what good thing comes from, from Fairbanks? Oh, poor Fairbanks. Yeah. Uh, there's 388 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,400 probably a listener from Fairbanks. It's like a lot of good things come from Fairbanks. 389 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:59,120 I have some good friends up in Fairbanks and they'll be like, Hey, I was, uh, so, uh, sorry, 390 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,440 I ran a random rabbit trail because we're talking about what good thing, but, um, we 391 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:06,280 were, when I, we were down in Idaho visiting family, uh, we drove through this town called 392 00:33:06,280 --> 00:33:10,120 Beul, Idaho. So if you're listening from Beul, Idaho, hello. And, uh, we were on our way 393 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:14,440 to this hot springs and I was like, man, this town is just tiny and kind of out of the middle 394 00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:18,280 of nowhere. And I saw this, this sign. It was like talking about like trout capital 395 00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:24,000 of the world or something. And, uh, my wife told me that Beul actually apparently is like, 396 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:28,680 where some of the best caviar comes from. Oh, this random small town is like where some 397 00:33:28,680 --> 00:33:34,040 of the best caviar comes from. It'll say like packaged in Beul, Idaho. And I'm like, well, 398 00:33:34,040 --> 00:33:37,520 that's crazy. Like I would never have thought like, cause you're driving down the city and 399 00:33:37,520 --> 00:33:42,560 it's like, it's like, it's every small town that you could think of. And like, this is 400 00:33:42,560 --> 00:33:49,160 the place where apparently caviar comes from. Like that's crazy to me. Yep. And, uh, uh, 401 00:33:49,160 --> 00:33:54,180 so let's see. Uh, also in Luke one five, it's the setting of John and John the Baptist birth. 402 00:33:54,180 --> 00:33:59,760 It says Herod's reign is mentioned as a historical context during the time of Zachariah and Elizabeth. 403 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:04,680 So, uh, Herod helps us also because there's a lot of documentation. I heard the great, 404 00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:09,360 it helps us also place when these things happened, which is why they're able to kind of with 405 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:14,240 John the Baptist and Jesus, they can get down to like a number of years, like three or four 406 00:34:14,240 --> 00:34:19,920 years of when there's debate about, is it, you know, one BC, is it for, you know, like 407 00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,360 there's some conversation about that, but we're talking about like a five year period 408 00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:30,240 of time. Yeah. Um, on indirectly in the Bible, the Herodian dynasty influencers, like his 409 00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:36,080 son Herod, Archelaus was mentioned in Matthew two 22 as the ruler of Judea after hair dies, 410 00:34:36,080 --> 00:34:41,520 right? Uh, Herod Antipas, he was another son plays a major role in John the Baptist execution 411 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:47,780 and Jesus, uh, trial. So Antipas, by the way, does very similar to his dad is that he ends 412 00:34:47,780 --> 00:34:52,560 up marrying a woman and gets himself into a bad position, trying to gain favor. And 413 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:56,080 that's how John ends up with his head on a platter. And he's kind of trying to play that 414 00:34:56,080 --> 00:35:01,160 fence of like, Oh, I'm following Jews and I'm listening to John, but also I don't like 415 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:09,920 what John has to say about me and my relations. Right. Um, but by and large, the whole thing 416 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:16,920 of Herod, he just, he ends up being the symbol of like earthly power, cruel and paranoid 417 00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:24,120 and opposition to the kingdom of God. Yeah. Right. Um, I mean, fulfillment of prophecy, 418 00:35:24,120 --> 00:35:29,600 it does like Jeremiah 31 15, rape, for weeping for her children. Right. Uh, the flight to 419 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:35,240 Egypt from Hosea 11 one out of Egypt, I called my son. Um, Jesus is this true King of the 420 00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:40,040 Jews, whereas Herod tries to be, uh, tries to be the King of the Jews. Jesus actually 421 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:45,840 is the King of the Jews. Right. And even Herod, uh, I believe it's Antipas and Jesus's trial. 422 00:35:45,840 --> 00:35:51,120 He calls Jesus the King of the Jews. Right. And people get upset about that. Um, it's 423 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:55,920 by the way, that can be confusing with Herod Antipas, Herod, Archelius and Herod, um, uh, 424 00:35:55,920 --> 00:36:00,920 the great. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot. Um, I did, I did put this in here on my notes 425 00:36:00,920 --> 00:36:07,040 because I just think it's really cool. Um, so there's a parallel of the Exodus, a narrative 426 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:11,440 versus Herod and like something that Matthew and Luke were probably doing a little bit 427 00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:17,200 with, uh, in the Exodus narrative, Pharaoh fears the rise of a deliverer who is Moses. 428 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:21,360 Herod fears the prophecy of the new King, which is Jesus. Then Pharaoh orders the killing 429 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:26,120 of the Hebrew male infants. Herod orders the massacre of the innocence. Uh, Moses is miraculously 430 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:31,480 saved. Jesus is miraculously saved. Egypt is a place of rep, uh, is a place of refuge, 431 00:36:31,480 --> 00:36:37,000 uh, and oppression, but Egypt becomes a place of refuge for Jesus. Right. Uh, God delivers 432 00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,760 his people through Moses and then Jesus delivers humanity through his, uh, through his life 433 00:36:41,760 --> 00:36:46,320 and death, burial and resurrection. Yeah. Right. There's this kind of dichotomy going 434 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:54,060 on there. So one of my first takeaways on the life of Herod and why it matters, right? 435 00:36:54,060 --> 00:36:59,880 Because he's a non-Jewish King, half Jewish King, kind of Jewish King. He's a spicy Jewish 436 00:36:59,880 --> 00:37:08,760 King. Like spicy is like, is that the politically correct way of putting it? It's definitely 437 00:37:08,760 --> 00:37:15,080 not. Um, uh, I, I think, I think, uh, one of the first takeaways when you look at the 438 00:37:15,080 --> 00:37:21,840 life of Herod and Darius, uh, Xerxes, uh, Nebuchadnezzar, the corrupting power of influence 439 00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:27,280 or the corrupting influence of power, right? What does it do to you as a person? Right. 440 00:37:27,280 --> 00:37:34,480 Because his ambition, his desire for wealth and power, uh, led to paranoia, cruelty, mass 441 00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:39,040 murder, um, his actions, you know, he killed a bunch of innocent kids. He shows of structural 442 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:44,480 qualities of polarizing power in your life. Right. And, and I think if you're not careful, 443 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,240 like we've talked about in the past, if you don't have checks and balances and you don't 444 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:55,440 have, uh, accountability, which Herod didn't like power can absolutely corrupt you. Yeah. 445 00:37:55,440 --> 00:38:05,000 And it damages the people around you. Yeah. Yeah. Um, uh, with the power thing, uh, it 446 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:09,720 doesn't have to corrupt you though. Correct. It's something that you let corrupt you. Correct. 447 00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:15,440 Um, cause, uh, I know, I know a number of people who are very well off who are very 448 00:38:15,440 --> 00:38:21,840 generous people, right? Like, um, so just because you have power, you have influence, 449 00:38:21,840 --> 00:38:25,880 doesn't mean you're a bad person. I think sometimes we take stories like this and we 450 00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:31,400 twist it that way. Right. And you actually see later on that member of Herod's household 451 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:36,920 was actually one of the people who were following Jesus around and funding his ministry. Correct. 452 00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:42,480 Yeah. And so, so even throughout all this power, correct, greed and stuff, there was 453 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:47,520 still good things that were happening. Right. Right. One, I think, I think in the case of 454 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:52,200 like Herod and a lot of the people, the way you accumulate your wealth matters. Yeah. 455 00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:58,000 Right. Cause he's accumulating his, his wealth on the backs of other people and assassinating 456 00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:04,520 political like, uh, opponents and stuff like that. And, uh, and then he, you know, when 457 00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:08,040 you're very self focused and all that, like, it's not going to stop the more power you 458 00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:13,200 get. No. Typically, if you are a generous person, if you're given more, you tend to 459 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:17,360 be more generous. If you are a selfish person and you're given more, you tend to be more 460 00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:26,240 selfish and, uh, it rarely, it rarely flips. Yeah. Right. Um, one of the things I was, 461 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:29,920 I was thinking about with Herod, cause when you deal with his thing of like, you know, 462 00:39:29,920 --> 00:39:33,920 I want to be a Jewish king, I'm going to observe Torah law, but I'm not really going to preserve 463 00:39:33,920 --> 00:39:39,400 Torah law. Is this, this danger of, uh, hypocrisy where you try to, where you try to play for 464 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:43,640 the applause of people. Yeah. Right. Rather than actually having a life that is centered 465 00:39:43,640 --> 00:39:50,160 on a relationship, which is what Christ is calling us to, uh, we're trying to do the 466 00:39:50,160 --> 00:39:54,200 right thing rather than be with the right person, right? Be in relationship with the 467 00:39:54,200 --> 00:39:58,840 right person. Yeah. And, uh, and in the case of Herod, he's not doing it because he's trying 468 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:03,120 to be close to God. He's because he's trying to gain the favor of people. Yep. Which, I 469 00:40:03,120 --> 00:40:07,240 mean, we would never know about in our context ever. I would say the other thing, one of 470 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:13,000 the other takeaways is, uh, just be mindful who you surround yourself with. Like Herod 471 00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:20,920 decided to get in bed with Rome, right? And, uh, and what that led to was him becoming 472 00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:27,440 more like Rome, which Rome was a graceless nation. Right. Right. It was like, here's 473 00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:34,040 your one chance. You mess this up. You're done. Right. Type thing. And so, um, and I'm 474 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:38,360 just going to be really honest. If that's the group of people you're around, uh, you're 475 00:40:38,360 --> 00:40:42,120 probably not going to be around them super long, or if you are, you're going to be changing 476 00:40:42,120 --> 00:40:46,680 who you are drastically and you're going to be burning a lot of bridges in your life. 477 00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:51,200 And Herod, as you can see, he burnt so many bridges that when it came time for his death, 478 00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:54,680 he's like, I'm going to need to kill some more people. So people are actually mourning 479 00:40:54,680 --> 00:41:00,400 on the day I die. And, and it's delusional thinking because he's like, we're going to 480 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,320 do this. So they're mourning for me. And I was like, and it's like, they're not going 481 00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,280 to be more, they're not going to be mourning for you. They couldn't give a flying fart 482 00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:13,560 about you flying part. Right. Yeah. Um, and, uh, so like who you surround yourself with 483 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:19,720 is very important. Yeah. I think it's, you know, um, I, there are other stories in the, 484 00:41:19,720 --> 00:41:24,000 in the new Testament of these guys who do work for Rome. Yeah. Right. You think about 485 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:29,000 the centurion when he talks to Jesus and he's, he's worried about a servant and he says, 486 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:32,920 no, I know who you are. I know what it's like to be under authority. If you say it's, it's 487 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:38,160 done, it's done. And like, he just places his faith directly in the authority of Jesus. 488 00:41:38,160 --> 00:41:43,840 Right. You think about Peter coming to the house of Cornelius and all the people are 489 00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:47,160 talking about it. They're like, they're like, yeah, he takes good care of us. He cares about 490 00:41:47,160 --> 00:41:51,600 our customs and all these different things. And, uh, and like Peter comes and he's like, 491 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:56,320 he's already a good, like a person who's living into the kingdom. He just doesn't know Jesus 492 00:41:56,320 --> 00:42:04,280 yet. Right. And, uh, like all these people work for Rome, but they have different reactions 493 00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:10,280 on who they're going to be. Yeah. Herod starts to look inward and pull for himself. And, 494 00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:16,000 and like, to your point, uh, exacerbates chaos to try to garner sympathy. Yeah. Right. Which 495 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:19,960 is delusional. Whereas these other people, they're like, how do I take care of the people 496 00:42:19,960 --> 00:42:22,720 around me? How do I love the people? Like, even if they're less than me, I care about 497 00:42:22,720 --> 00:42:27,000 my servant. I care about the people who served me, you know? And like, who are you going 498 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:30,680 to be in, in, when you step into your culture, who are you actually partnering with? Are 499 00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:34,480 you partnering with God in the middle of Rome or are you partnering with Rome and trying 500 00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:39,320 to throw God in there as a batch? Yep. And that's, that's challenging. Yep. You know, 501 00:42:39,320 --> 00:42:43,600 I mean, we joked about American Christianity, but are you an American that's a Christian? 502 00:42:43,600 --> 00:42:49,040 Are you a Christian? That's also an American. Like those are different things. Yeah. Because 503 00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:55,320 we serve a monarchy, which is King Jesus and everything else is, is subservient to 504 00:42:55,320 --> 00:43:00,240 that. And that's hard for a lot of people. Yeah. And I'm not saying that's, that should 505 00:43:00,240 --> 00:43:05,960 be like, if that's you, it's hard. Yeah. Just trust. Yeah. Side note, one of the things 506 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:11,400 that drives me nuts about like Christian nationalism in America, when people are like, this is 507 00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:15,240 getting a little political, but when, and you can cut this if you want. Yeah. But when 508 00:43:15,240 --> 00:43:18,320 people are like, well, these are our God given rights. And I was like, okay, so what about 509 00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:21,880 the Christians who live in countries where they quote unquote, don't have any of those 510 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:27,760 rights? Right. Cause I can name lots of countries off the top of my head where Christians are 511 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:32,480 being persecuted heavily, but yet the church is exploding. Right. They have none of the 512 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:37,080 freedoms, none of the liberties that we have. Right. And there, there has to be a balance 513 00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:43,160 between standing up for justice and what people, we, we believe people are entitled to like 514 00:43:43,160 --> 00:43:47,560 God given rights. Like we believe that people should not, I believe that people shouldn't 515 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:51,320 be harassed because of the color of their skin. Yeah. Or because they think differently than 516 00:43:51,320 --> 00:43:55,520 I do. Right. Like those are, those are not reasons that people should be harassed. And 517 00:43:55,520 --> 00:44:00,240 I will, like, I should stand for that. I was like, but at the same time, if I don't have 518 00:44:00,240 --> 00:44:06,480 that, does that compromise my ability to follow Jesus or do I just live counter to the culture 519 00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:11,640 I live in? Uh huh. Right. Like it's a, it's a legitimate question that we have, we do 520 00:44:11,640 --> 00:44:19,400 have to deal with on a regular basis. Like, are you going to follow God when it's convenient 521 00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:25,400 or because he's God? That's hard. And I don't want to try to trivialize that and be like, 522 00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:29,600 oh, it's easy. You just do this. I actually think it's very hard, especially when you, 523 00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:33,920 when you have something that's ingrained in you from, from birth, right? You grew up in 524 00:44:33,920 --> 00:44:41,880 Rome. Yeah. The Roman way is the Roman way. And then Jesus says, well, not quite. In fact, 525 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:47,440 I'm going to get into that next week when we talk about Caesar Augustus. Yep. Yeah. 526 00:44:47,440 --> 00:44:53,080 Well we got one more week in this series and season and season. And if you're watching 527 00:44:53,080 --> 00:44:56,320 this on YouTube, you're going to tune in next week and you're going to be like Ben and Spencer 528 00:44:56,320 --> 00:45:03,080 look the same. Exactly the same. That's because we waited one week and wore the exact same 529 00:45:03,080 --> 00:45:09,760 clothes. We waited exactly five minutes between recording episodes. So, uh, that's kind of 530 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:16,040 how it goes. Uh, Ben and I, Oh, this was one year or two ago when we were early on in the 531 00:45:16,040 --> 00:45:19,400 podcast. We're like, do we need to like bring a change of shirt in between recording back 532 00:45:19,400 --> 00:45:23,640 to back episodes? I was like, I'm not doing that. Yeah. It's like, I've just, people who 533 00:45:23,640 --> 00:45:27,860 are watching, they're going to be like, wait a second. Well, see, there's also a pretty 534 00:45:27,860 --> 00:45:31,360 good chance that even if we did do this a week later, one of us would wear the same 535 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:36,760 shirt. It's very true because we have a few shirts that we really like. It's very true. 536 00:45:36,760 --> 00:45:42,880 Lindsay laughs at me because I have four of the exact same sweater, same color, everything. 537 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:47,080 I think I'm down to three. I think one of them like crapped out on me. Right. But, uh, 538 00:45:47,080 --> 00:45:51,080 and she's like, why do you have that? I was like, so I don't have to think about it. Yeah. 539 00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:56,920 Like I just don't have to think about it. Like I just, I get it. Yeah. I was like, I'm 540 00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:02,800 with you. Yeah. I'm with you. Yeah. All right. Until next week, Caesar Augustus. 541 00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:07,040 And that's a wrap for today's episode of Love and Context. We hope you enjoyed this engaging 542 00:46:07,040 --> 00:46:10,720 conversation and gained valuable insights into the powerful message of love within the 543 00:46:10,720 --> 00:46:15,720 Bible. We'd love to hear from you and continue the conversation. Connect with us by sending 544 00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:22,200 us your questions, thoughts, and suggestions to loveandcontext.gmail.com. We greatly appreciate 545 00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:27,720 your feedback and ideas for future episodes. Stay connected with us on social media for 546 00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:33,040 updates, behind the scenes content, and additional resources. You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, 547 00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:37,400 YouTube, and Facebook at loveandcontext. Don't forget to hit that follow button to stay up 548 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:41,440 to date with the latest episodes and join our growing community. Thank you for being 549 00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:46,680 part of the Love and Context family. Remember, love is at the heart of it all. Until next 550 00:46:46,680 --> 00:46:51,360 time, keep seeking wisdom, embracing love, and living out your faith in the context of 551 00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:52,120 today's world.