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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions, Mark 6, day chapter 3, verses 14 to 29
today. The verses we're going to look at today are a sort of a parenthesis. Mark
gives us the story of Herod the King and John the Baptist.

He does it in response to what had been happening in the ministry and the
miracles of Jesus and how Herod the King responded to those miracles working,
but in so doing he tells us the whole story of what happened with Herod and John
the Baptist. When we get to the end, we'll see together that this is a story
about the destructive power of guilt in any person's life. Let me walk through
this story little by little with you and make some comments along the Beginning
in verse 14.

King Herod heard about this, for Jesus' name had become well known. Now let me
just pause there for a minute and say that this is the son of Herod in the
Christmas story. This is not the Herod in the Christmas story who had the
children of Bethlehem killed.

That was Herod the Great. This is Herod Antipas, his son. And to confuse you
just a little bit more, there's another Herod in the New Testament in the book
of Acts.

Not Herod who persecutes the church is Herod Agrippa the First, the grandson of
Herod the Great. Lots, lots of Herods. We'll talk about that as we walk through
this.

Okay, so let's pick up again in verse 14. Jesus' name had become well known and
so some were saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and that is
why miraculous powers are at work in him. Others said he is Elijah and still
others claim he is a prophet like one of the prophets of long ago.

But when Herod heard this, he said, "John the man I beheaded has been raised
from the dead. " Just another pause. This is guilt beginning its work.

And Mark goes on to tell us why this guilt was there. In verse 17 he says, "For
Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and he had had him bound
and put into prison. He did this because Herodias, his brother Philip's wife,
whom he had married.

" Now let me just explain that in another note. These Herods, these King Herods
had married multiple times, all of them, and they'd had different children by
different mothers who all became a part of this royal line. It created these
twisted and jealous and evil family relationships.

Just to show you how twisted it all was, Herodias, whom Herod went and stole
from his brother, his brother's wife, he lured her away from his own brother,
was not only his brother's wife, but was also his own niece. And so John began
to preach against this. Listen to what happens in verse 18, "For John had been
saying to Herod, 'It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

' So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she was
not able to. Because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a
righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled, yet he
liked to listen to him.

" Just another comment, "Here's an evil man from an evil family who knows the
truth when he sees it. He knows that this is a holy man. He likes to listen to
him.

If you're in a dark room, a single light is obvious and it is attractive, but
Herod could never get beyond listening. " So here's what happened. Let me finish
this story reading verses 21 all the way through verse 29, "Finally the
opportune time came.

On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military
commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in
and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl,
'Ask me for anything you want and I'll give it to you.

' And he promised her with an oath, 'Whatever you ask, I will give to you, up to
half my kingdom. ' She went out and she asked her mother, 'What shall I ask for?
The head of John the Baptist?

' She answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with a request, 'I want
you to give me, right now, the head of John the Baptist on a platter. ' The king
was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did
not want to refuse her.

So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man
went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He
presented it to the girl and she gave it to her mother.

On hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a
tomb. " Now before we get to Herod and his guilt and why this happened, another
question. Why would God allow this?

John the Baptist, who Jesus said no one has ever had greater faith amongst men,
why would God allow this to happen to him? It's often difficult to see why God
allows things to happen, but not in this case. God allowed John's death because
John's work was done.

He'd come to be a forerunner of Jesus and that task was now complete. And even
though this was motivated by evil hearts and petty influences, God allowed it
because of his plan for Jesus. The reasons that God allows evil people or evil
motives to sometimes have a devastating impact on our lives as believers is not
nearly so obvious as this usually.

And yet I can say this, you can trust him. You can trust God. God knows what he
is doing.

He would not have allowed it. He would not have allowed it if it did not fit
into his plan. Now Herod, Herod did what he knew to be wrong.

And then he began to live with this life of guilt. This life of guilt that at
the beginning of these verses he thinks that these miracles that Jesus is
working, somehow it's John the Baptist raised from the dead. That's what his
guilt did to him.

The power of sin and guilt begins to color everything in your life. It happened
for Herod. Jesus heals a little child, but Herod feels hate, maybe it's John the
Baptist.

Jesus feeds 5,000, Herod feels fear, maybe it's John the Baptist. Jesus
forgives, but Herod feels guilt, maybe it's John the Baptist. Jesus makes blind
men see, Herod can only see the ghost of John.

How did he get there? How did Herod get into this deep place of guilt? Why did
he do this?

He didn't want to do it, but he chose to do it. Let's just walk through four
reasons why. Reason number one is he married Herodias.

He took what he wanted. He lusted after his brother's wife and he took her. And
by the way, his brother's wife ruined his life.

Not only here, but if you read the history of his life, he goes eventually to
make a claim before the Caesar of being a king, probably motivated by Herodias'
evil influences as well. And he's banished because of that. He took what he
wanted.

Second thing he did is he let a situation go on longer than it should. He knew
John shouldn't be in prison. He knew he was a holy man and a righteous man, but
he kept him in prison because it must have pleased his wife and just because he
just let it go on.

The third thing that he did is he made promises he never should have made. Maybe
it was because of his drunkenness, maybe it was because of his lust, but for
some reason He made the promise, I'll give you half of my kingdom. Why would any
king ever promise that?

What a foolish promise. He made foolish promises. And then the fourth thing that
he did was this.

He didn't want to look foolish in front of his friends. They were all there at
the party. And when Salome came and said, that's the name we find out in other
Gospels of this daughter and said, I want the head of John the Baptist on the
platter.

The Bible says this. The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths,
he made foolish promises. And because of his dinner guests, he didn't want to
look foolish in front of his friends.

He didn't refuse her. When I look at my life, when you look at your life, we
don't have the power of a King Herod. We can't order people into a prison.

We can't order people's execution. But you and I, we face these same attitudes.
We take what we want sometimes.

We let situations go on longer than they should. We make promises that we never
should make, maybe because of our pride, maybe because we want to boast, look
big and great in front of other people. And we don't want to look foolish in
front of our friends.

And because of that, we do things that later we feel guilty for. Now, if you're
not a teenager, you might talk to your teenagers sometimes about this and say,
don't do what your friends say you should do just to look great in front of them
because you're not going to feel great about it later. If you are a teenager,
you probably look at adults and realize, well, you do it sometimes.

You do things just to look good in front of your friends and you feel guilty
about it later. You buy a house you should never buy and all of a sudden you're
in debt and you're stressed and the only reason really was to impress your
friends. We do this all kinds of ways.

You and I may not have the power of a King Herod, but we face these same
attitudes. And because of this, we make decisions and those decisions cause
guilt in our lives. And that guilt causes the same thing that happened in
Herod's life.

Herod began to see everything wrong. He totally misunderstood who Jesus was. He
saw him only through eyes of guilt.

Look at Jesus Christ today, maybe for the first time, through eyes of grace.
Jesus didn't come to make you feel guilty. Jesus came to give you his grace, to
give you his forgiveness.

And if this King Herod had only recognized that, even with what he did to John,
he could have found God's grace in his life. If you'll only recognize that, you
can find God's grace and maybe you need to find God's grace for a big thing,
something that's been on your mind for a long time. And that guilt over that
thing has been motivating a lot of decisions in your life.

Or maybe you need to find God's grace over what seems to you a little thing, but
it's on your mind a lot. Why did I do that? Why did I let that happen?

Why did I decide that? Find God's grace. Find God's forgiveness.

Jesus wants to give it. That's why he died on the cross. Let's take a moment
right now to talk to him.

Jesus, replace our guilt with your grace. Only you can do that because only you
died on the cross. Only you can do that because only you have the power.

And I pray that right now, by your power, you would replace our guilt with your
grace as we give our guilt to you, as we decide to receive your grace into our
lives. Do something new in us, we pray, Jesus. In your name, amen.

We'll see you back tomorrow. We're going to be talking together about how Jesus
does impossible things in every one of our lives.