Harsh

Acts 12:18-23 (TNIV) -

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.

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 mere mortal.”

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.

My thoughts -

This was the sort of thing that fascinated me as a teenager first getting into reading the Bible. It was "awesome". Gore and blood and guts and death and worms and stuff. It's like the Bible was a movie. This was pretty cool stuff.

Maybe it's empathy, but I'm not into this. Peter was led away from prison. This was a miracle. He was rescued. His situation was redeemed. God is good. And yet, the flip side of this miracle is that the guards who, let's face it, are incapable of competing against the direct hand of God here, are executed. This isn't their fault. They were just on the wrong side of a miracle. I'm sure someone can tell me that they were really bad guys and had it coming or something but I just don't have the stomach for this.

Also, speaking of bad guys who have it coming, Herod gets what's coming to him at the end of this passage. Now that's one bad dude right there. Imprisoning and planning to execute Peter. Killing the guards who let (I don't like this - if it was a miracle they didn't "let" anything happen, God just made it happen) Peter escape. And now he's up in front of the people being praised like he's a god.

Boom! Struck him down! Ate by worms! Heck yeah!

No, sorry. I'm just not into that either. Sometimes I feel like being a prophetic witness for our obligation to the powerless has helped encourage me to dehumanize the powerful some. But if I can mourn for the loss of Herod here than I think I haven't completely dehumanized them yet.

Yes, 15 year old me LOVED passages like this one. And for the same reason 15 year old me loved violent movies and books. 15 year old me was an idiot.

31 year old me doesn't know what to make of this. 31 year old me doesn't know what to make of a lot of suffering, though. Stuff like this SHOULDN'T happen. And yet it does. The world isn't perfect. Will God fix this? Will God come in and make everything alright? Will God ask us to? Is God asking us to right now? I don't know.

All I know is there's a lot of suffering in this world and SOMETHING needs to be done about it.