HERODIAS AND HER DAUGHTER.
Herod feared John himself, “knowing that he was a just and holy man” Mark 6:20. Herodias however was incensed that John had publicly condemned her, and she “held it against him and wanted to kill him” Mark 16:19.
Her chance came when Herodias’s daughter danced at a feast Herod gave, and the king effusively told the young woman to name her own reward. When she looked to her mother for advice, Herodias told her to ask for John the Baptist’s head.
Certainly Herodias was a grasping and self-centred woman. She abandoned Philip to marry the more important Herod, even though she knew this was condemned in God’s Law. When John preached against the marriage, her pride produced murderous intent.
She did not hesitate for a moment to involve her own daughter in what was nothing less than the murder of a godly man. Harsh, brittle and hardened, Herodias cared for nothing but revenge. She won her revenge. But sacred history has marked her as the New Testament counterpart of the Old Testament’s detested Jezebel.
A. John the Baptist had spoken out against Herod’s decision to wed his brother’s wife which was contrary to God’s law. While Herod seems to have been shaken by John’s preaching, Herodias became furious. She knew that what she had done was wrong, but when meet head-on she refused to admit and correct her fault. Anger at others is often a sign of hardness in our own hearts, a warning we need to heed.
Her anger led her to a far greater sin, as she planned to end John’s life. If we harden our hearts, we make ourselves open to far greater sins.
