Where Is My Faith? (Part 1)

Note: The idea for this post and the related ones that will follow come from a sermon I heard several years ago by Dr. Dennis Lloyd of the Granny White congregation in Nashville.

Acts 12 is an interesting chapter. It's almost a side note to the story of Saul. It follows chapters that describe the work of Peter and the early work of Paul, then called Saul. The end of chapter 11 sends Saul and Barnabas off from Antioch to Jerusalem. We don't read of them again until the very last verse of chapter 12. In between we're given four examples of faith as displayed by other people. The focus of the chapter is on other people; James, Peter, Herod, Rhoda and the believers at Mary's house. It reveals to us varying levels of faith, microcosms of us.

The first example in chapter 12 is the faith of Herod Agrippa I. We're told he is harassing the church and kills the apostle James. Verse 3 tells us a lot about where his priorities are. He imprisons Peter because he saw that killing James, "pleased the Jews". He no doubt planned to also have Peter killed for sport based on verse 4.

Starting in verse 20 we read another account of Herod, this time in Caesarea. He'd not been happy with the people of Tyre and Sidon but through his personal aide, they'd come asking for peace. They were giving in to him and he decides to address them. Verse 21 says he was, "...arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them." The first century historian Josephus says in his Jewish Antiquities that this "royal apparel" was made out of material that had silver sown into it. As Herod sat on his throne above the people, sunlight reflected on the silver shined off of him. This made it look like light was coming from Herod. That's why the people listening got caught up in the moment and shouted, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" Verse 23 tells us the result of his actions which was death, "because he did not give glory to God." His faith was in himself and his public, not what was right and wrong. God not only received no glory, He wasn't even considered.

It's easy for us to read this and not see any similarities between us and Herod. After all we don't have the ability to imprison and kill people on a whim. We don't rule over people. Besides his actions, our lesson should be from his motivation.

He wanted people to like him. He wanted people to be happy with him and what he did. He's sensitive to his actions from pleasing the Jews to killing the guards for letting Peter escape. How many times do we let our desire to be liked or accepted by others interfere with what we know is right? How many times do we say or do something not because it gives glory to God, not because it's the right thing to do but because it will make others feel good about us? That's the faith Herod had; a faith in himself and in others. When we feel we can make decisions on our own we have this same faithless faith.Look at the result then ask youself "Where Is My Faith?"