Praise

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

PRAISE

Acts 12:18-23

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while. 20 He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king's country for their food supply. 21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22 They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." 23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

NIV

We take a brief pause in the lives of the apostles and disciples to spend a moment with this king Herod. From what we can tell he was not a very nice king at all. His very own men, who served him to the best of their ability were put to death for no reason except Herod needed somebody to pay for Peter escaping from jail. It would seem appropriate to think these guards did not see the angel that came for Peter. It would seem right they simply were there, on their post and in a moment, in a millisecond of time, Peter was there and then he wasn’t. The time it took Peter to get up and get dressed, the angel held the guards in a suspension of time, in a time warp so to speak. They did not see anything, and this the king could not reconcile. He, like the rest of the world could not come to grips with anything they cannot see. He simply did not believe his own guards, and had to think they were lying to cover up their mistake. Men who do not know God, cannot understand what God can do. But then we also get the impression from the rest of this account, perhaps Herod thought himself as a god and had put aside God. This is also a sad commentary on mankind as well in that we see people of Tyre and Sidon crying for peace with the king because they depended on his country for food. When we become dependent on man for whatever, we can certainly lose sight of depending on God. The problem is dependency brings submission, and to submit to man rather than God is absolutely the wrong way to live. Yes, God established the officials of the land, for the purpose to govern and we as believers should live in accordance with the laws of the land we live in. But obedience of the law, is not submission to the ideology. When Herod in all his pomp and ceremony, dressed in his finest official robes, seated upon his royal throne, showing himself all puffed up, giving his royal speech, because the people needed his country for food, they called him a god. He did not refute this claim at all and we see the result of accepting their praise. We can learn from this also, in that when we do anything which people might tell us how great we did it, we should be careful to give God the praise. It would seem this would especially apply to preachers and teachers, who stand before people with their eloquent words and knowledge of the Word of God. When told in the foyer by congregants it was a great message, they really should be giving praise to God instead of saying thank you. In fact we congregants should not be like those people of Tyre and Sidon giving praise to the preacher, but then maybe those who do are dependent on him for food, because they cannot feed themselves, they wish to be seen as loyal subjects of his church. Maybe it is just human nature and there is nothing truly evil in it, except we really do need to be careful in accepting any praise from men without forwarding that praise to God. We also really do need to be careful in giving praise to men, which could be tempting them to accept it and putting them in danger from God. Although many men might have some great talents or abilities and seem far superior to others in their knowledge of certain things, they should not be prideful and we who may not have such as great a talent or ability should not lift them to a place of praise. We are all but sinners, each able to be saved by grace, and not of any works of our own. God should be praised for all that we are, and all that we are able to do. What we do should not be for the praise of men, but for the praise of God. It is God and God alone who desires the praise for everything we are and do.