Romans 12:1-5 is a biblical account of God’s truth and sovereignty over human history and culture. There are several applicable lessons to be learned from this text. First, in application to the current status of the world today we can clearly see that history repeats itself.
This Herod is Herod Agrippa I, which reigned in Palestine between A.D. 37-44. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, the individual that was visited by the Magi from the East. He was responsible for the infant massacre in Bethlehem when Jesus was a baby, along with many other similar acts of violence. Agrippa I had a difficult time following the leadership ability of his family and even found himself imprisoned by Rome due to careless comments in relation to Caesar. However, even with this track record was shortly given the office of ruler (king) of northern Palestine. In this role his methodology of leadership was to spend money and quickly found himself with more debt than the people could pay.
When the money pressure became too intense, he began to use another tactic, declare war on the poor, helpless and despised. This classification clearly fit the Jewish Christians of that day and James, one of the sons of thunder and brother of John, was the first target. This action pleased the religious, wealthy, influential people of that day and took there minds off of his other failures. His next target was Peter however, God in His sovereign plan and control protected Peter to go on and do great things for the Lord.
The second lesson is this, whatever may come our way due to whatever reasons the best way to respond is by being steadfast in our love, service and admiration of the Almighty God. We see and know that by only the power of God, the Church survived and is still surviving today. God is sovereign in perilous times as well as the good times.
The third lesson is that we must not be overcome by the temporal and miss the eternal. A true believer’s home is not this world. We have much more to look forward to and put our trust in than leaders who can’t manage money and government, issues and treats of persecution or anything else the world and the evil one can dish out. We serve the God Almighty who created all things and will sustain what is His.
Lastly, was can also see that God always wins. Herod, in his pride, took too much ground and when he began to take God’s position on earth, earth swallowed him up. I encourage you to be confident not in the circumstance but in the One who saves to the uttermost.
