---

Here we have a tragedy in which the principal actors are, on the one side Jesus and John the Baptist, and on the other Herod, Herodias, and Salome. We propose to bring out some of its lessons. Learn, then -

I. THAT THE HAUGHTIEST DESPOT IS HIMSELF RULED BY THE MEANEST THINGS.

1. What is meaner than vile passion?

(1) Capricious lust ruled the destinies of Herod. The king is ruled by the beast. The beast excites the murderer. The man is bedevilled.

(2) "He that ruleth his heart is greater than he that taketh a city." Brute force may take the city. Brute force may imprison the saint. Moral force rules the heart. It vanquishes sin. It vanquishes Satan.

2. What is meaner than the pander of vile passion?

(1) This Herodias was. A despicable woman, who could abandon her living husband to consort with his brother.

(2) The tetrarch was the creature of that wretch. He consented to her stipulation that he should divorce his lawful wife. He became a murderer to please her.

(3) How much lower can the despot sink? Let those who would be honourable eschew despotism. Be admonished by the "dog in office;" by the "beggar on horseback."

II. THAT THE DIVERSIONS OF THE WORLD ARE COMMON OCCASIONS OF SIN.

1. Feasting.

(1) This in the abstract is innocent. There are religious festivals.

(2) Excesses have to be avoided (see Proverbs 23:31-33).

(3) The folly of the fool comes out of his merry heart. There cannot be a better glass, wherein to discern the face our hearts, than our pleasures; such as they are, such are we (Bishop Hall; see Proverbs 10:23; Hosea 7:5).

2. Dancing.

(1) This may evince a holy excitement, as when David danced before the ark. His dancing would be the hilarious stepping of a soul full of holy triumph.

(2) The dancing of Salome was of another kind. The dancing of the ballroom is a pernicious invention to excite criminal passion. It has often led to the sacrifice of chastity, and to murder afterwards to conceal shame.

(3) Christian mothers who send their daughters to the dancing school should remember the mother of Salome (cf. 2 Chronicles 22:3).

3. Company.

(1) The company of the good is from the Lord. It was none the less edifying to the disciples of John because a prison was the place of meeting.

(2) The company of the wicked is from the devil. It is none the less demoralizing when the meeting place is in a palace.

(3) Tyrants will have flatterers for their courtiers. They hate reprovers. John's words were rough like his raiment (see 1 Kings 22:8; Proverbs 9:8; Proverbs 15:10-12). The prisoner is not bidden to the feast.

(4) Unlike the princes of Jehoiakim (see Jeremiah 36:25), the guests of Antipas had not the spirit to protest against the oaths or the murder, and so they became accomplices in both. To their notions of honour the Baptist's head must be sacrificed.

III. THAT A PARTIAL SURRENDER TO TRUTH IS NO SECURITY AGAINST CORRUPTION.

1. Herod for some time spared John's life.

(1) In the first flush of his resentment for John's reproof, he was minded to put John to death. In this, too, he was encouraged by Herodias. But he was restrained by his fear of the multitude, "because they counted John as a prophet."

(2) The fear of man is to the wicked a greater restraint than the fear of God. Men fear to be hanged for what they fear not to be damned (see Ecclesiastes 7:17). The fear of man restrains; the fear of God constrains.

2. He even listened to John's sermons.

(1) The consequence was that he had a new motive for sparing John's life, which was still coveted by Herodias. He now "feared John, knowing. that he was a righteous man and a holy, and kept him safe."

(2) He heard John with a conviction which "much perplexed him; and he heard him gladly" Wicked men are not insensible to the beauty and power of great principles. Many such listen gladly to faithful gospel preaching.

(3) He went further; "he did many things" at the instance of John.

3. But he did not forsake all his sins.

(1) He retained Herodias. How many things in the way of reformation will men do while they hold to the sin that easily besets them!

(2) He detained the Baptist in prison. There he lay for eighteen months - a term equal to that of his public ministry. Thus was the tyrant responsible for the crime the public ministry of that great re. an might have prevented.

(3) The sequel was that, though "the king was sorry," yet he murdered his monitor to gratify his mistress.

IV. THAT THE WICKED HAVE TO DREAD RETRIBUTIVE RESURRECTIONS.

1. Crime distorts the conscience.

(1) "The king was sorry."

(a) Sorry at his banquet. Note: Sorrow accompanies the joys of earth.

(b) Sorry that he had pledged his oath to the damsel when he saw the consequence. How human passion contradicts itself! Now war is waged for an inch of land; now half a kingdom is sacrificed to the will of a young coquette! (Quesnel).

(2) But his honour was at stake. "Herod had so much religion as to make scruple of an oath - not so much as to make scruple of a murder" (Bishop Hall). Can a wicked oath justify a wicked deed?

(3) "For the sake of them that sat at meat with him" (cf. Mark 6:21). The law of honour would condemn Herod as a coward if he did not keep his oath. Yet was he such a coward that he would rather brave the anger of God than the contempt of vain men. So he murdered a great prophet for very tenderness of conscience!

(4) "The king was sorry." Men enter on a new stage of crime when the restraints of fear yield to self-indulgence. A new step in sin is seldom made without compunction. A guilty man is ever miserable under the power of self-accusation, reproach, and remorse.

2. Phantoms arise frown the distortion.

(1) Christ had been now preaching and working miracles about two years, yet Herod had not heard of him. The fame of the good moves slowly to the great (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26; 1 Corinthians 2:8).

(2) The guilty conscience is quick in its conclusions. Herod saw in the miracle worker John the Baptist whom he had beheaded risen from the dead. Blood cries from the conscience of the murderer. He cannot rid himself of that gory visage.

(3) Where now is the Sadducee? The "leaven of Herod" is understood to be the doctrine of the Sadducees (cf. Matthew 16:6; Mark 8:15). They denied the resurrection (see Acts 23:8). But Sadduceeism staggers when conscience is awake.

(4) The resurrections of the conscience, however, are premonitory of those of the last day. John will yet in verity confront Herod before the bar of God. - J.A.M.

---

---

KJV: At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,

WEB: At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus,