Herod Raises His Head

Jeremiah speaks the Words of God in Jeremiah 8:20-22:

20  The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

21  For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

22  Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Israel had cast off the Word of God and reaped their sowing.  “Is there no balm in Gilead?”  Man has rejected his medicine, therefore he is not healed.  The Creator of all, big and small, has given us the medicine of all of life’s maladies.  That medicine is Jesus Christ, the Word of the living God.  Isaiah speaks prophetically of the coming Christ in chapter 53:4-6:

4  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5  But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Salvation and healing for the soul and the flesh is only found in Christ Jesus.  Have you taken the remedy for the terrible plague of sin and death?  Would you like the answer to all of your troubles, those that you’re presently experiencing and the ones yet to come?  Would you like to start over again free of all your guilt and shame?  Would you like a new Father, a new purpose, a totally new forgiven identity, and a new eternal destiny?  You can have all of those things today.  Click onto “Further With Jesus” for the beautiful and immediate answer.  Are you ready for the remedy?  Do it now.  NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.

GOD SAID, Matthew 2:1‑18:

1  Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,                

2  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

3  When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

5  And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

6  And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

7  Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

8  And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

9  When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

10  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11  And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

12  And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

13  And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

14  When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:

15  And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

16  Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

17  Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

18  In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

MAN SAID:  The Bible is an unreliable record of history.  It is laden with false information.

Now THE RECORD.  The man said he had a bone to pick with me, but it was actually an issue of another sort. 

Years ago, a salesman was in my office presenting his wares when the subject of God arose.  He mentioned that he was an agnostic (no decision yet) and was waiting for someone to offer credible proof.  On my credenza sat a series of cassette tapes containing the original GodSaidManSaid Proof Series.  I handed the tapes to him and sent him on his way.  Several days later, my phone rang.  The caller was the salesman.  He said concerning the tapes he had reviewed, “I have a bone to pick with you.”  At that moment, God revealed to me that what the man was really saying was, “All the loopholes have been closed and I’m not willing to pay the price of salvation.”  When I told him what God had shown to me, he told me that that, in fact, was the truth.  He gave his heart to Jesus Christ that day.

If an honest unbeliever spends any appreciable time on GodSaidManSaid (one hour or more), the loopholes will begin to close dramatically.  This unbeliever will be faced with a decision of which the consequences are eternal.  Some visit GodSaidManSaid on a daily basis.  Presently this site archives 355 feature articles in text and streaming audio averaging 10 to 15 minutes each.  These messages are capsules filled with marvelous secrets and pearls of God’s great wisdom.  The number of articles grows by one, God willing, every Thursday eve.  A good weekly study program could include two visits per week: one visit attending the “Weekly Webcast,” and the second visit beginning at the top of the “Archaeology” section, and proceeding from there.  At that rate, it will take you about 6.3 years to exhaust the present database as well as the features that will be added along the way.  Surely the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet.  Walk ye in it.

For over 6,000 years, Satan has paraded forth carnaldom’s best minds—the connivers of evil—to malign, to belittle, and to discredit the Words of God found in His Holy Bible.  This is Satan’s M.O.  In the garden, he challenges our great-grandmother with “Yea hath God said¼?”  His consortium challenges, to name a few, are as follows:

• God’s six‑day creation

• A 6,000‑plus‑year‑old Earth

• The Garden of Eden

• Adam and Eve           

• Noah’s Ark

• Abraham and circumcision

• Sodom and Gomorrah

• Moses and the Red Sea

• Joshua fit the battle of Jericho  

• David and Goliath

• The grandeur of Solomon

• Jonah and the whale

• The animalization of Nebuchadnezzar

And then, into the record of the New Testament and its record of Jesus Christ,

• The virgin birth in Bethlehem

• Herod killing the babies

• The miracles of Christ

• The condemnation of Jesus

• Pontius Pilate

• Caiaphas

• The crucifixion

• The resurrection

• The acts of the apostles, and so much more.

It’s glorious to behold.  Challenge after challenge after monotonous challenge is made, yet the Word of God stands unscathed, undefeated, and magnificently dominant. 

Some of Satan’s most ardent admirers claim there is not one stitch of evidence that the Christians’ Jesus ever lived and that the names and events in the scriptures are basically bogus.  They continue to fall in the holes they dig.  In May of this year (2007), a notable figure in the story of Jesus Christ surfaced.  King Herod of the Bible—the one who, in an attempt to kill Jesus Christ, ordered the killing of all male children of Bethlehem from the age of two and down—has lifted his ugly head.  For more information on the massacre of the children, click onto “Herod Murders The Children.”  The following excerpts are from the Associated Press, May 9, 2007:

An Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday said he has found the tomb of King Herod the Great, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land.

Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said the tomb was found at Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert where Herod the Great built a palace compound. Netzer has been working at the site since the 1970s.

Netzer said the tomb was discovered when a team of researchers found pieces of a limestone sarcophagus believed to belong to the ancient king.

Although there were no bones in the container, he said the sarcophagus' location and ornate appearance indicated it is Herod's.

"It's a sarcophagus we don't just see anywhere," Netzer said at a news conference. "It is something very special."

Stephen Pfann, an expert in the Second Temple period at the University of the Holy Land, called the find a "major discovery by all means," but cautioned further research is needed.

He said all signs indicate the tomb belongs to Herod, but said ruins with an inscription on it were needed for full verification.

"We're moving in the right direction. It will be clinched once we have an inscription that bears his name," said Pfann, a textual scholar who did not participate in Netzer's dig.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 40 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem during the time of the Jewish Second Temple is the one that can be seen today. 

[Herod the Great is also blamed in the New Testament's Gospel of Matthew for having ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, the execution of all male Jewish infants in Bethlehem, after having been told that the new King of the Jews had been born there.]

It has long been assumed that Herod was buried at Herodium, but decades of excavations failed to turn up the site until now. The first century historian Josephus Flavius described the tomb and Herod's funeral procession.  [End of quote]

The New York Times added the following:

Herodium was built on the edge of the desert, south of Jerusalem.  For decades, archaeologists looking for the tomb of King Herod have focused on one site in particular, based on an account in the first volume of “The Wars of the Jews,” written by the first‑century historian Flavius Josephus.

Josephus wrote that a 25‑mile funeral procession for the Roman Empire’s man in Judea and the great builder of Jerusalem ended at “Herodium, where he had given order to be buried,” according to a translation at The Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

Instead of continuing about the procession’s final steps, and perhaps revealing further clues about the tomb’s location, the historian evidently considered the chapter done with the next sentence.

“And this shall suffice for the conclusion of the life of Herod,” he wrote.

“It is something very special,” Professor Netzver said of Herod’s sarcophagus.  The omission sets up what The Los Angeles Times has called “one of the Holy Land’s greatest archeological mysteries.”

Chasing that mystery and others for the past 35 years has been Professor Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University.

Today, he was finally able to announce an answer: The tomb was on the northeastern slope of Mount Herodium, a site that his team has been excavating since last summer.

 The professor said that Jewish rebels trashed the place during the Great Revolt between the years 66 and 72 A.D., breaking Herod’s sarcophagus—made of rosetta‑studded “Jerusalemite reddish limestone—into “hundreds” of pieces.  [End of quote]

When God says “Yes,” wise men and women say, “Amen.”  The Bible is a supremely accurate history book.

GOD SAID, Matthew 2:1‑18:

1  Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,                

2  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

3  When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

4  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

5  And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

6  And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

7  Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

8  And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

9  When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

10  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

11  And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.