Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 12:20-25 (February 16, 2026)

February 16, 2026:  Monday Bible Study on Acts 12:20-25

May the LORD'S blessings surround you today, and always, and may the courage of your faith sustain you for all the ins and outs of life in this time in our world. Thank you for your continuing prayer support for members of our congregation. Please keep Pastor Ron and Becky in your prayers as they meet the need for some monthly medical treatments while figuring out if they will be able to get to Tucson at all this winter. As this medical care unfolds in their lives, may God surround them with the love and support of their many friends and sisters and brothers of faith. Please pray for my sister-in-law Connie. She is the widow of my older brother who died last year. Connie suffers from Parkinsons and continues her difficult journey with Rick's loss. This past week she moved to Grand Rapids, MI from the little city along Lake Michigan where she grew up, married, and lived her entire life. She wants to be done with life right now. Thanksgiving to God for her son Aaron and daughter Shannon who are helping her make this transition to assisted living in the city where Aaron lives, and just a short 1-and-1/2-hour drive from Shannon. Living with oppressive grief can truly be debilitating.

Our study text for today is Acts 12:20-25. It may seem like a rather short and insignificant passage, and it really appears to have no direct meaning for the journey of our disciples on the surface, but if you remember that long line of Herods that I shared with you last week. Here, once again, we encounter one of them who is the king of Tyre and Sidon. Obviously, this has been a difficult relationship between Herod and the people over whom he reigns. This land north of Palestine is reliant on Palestine for the well-being of their own regions and cities. If Herod kept the trade of Palestine from coming through that area, they would be economically devastated, and even worse, is that the food supplies for this area came to them from Palestine too. These communities appealed to Herod through the king's chamberlain and were granted a public meeting with the king. According to Josephus, the Jewish historian, on the second day of this "festival", Herod appeared in a full robe of spun silver and promptly died on the spot. It seems like a just end for the line of kings who were responsible for the death of the Savior! I have no personal experience, of which I am aware, of this text's use of an angel of God who is responsible for this death, but it would not be the first time that credit was given to God for such a death. Similar reports exist in both testaments of the Bible. After all, Jesus has already claimed that it is the right of the Trinity to be the judges of all of God's creation, including people. How the punishment is given can often be seen as the natural consequences of a person's behavior or circumstance, but that is not to say that God has not caused it to happen. Herod was full of himself, and this particular robe must have weighed an incredible amount. Was it Herod's vanity, his poor cardiac health, or perhaps a stroke? We will never know, but we do know that it is God's right and privilege to bring judgement against the unrepentant sinner, and unfaithful of His children. In all of this where do you and I stand since we know that we are sinful too? We are the recipients of the Spirit's gift of faith, and as we move forward in our faith journeys, we are given the assurance of God's forgiveness through the merit of our Savior, who has paid the price of being the sacrifice for our sinfulness in our place!

There seems to be a little tag on at the end of our passage for today. It moves us back quickly to what is happening in the early church, and the journeys of Paul and Barnabas. God's Word is indeed being shared, and the result is the growth of the new Church, even in the face of persecution from the Jews and Romans. It is in the 13th and 14th chapters that we have the record of Paul's first missionary journey. They departed from Antioch and headed to Cyprus. There they preached at Salamis and Paphos. From Paphos they sailed to Perga in Pamphylia, a low-lying coastal area. Evidently, Paul struggled with his health in this area, and so his party set off overland, and came to Antioch in Pisidia. It is here that the well-being of Paul's party is threatened, so they set off for Iconium which was about 90 miles away from Antioch. Once again, they were threatened, and took the Word to Lystra, and once again they were threatened and moved on to Derbe. They then decided to return and followed the path in reverse which they had followed through Asia Minor, ending up in Antioch once again. The entirety of their journey of sharing the Gospel had taken nearly three years. On their return trip they had some greater success with their preaching in communities where they had been threatened when they began this first trip. This all helps us to realize that it may take more frequent witnessing with someone than just the one time that they reject our hearts for Christ. After all, Jesus never gives up on anyone, no matter who they are. However, we must know that Jesus knows what we do not about that person's future journey of belief but still chooses to seek them through the power of the Holy Spirit to change the trajectory of their living without Him, to living knowing that they must be with Him.

Thank you for sharing with me today. I am with you in your journey too, and so is the Christ of God!

In His Love and Grace, Pastor Kim