Acts 12:20 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we see the death of Herod. God judged him, not only for putting James to death, but also for planning to kill Peter. Sinners will answer not just for the evil they carry out, but for the evil they try to do, even when they fail (Psalm 28:4). Herod did not live much longer after this, and God sometimes brings judgment quickly.

Notice how his guilt reached its full point. Pride brought him down. Pride often comes just before destruction, and a proud spirit before a fall. Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, had also been cruel and a persecutor, but the proud words in his mouth brought judgment on him: “Is not this great Babylon that I have built?” (Daniel 4:30-31). God’s glory is seen in bringing the proud low (Job 40:12).

The case here is striking and shows how God resists the proud. The people of Tyre and Sidon had offended Herod, and he was determined to make them feel his anger. Those cities were under Roman rule and depended on him, so even a small offense was enough for a man like Herod to pick a fight. When a ruler is ruled by pride, his wrath can feel like a roaring lion.

The people of Tyre and Sidon gave in. They may not have admitted fault, but they knew it was useless to resist such a powerful enemy. They wanted the matter settled because their land depended on the king’s land for food. Tyre and Sidon were trading cities with little farmland, and they were supplied with grain from the land of Canaan. Since their security depended on Herod’s favor, they sought peace with him. It is wise for us to make peace with God and humble ourselves before him, since our dependence on him is far greater than one nation’s dependence on another.

They tried to stop the conflict by winning over Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, likely with gifts and bribes. That is often how people make friends at court. It is a hard thing for rulers that their affairs, and even their feelings, can be managed by such mercenary helpers. Yet a proud ruler like Herod, who would not be guided by reason, was still better managed this way than by pride and anger.

Herod then came out in full splendor. He was dressed in his royal clothing and sat on his throne (Acts 12:21). Josephus says he wore a silver robe that shone in the sun and dazzled the eyes of the crowd. Foolish people judge others by outward show, and worse still are those who judge themselves by such praise. Herod tried to cover the lack of a royal heart with a royal robe, as if his throne gave him the right to trample over others.

He then made a speech to the men of Tyre and Sidon. It was likely a polished speech, in which he pointed out their fault, praised their submission, and then made clear he would pardon them and take them back into favor. He was proud enough to think he controlled who lived and who died. He may even have kept them uncertain until that moment, so that his mercy would seem more impressive.

Then the people shouted praise. Since they depended on him and benefited from his favor, they cried out, “The voice of a god, and not of a man” (Acts 12:22). Perhaps they were struck by his appearance and his speech. Or perhaps they did not truly think so highly of him, but were eager to flatter him and secure their peace with him. Great men are easily led into danger when they listen to flatterers and welcome their praise.

This is a dishonor to God, because it gives to man the glory that belongs to God alone. It is also harmful to the one who is praised, because flattery makes him forget himself and fills him with pride. That kind of pride leaves a person in the greatest danger of falling under the devil’s judgment. Herod took those praises to himself, enjoyed them, and became proud because of them. That was his sin. We are not told that he ordered his companions to begin the shout or that he corrected the crowd, which makes his guilt all the greater.

His fault was that he said nothing. He did not rebuke their flattery, reject the title they gave him, or give God the glory (Acts 12:23). Instead, he took it for himself. He was glad the praise ended with him, and that people would think of him as a god and pay him divine honor. If people want to be deceived, let them be deceived. This was even worse in him, because he was a Jew who claimed to believe in only one God, than it was in the pagan emperors, who had many gods and many lords.

2. How his sin was punished: at once (Acts 12:23) the angel of the Lord struck him, by Christ’s order, since all judgment has been given to Christ. God is jealous for his own honor, and he will be glorified even by those who refuse to glorify him. Herod was eaten by worms above ground and gave up his spirit. In this way he was paid back for troubling the church of Christ, killing James, imprisoning Peter, and all the other evil he had done.

Notice, in Herod’s destruction, that it was no less than an angel who carried it out, the angel of the Lord, the one appointed and sent for that work, the destroying angel. Or it may mean the same angel who had delivered Peter earlier in the chapter struck Herod. God uses ministering spirits either for judgment or mercy, as he chooses. The angel struck him with a severe disease just as he was boasting in the crowd and admiring himself. In the same way, the king of Tyre said in his pride, “I am a god, I sit in the seat of a god,” but God said he would be only a man, a weak mortal in the hand of the one who kills him (Ezekiel 28:2-9), and so it was with Herod. Powerful rulers must know not only that God is all-powerful, but also that angels are stronger and mightier than they are. The angel struck him because he did not give glory to God. Angels care about God’s honor, and once they are given the command, they are ready to strike those who claim God’s rights and steal his glory.

It was no more than a worm that destroyed Herod. He was eaten by worms, which means he became worm-eaten. He was already rotten, and he became like rotten wood. Worms destroy the body in the grave, but Herod’s body began to decay while he was still alive, and the worms began feeding on him early. That is how Antiochus, a great persecutor, died.

From this we see what weak and worthless bodies we carry around with us. They already contain the seeds of their own decay, and God can destroy them whenever he speaks the word. Recent discoveries through microscopes have shown how many worms there are in human bodies and how much they help cause disease. That should keep us from being proud of our bodies or their gifts, and from pampering them. Doing that is only feeding the worms, and feeding them for the worms.

We also see how God can use weak and contemptible things as tools of judgment when he chooses. Pharaoh was plagued with lice and flies, Ephraim was consumed like with a moth, and Herod was eaten by worms. We also see how God delights not only to bring proud people down, but to bring them down in the most humiliating way, with the greatest shame. Herod was not only destroyed, but destroyed by worms, so that the pride of his glory would be thoroughly stained.

This account of Herod’s death is also given by Josephus, the Jewish historian. He says that Herod went down to Caesarea to celebrate a festival in honor of Caesar. On the second day he went early in the morning to the theater, dressed in that splendid robe mentioned earlier. His flatterers greeted him as a god and begged him to be kind to them. They said they had long honored him as a man, but now they would admit there was in him something higher than mortal nature. He did not refuse or correct this wicked flattery. But soon after, he looked up and saw an owl sitting above his head. At that very moment he was seized with severe pain in his bowels, with intense cramps from the start. He turned to his friends and said, in effect, “Now I, whom you called a god and therefore immortal, must show that I am a man and mortal.” His pain continued without relief, and then he died at the age of fifty-four, after reigning seven years.

II. The progress of the gospel after this.

1. The word of God grew and spread, like seed that is sown and then comes up with a great increase, thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. Wherever the gospel was preached, many believed it and were added to the church (Acts 12:24). After James died, the word of God grew, because the more the church suffered, the more it multiplied, like Israel in Egypt. The courage and comfort of the martyrs, and God’s support of them, did more to draw people to Christianity than their suffering did to turn people away. After Herod died, the word of God gained even more ground. When such a persecutor was removed by a terrible judgment, many were convinced that the Christian cause was surely Christ’s cause, and so they embraced it.

2. Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch as soon as they had finished the work they were sent to do. When they had completed their ministry, delivered the money to the right people, and made sure it was properly distributed to those who needed it, they came back from Jerusalem. They had many friends there, but their work then was at Antioch. We should stay where our duty is, and no longer than necessary be away from it. When a minister is sent out on some errand, once he has finished that ministry, he should remember that he has work waiting for him at home, and that home is calling him back.

When Barnabas and Saul went to Antioch, they took John, whose other name was Mark, the son of the woman in whose house they had held the prayer meeting mentioned in Acts 12:12. She was Barnabas’s sister. It is likely that Barnabas stayed there, and perhaps Paul with him, while they were in Jerusalem. That may be why they gathered there at that time, since Paul always wanted to be doing some good work wherever he was. Their close contact with that family while they were in Jerusalem likely led them to take a son from that family back with them, so he could be trained by them and used in the service of the gospel.

Training young men for ministry, and bringing them into the work, is a very good task for older ministers, and a great help to the generation that follows.