Bible Reading: Luke 1:1-25 (Also read Matthew 2)
Key Verse: Verse Luke 1:5 – “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.”
Key Words: There was in the days of Herod, the king
It is said that Herod the Great was a man of great physical strength. He was intellectually strong, he was of a strong will, and very shrewd. He had great organizational ability. While his name bears the title of “Great,” history records otherwise. He was a brutal man, full of lust, and exterminated those who stood in his way. He ordered the execution of his own family members and of infant babies in order to have Jesus killed. Herod the Great died in 4 B.C. unmourned and unloved.
Would you not agree that Herod, while having everything that life had to offer, lived in hell while on earth?
E. Stanley Jones, in his book Growing Spiritually, talks about a fictional person who lived out a fantasy life. All he had to do was think of it and (poof!) it happened. So this man, in a moment of time, sticks his hands in his pockets and leans back and imagines a mansion and (poof!) he has a fifteen-bedroom mansion, three stories with servants instantly available to wait upon his every need.
Why, a place like that needs several fine cars. So he again closes his eyes and imagines the driveway full of the finest wheels money can buy. And (poof!) there are several of the best vehicles instantly brought before his mind’s eye. He is free to drive them himself or sit way back in the limousine with that mafia glass wrapped around the rear, and have the chauffeur drive him wherever he wishes.
There’s no other place to travel so he comes back home and wishes for a sumptuous meal and (poof!) there’s a meal in front of him with all of its mouth-watering aromas and beauty – which he eats alone. And yet...there was something more he needed to find happiness.
Finally, he grows so terribly bored and unchallenged that he whispers to one of the attendants, “I want to get out of this. I want to create some things again. I’d rather be in hell than here,” to which one of the servants replied, “Sir, where do you think you are?”
Many people are living a life of hell on earth. When all we live for is self and things, it becomes a hell on earth.
What to do:
✞ Live for Jesus, others, and then you...and you’ll have joy.
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