A SIGN OF DANGER

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Matthew 4:12

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. Mark 1:14

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. Luke 3:19-20, 4:14

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, we found John the Baptist letting his disciples know who was the greater between him and Jesus after there was complaining over Jesus gaining more followers. You’ll recall John’s words of humility and honor toward the Messiah, saying that he was only interested in becoming less so Jesus could be more. It’s a life attitude that every true Christian should have.

You’ll recall the scene of the closing verses of John 3 was in the Judean countryside. We know Jesus was in proximity to John who the scriptures tell us was “baptizing at Aenon near Salim”, a location on the Jordan River and within the tetrarchy (or ruling region) of Herod Antipas.

Why was this important to know?

Because as we look at our scripture passages for today, we find that John fell into deep trouble, trouble with led Jesus to withdraw from the area in response to the sign of danger. Look again at our verses for today:

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he withdrew to Galilee. Matthew 4:12

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. Mark 1:14

But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. Luke 3:19-20, 4:14

The Romans weren’t exactly the most righteous lot. Nearly all of them refused to believe in God and so you know that they had no interest in Jesus either. After all, they had their own bevy of gods (plural) to worship, gods that would support a rather lascivious lifestyle, a lifestyle like we find portrayed in the Roman king Herod.

The scriptures tell us that Herod decided to take his brother’s wife as his own, marrying her and drawing the criticism of none other than John the Baptist who rebuked the king for his adulterous behavior as well as “all the other evil things he had done”. It was enough to raise the ire of Herod who promptly had John thrown into prison. Later in the Gospels, we will see that it’s there that John met his end, mostly through the conniving of Herodias, but for now, we’ll leave this here and look at how Jesus responded to the arresting events.

God’s word tells us that when Jesus heard of John’s imprisonment, He decided to leave Judea and withdrew to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit”. There, Jesus went back to His ministry work, proclaiming the “good news of God” which resulted in news about Him spreading across the countryside. More and more people were being drawn to the One who God sent to save them.

Through Jesus’ actions, we see the importance of reading the situations taking place around us. In the military, we call that having good situational awareness. John spoke out against the ruler Herod and found himself abducted and incarcerated. Jesus read what was going on, recognized the sign of danger, and took appropriate action to keep Himself safe. It was not yet time for Him to die and it certainly wasn’t time for Him to be imprisoned. It was rather the Father’s will to continue to teach, preach, heal, and help save others.

And Jesus went on to do just that as we will see in tomorrow’s message.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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