Biblestudy: Matthew (Part Nineteen)

Matthew 13:44-14:36
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John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 10-Feb-82; 80 minutes

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Let us go back to the book of Matthew. Once again, we are going to be picking up in Matthew the 13th chapter where we left off. Remember, we were skipping all over the chapter as we went from one parable to its explanation, and back to another parable and then up to its explanation. And we left off at the end of verse 43. So we are going to be picking it up in verse 44.

Matthew 13:44 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

It is kind of a strange circumstance. It is not something that you and I would ordinarily have occur. And I think that really, that is part of the thrust of the parable. How often when you are plowing a field, do you run into a buried treasure? Well, I will tell you, it has happened to you in a spiritual way, though it may never have happened to you physically. Apparently, it was something that occurred, literally, even as Jesus described it here, over in the Palestine area. I will not say fairly frequently, but it did happen often enough that apparently the average Jewish farmer had the hope that maybe it would happen to him.

What occurred was this: There has probably been no piece of real estate that has had more wars fought on it than Palestine. And it seems as though hardly 10 or 20 years would go by, before a new army would be announced that it was on its way. When that occurs, what do you do? Well, I will tell you. We have never really experienced anything like that in this country except maybe during the Civil War. And I know what they did during the Civil War. I have read plenty of stories about what they did in the South when they heard the Sherman was on the way. They went out into the swamps, they dug a hole, and buried all their gold and silver, and everything out in the swamp somewhere, perhaps on their property. And they did that in the hopes that nobody would find it.

Well, that is what Jesus is talking about here. They did not have any banks to put their money in. They could not transfer it to an international bank in Switzerland anywhere. And so when they heard that an army was coming, they put their silver and gold into a pot and went out into their field, dug a hole, and stuck the pot inside the hole. Well, every once in a while it occurred that the army went through there, and maybe the family that owned the property was killed, or maybe they, for some reason or another, could never return to where they had had their homestead. And so their treasure would remain buried until some lucky farmer ran across it, maybe 100, 200 years later, hit the thing with his plowshare, and up came a pot that had a treasure in it.

You know, in those days they did things much like we do today. They had sharecropping, they had tenant farmers. And Jesus is speaking here of an occasion where a tenant farmer, or a sharecropper, a person who did not own the field but was working the field, found the treasure. And so what did he do? Well, he ran into town after making sure that the treasure was buried, tried to gather all the money he could together, and buy the field in the hopes that he could get the treasure that was buried out in there.

The treasure, of course, in the analogy, in the parable, is the Kingdom of God, and the field and the man working in it, just represent a person who was going about his daily routine, minding his own business, and suddenly he comes across a buried treasure. Well, that buried treasure, of course, is the truth of God. It is the gospel of the Kingdom of God. And I do not know how many of you experience things like I did, and my wife did, but I was flipping across the dial, and we heard Mr. Armstrong. I was not seeking after it. My wife was not looking for it. Hardly any of us were actually looking, and we just stumbled across it.

Now, what Jesus is concerned about here, is our reaction to that. Did we really commit ourselves to it? Have we looked upon it as something that is of such great value that we are willing to make any kind of sacrifice, go through any self-denial, whatever is necessary, we are going to do all in our power to gain possession of the Kingdom of God. That is the lesson that is there.

In verses 45-46, it has a little bit different twist. Same general theme, but a little bit different twist.

Matthew 13:45-46 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

The major difference here is that the person was seeking God. Now, it does not mean necessarily, as we can piece together from other portions of the Bible, that he found God simply because he was seeking. We know, we understand that nobody can find God, unless God reveals Himself to that person. See, no man can come to the Son except the Father reveals Him. And so here is a person, though, who was studying, who was praying, who was trying to seek after God, even though he did not really understand what he was seeking after; he was seeking after a god really of this world. But nonetheless, sincerely seeking, and God mercifully revealed Himself.

In a way that happened to my wife and I. We can tell you that for about a year and a half or so, before hearing Mr. Armstrong, we were studying the Bible. We were reading all the books that we could get our hands on about subjects in the Bible. And about the time that we heard Mr. Armstrong, we were to the place where we were beginning to make conclusions regarding our own studies and investigations. When we heard Mr. Armstrong, I think that we were sold almost immediately, because all we heard was 15 minutes of one program. And we were so excited about what we heard that we immediately sent off for the Plain Truth. The first two things we set off for was “The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy” and “1975 in Prophecy”; enough to curl your hair right there.

But we responded very rapidly. And within six months or so, we were baptized. In a way I think my wife and I fit more into that second category. Again, we would have never found God except He revealed Himself to us. But nonetheless, we were diligently searching. My wife was a part of a Bible study group that was going through the book of Isaiah for a while there. And she was getting into all kinds of arguments with the preacher about what the Bible said, and then she would come home, and kind of cry on my shoulder. And I would agree with the preacher, because, I mean, after all, he was the professional, was he not? He ought to know. It turned out my wife was right, not the preacher.

But at any rate, the thrust of the parable is: Are we really committing ourselves to what we have found? Do we value it as though it was the one thing in all of life that is worth more than anything else?

Now, there are a lot of endeavors, let us call them that, a lot of good works that might be fine, but there is nothing to compare with the good news of the Kingdom of God. And have we really committed ourselves? Do we put a high valuation on it—so high again that we are willing to make whatever commitment is necessary?

Matthew 13:47-49 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just.”

Another parable. Again, involved here is the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. And it goes out in a non-discriminatory way; tens of thousands more people are hearing the gospel than are actually captured by it. But even of those who are captured by it, we have varying kinds of people.

Now you have to get a picture of a fisherman casting a net into the sea. You know, he stands somewhere near shore, and when he sees a school of fish coming somewhere near him, then he throws his net out there, and it opens up in the air, it has got lead weights on the ends of it, and when the weights hit the water, they quickly sink and whatever is trapped inside there is pulled into the shore. But let us say figuratively speaking, or maybe even literally, he could draw in dozens of different kinds of fish, even though maybe he only had his eye on one particular kind. He could be dragging in dozens of different kinds of fish with one cast.

That is the way it is as far as being drawn into the church is concerned; when God throws His net out, He drags in or draws in people from all walks of life. And so you might get somebody who might be, let us say, very well educated; someone who has a very fine income, lives in a nice section of town, has a nice home, a nice automobile, fine clothing, and he is refined, and we would call them sophisticated, or cosmopolitan types of people.

On the other hand, somebody could come from across the tracks; not have anywhere near as good of an education; not be sophisticated; just barely able to speak the “King's English,” understands a bit, but nonetheless, he responds, or she responds, and they too are drawn in.

Then again, you might get somebody from let us say the right side of the tracks; who has a fine income and the good education; but they might be somebody of really not very good character, and really not the kind of person you would like to have as your neighbor; been married and divorced and married and divorced five or six times; immoral in many different ways; a brigand in fine clothing.

Then on the other hand, you might get somebody from the other side of the tracks, who does not have much money, but is an honest, upright, upstanding individual, a pretty fine character.

Then you get people who are of all persuasions in between.

So you see, all of these people with all of their different minds and experiences, intelligence levels and character and degrees of sophistication or refinement, are drawn into the same congregation and mixed together.

But now notice what He says: “Gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away.”

Now, what He is talking about here is that continuously there is a culling-out process going on, and it is not that God Himself is necessarily culling the people out, after all, He called them in. Most of the time, we cull ourselves out. We get lazy, spiritually lazy. We neglect our calling, fail to overcome a sin, get turned off because we are bitter for some reason; something does not meet our expectations. There is always a culling process going on.

In this case, of course, the fisherman is God, and He is overseeing the culling. But eventually, at the end of time, we have a joining together with the Parable of the Sower of the Seed, and the seed where He says that at the end, the wheat and the tares will be separated, the tares will be thrown into the Lake of Fire.

And so He brings that parable to a final conclusion, where the sheep are separated from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the bad fish (or the good fish from the lobsters and the clams or whatever you want to call them).

Really, the main thrust of this is the various kinds of people who are drawn in by the net of God's preaching, and the culling process that is constantly going on.

Matthew 13:51-52 Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They said to Him, "Yes, Lord." [I do not think that was the whole truth because I do not think that they understood everything.] Then He said to them, "Therefore every scribe instructed concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old."

You have to see this in the light of the parable that was just given; that is when the net is thrown out, the net gathers in all different kinds of people into the congregation. Now these people (that is, you and me) bring into the congregation all kinds of experiences. We have experiences in business. Some of us are salesmen, some of us are teachers. Some of us work for government, some work in different areas of, let us say, accounting. Some of us are housewives, some of us are mechanics. You know, some of us work in construction. We have all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of experiences, all kinds of intelligence levels, all kinds of educational levels, and business levels, and all kinds of things like that. The important thing is that everybody brings something into the work.

Now, what has to be done? What He is saying here: He brings forth out of His treasure—this treasure could be the man's experiences or the woman's experiences. It can be everything that the person is, all that he has learned in his life, his talents and abilities, his outgoing personality, somebody who is all upfront; a fine greeter; or a good P. R. man. But everybody brings something into the work.

What has to be done is that what we are, and what we have, has to be evaluated in the light of God's truth, and that which is good is then continued to be used; that which is bad needs to be changed to fit God's way of life, or it needs maybe to be thrown out altogether.

What He is saying is that God wants you to use your abilities within the Body, and that God will even add to that and give up His Spirit for the sake of the Body and ultimately, of course, for the sake of God's name. And so no one is to think of themselves as being useless to the work. Nobody is to think of themselves as being useless to the local congregation; that everybody has gifts—that is the old treasure—and everybody adds to that treasure from God's Spirit. That is the new treasure.

And it is interesting that He used as an example is the scribes. Now, in this case, the scribes were those people who were responsible for copying the Old Testament. And also I am sure that they were involved in copying the minute regulations that the Jews had put together regarding the keeping of the Old Testament laws.

Now, you see a scribe, if he were converted, would bring into the Body, into the church, a tremendous background of information in regard to the Scriptures, but not all of his information was correct. So it would have to be evaluated in the light of the truth that God has revealed to him. And he would have to begin to cull out that which was not any good, and then begin to put together that which was good with that which was new, and then use those abilities in the work.

So this really fits right into what Paul said there in I Corinthians 12. There is one verse there that I will read to you. First Corinthians 12:6 says that there are diversities of operations—talking about the Body—but it is the same God, which works all in all, that the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all—it means for the common good. So, that has occurred to you, and it has occurred to me, and God expects us to use our abilities, whatever they might be, and to search around for ways in which we can serve the Body.

Almost everybody can pray. Everybody ought to be able to do that. I should not say almost everybody, everybody can do that, and everybody can study, everybody can build character.

Some people are more adept and equipped to serve in a more physical way. And God expects us to use what we have brought out of our old treasure for the good of the new work that he has put us in.

Matthew 13:53-58 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there. When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.

They, of course, could not conceive that one that they knew so well could preach as He did, that anyone that they knew could speak with such wisdom, and actually have such compelling force in the use of their language.

Now, there is an interesting meaning to this that is important to you and me. He said that “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country and in his own house.” And this, that is important to you and me, involves this principle that He used that cliché to illustrate.

Why could He not get through to them? Well, it is because they were prejudiced in some way—local boy is not the kind that you listen to. If it is somebody from across the water somewhere, and he says the same things, why, he is wise! If a local person says [those things], “Well, who does he think he is?” See? It was a prejudice that was in their mind that someone that they knew as well as they knew Him could not possibly be as accomplished as He was.

What it means to you and me in practical application is this: Any sermon, any message that is preached to have any effectiveness depends as much upon the hearer as it does on the speaker.

Now, I have read in places where some have guesstimated that the effectiveness of a message depends more on the hearer than on the speaker. I do not know. We will say that it is least 50%—50/50. What that means is that each one of us, like these people in the area of Nazareth, brings with us our own prejudices. See, this is part of what this treasure is that He was talking about—this old treasure. There are things in our minds that have resided there for maybe long periods of time. They are attitudes, parts of our thinking, instruction that we received in the past; things that are subtle but nonetheless prove an effective barrier to hearing what is being said, because the prejudice is there.

Now, it could be, let us say, a doctrine, a belief that you have had from your early childhood, maybe something that goes all the way back to Sunday school at some time. It could have been experiences that you have had in growing up, and without even realizing it you are rejecting what is being said based upon your experiences, not upon the Word of God, but on your own experiences, which of course, compared to God's experiences are quite limited. And of course, your experiences are all colored by your attitudes.

But you see, it proves to be something that will reject the truth of God. It could be a sin or weakness in the flesh that causes rejection of truth, because we really do not want to face up to the fact that we have got a problem.

Now, you and I know very well that is the way an alcoholic is. An alcoholic will not admit he is an alcoholic. Usually, until he hits the bottom, until he is just about dead, everybody else can see it, and you can preach to that person till they are blue in the face, and until they bounce off a concrete wall five or six times, they will not admit it. But then when they are all battered, they will begin to admit that they have got a problem, and then maybe there is a chance that they can overcome the problem. I do not care how effectively you speak to that person. The chances are extremely great that they are not going to hear you, because there is a blockage in their mind.

You might speak eloquently, give all the statistics, put everything in the right order, say the right things at the right time, be utterly sincere, completely truthful and you do not budge that person one inch, because his mind is rejecting it.

Now, that is what we have to be very careful of. We are not here on the one hand, just accepting things because they are said by one that we respect as a minister of God. That is one extreme. I will tell you that kind of person is going to be in trouble whenever the pressure comes on, because they are not going to have the faith in themselves. Then on the other hand, there are those who are stone headed, and hard-hearted, and reject things because of their own experience, and really are not open to something that might be new, and are fighting it.

So, the lesson here is that each person brings his own barriers, and everybody has to be cognizant of that. There is a good example back here in Acts 17, verse 10. Paul had just been in Thessalonica, a good example of how our attitude ought to be.

Acts 17:10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Paul had created a storm up in Thessalonica, and those hardheaded people virtually chased him out of town.

Acts 17:11-12 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

You see, what God remarks there is the attitude of mind that these people heard Paul speak in. It was open; it was positive; they proved it out. They proved out what he said, but you see, they proved it positively. They did not approach it negatively. They did not say, well, we are going to find out to see if this fellow is wrong. They said, we are going to see if he is right.

So it shows the state of mind. They were open-minded and positive. And so what God says is a lot of them responded.

Now, these people in Nazareth were not responsive to Christ, because of a barrier in their own minds. And as a result, He could not do many mighty works there.

In Matthew 13:55 is the word carpenter. Now, this word in the Greek is tekton; it does not mean carpenter. Tekton means, a master craftsman. It could be applied to a shipbuilder, a cart maker, it could be applied to a cooper (a person who made barrels), it could be applied to someone who built buildings, anybody who did craftsman-like work.

Now this word tekton is the root word for the English word architect, which means high craftsmen. The arch is Latin for high, and tekton meaning craftsman. So an architect was the person who oversaw.

What most of the modern day commentators feel is that it is more likely that Joseph was involved in the whole range of general contracting; that they were builders of buildings, not just involved in carpentry; rather that they were designing, engineering, supervising the building of stone buildings, and the use of lumber involved in those parts of the building that involved those particular things. So they feel that he was probably a general contractor type, rather than being limited to a carpenter.

And that Jesus would have been, as the eldest son, most deeply involved with him, and the heir-apparent to the general contracting business. That of course added to their prejudice, because they could not conceive that anybody who was the heir-apparent of a father's very fine business would willingly give something up like that for the uncertainties of being an itinerant preacher.

Now, they knew that He was sharp. They had no doubt about that. They knew that He was head and shoulders above His brothers, and everybody else around the area, because they had ample demonstration of that. But they just could not conceive that He could possibly get involved in something like that, when He had such a great future before Him in other areas. I am sure that added to the problem.

There is one more thing in verse 56: If anybody asks you, how many sisters did Jesus have? you can tell them that he had at least three, because it says there, “And His sisters, are they not all with us? If He had one sister, it would have said is not she with us. If He had two sisters, it would have said are they not both with us. If He had three or more, then you would have to use the word all. So He had at least three sisters, and four brothers. I guess we could call them half-brothers and half-sisters. They had the same mother, but they did not have the same father.

Let us jump into chapter 14.

Just for the sake of being different, we could say that the title of this chapter is John the Baptist again, and he appears prominently in this chapter. He takes up almost a third of it, but he is not alive at this time. And so we are going to say that the title for this chapter is The Feeding of the Five Thousand. So we will give it that title.

Now, I am going to start off here by reading 12 verses.

Matthew 14:1-12 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him." For Herod had laid hold of John and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." And although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod. Therefore he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. So she, having been prompted by her mother, said, "Give me John the Baptist's head here on a platter." And the king was sorry; nevertheless, because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he commanded it to be given to her. So he sent and had John beheaded in prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. Then his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

A very grisly story there.

Now, what we are going to do here is to look at some of the characteristics, some of the personality of the characters that are involved in this drama that went on here.

First of all, look at why Herod killed John the Baptist. The Bible tells one side of the story, and Josephus tells another side of the story. And it is possible that they are both true. Josephus is telling the political side and the Bible is telling the moral side.

Josephus says in the Antiquities of the Jews in Book 18, where he has the story of John the Baptist and Herod, that Herod Antipas feared John, because John was so popular. It even mentions this in the Bible about the multitudes. Herod Antipas was afraid that because John was so popular, all he had to do was give the word and the people would rally around him, and there would be a rebellion, and Herod Antipas would, at the very least, have a great deal of trouble on his hands. At the most, he would lose his position under the Romans, because he was unable to contain the people.

Now, the Bible says that the problem, rather than being political, was a moral one, and that John the Baptist lost his head because he told Herod the truth. And Herod got himself between a rock and a hard place, and the way to get out of it was to do away with John, at least that is what he thought.

The story behind the story here is that Herod Antipas had married the daughter of a Nabatean king. Now, anybody who has done any reading at all about Petra ought to know a little wee bit about the Nabateans. And at this time, the Nabatean Kingdom was at its very greatest. And they had really developed Petra into quite a fabulous place. It is estimated that there were several hundred thousand people in the environs of Petra.

Well, their king was named Aretas. And Herod Antipas had married Aretas’ daughter. Now Antipas had a brother, Philip. Philip was the Tetrarch of the provinces, way to the north. However, he preferred to rule in absentia, and he did his ruling from Rome rather than be out in the area where he was supposed to do his ruling. At any rate, one time, Herod Antipas went to Rome, and while he was there, he fell madly in lust with Philip's wife, Herodias. And so, the two of them conspired together. Herodias left Philip, and went back to Palestine with Antipas.

Now, the only trouble was that when Antipas got back there, he already had a wife, the daughter of Aretas. Well, he just summarily divorced her, and sent her off to her father Aretas down in Petra.

Everybody knew that Antipas was guilty on two counts. First of all, he had no reason, no cause to get rid of his wife. Remember what it said in Matthew 19, is it okay for a man to get rid of his wife for any cause? Remember that was the question that the scribes and the Pharisees came to Jesus with? Deuteronomy 24 did not give any list of causes, but apparently there was no reason at all for Antipas to get rid of his wife, except for the fact that he was madly in lust with Herodias.

Secondly, he broke the law of God in that he married his brother's wife while he was still alive, which was forbidden in God's law. Remember the time that the Sadducees came to Jesus with the trick question. Suppose a man marries, and then he dies, and his brother marries, and then he dies, and she marries seven brothers. You see, in each case, the brother had always died.

But in this case, his brother had not died. Well, John the Baptist apparently called a spade a spade, and preached about it publicly, and made sure that everybody knew that Herod Antipas was an adulterer.

Let us look at Herodias. Herodias is a good example of what happens to people when they begin to desire something. It turns into a lust, and we see here that you reap what you have sown. She began to be consumed by her very desire. She was, we will see, a very interesting person.

First of all, from the events that are given in history as well as in the Bible here, I think that we can determine that she was a very ambitious person. She was far more ambitious than Antipas. She was far more ambitious than Philip. Man, that gal wanted to get ahead! She would get ahead any way she could. And so she was immoral, and she was very vindictive; she was the kind of person who would nurse a grudge, and keep that grudge warm and burning in her mind, until she saw an opportunity to strike. She did not forget, even though she was dead wrong, and guilty as anything. She got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. But that did not stop that vindictive lady. She just kept right on going.

Not only that, maybe this is the worst side of her character, she was even willing to use her own child to carry out her vindictive plans, because it was her daughter, Salome, she used to get John the Baptist head on the charger. That is stooping pretty low to use your own kids.

Now, let us look at Salome. It is very likely that she was a teenager. Most of the commentators feel that she was probably no more than about 17 years old when this occurred. And the very fact that she did what she did, in the way that she did, gives a great deal of insight into the kind of training that she received probably either from her mother directly, or at the behest of her mother.

There is no doubt that she was a skilled dancer. But what kind of a dance was it that made Herod's eyes bug out? Well, you know, when they do it in the movies, they call it the Dance of the Seven Veils, you certainly get the impression that what she did was a strip tease. I have no reason to disbelieve that. That is probably what it was. It was no doubt very suggestive, and immoral as well. So, I think that we can conclude that at the age of about 16, 17, or 18 years old, she was well on her way to becoming a second Herodias. She was an outrageous personality already—immodest, immoral in the conduct of her life.

Now, how about Herod? Now it says that Herod was the Tetrarch. That literally means the ruler of the fourth part, but in actual use, it came simply to mean a person who ruled over a subdivision of a nation. And he would have been really more like a governor under a king.

He got in that position because of his father. His father was Herod the Great. Herod the Great was the man who had spent 46 years rebuilding the Temple. And not only that, he built many, many things. He was responsible for building Caesarea, which according to all that I have read, was the most fabulous city in the world at that time; just fabulously beautiful. Even portions of what Herod the Great did still remain to this day. And he could not stop building. He just loved to build beautiful buildings. But at any rate, when Herod the Great died, he divided his kingdom into three parts, apparently with the approval of the emperor in Rome. And so, he gave Judea and Samaria to Archelaus, one son. He gave Trachonitis and Ituraea, which was in present day Syria to Philip, and he gave Galilee and Peraea which was on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee he gave that Antipas.

Now the history books say that Herod Antipas was not a particularly bad king; he apparently ruled with some justice, but I think we can see from chapter 14 that he was a ruler with a guilty conscience. He knew that he had done the wrong thing. Why else would a man think that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected, and come back to life to haunt him? That is what he thought happened.

A person with a guilty conscience and maybe a bit of mythology and false religion thrown in would probably think something like that. Because he thought that Jesus was John the Baptist, perhaps they looked somewhat alike, perhaps they preached about the same things, different personalities. But one thing is sure, that the killing of John the Baptist did not do Herod's feelings any good. So he was a man who was disturbed, because he knew that he had shed innocent blood. It is one thing to put to death a murderer. It is another thing to know that you have put to death a good man—an innocent person. And he was tender-hearted enough to recognize that he had not done the right thing.

Secondarily, I think we can conclude that he was not a strong person either. He was not what we would consider (in the world anyway) a strong person. First of all, it says in verse 9, that the king was sorry that he had made the oath, but he was too weak to change his mind. And it even tells why he did not change his mind, that he was more concerned about the praise of men than he was putting to death an innocent person. He was afraid that he would be embarrassed. He was afraid that his friends who were sitting at the table with him would be amused. They would laugh at him, laugh him to scorn, and that he would be looked upon as a person who went back on his word. Now, that is a sign of weakness, not a sign of strength. It is never weak to repent of evil. And so I think that we can say that Herod was the kind of man who could take firm stands on the wrong thing.

Now, in addition to this, we can see from history more than we can from this occasion in the Bible that the action that he took with Herodias led to his ruin.

I mentioned before that he had married King Aretas’ daughter. And when she got back to Petra, Aretas was incensed at the shame, at the treatment heaped upon him through the rejection of his daughter. So he put together an army, and he attacked! Of course, Herod Antipas had to defend his territory. But he was overwhelmed, and his army was put to rout. It is highly likely that Aretas might just well have taken over that part of Judea, except that the Romans intervened, and preserved the territory. But at least Aretas was mollified somewhat that he had beaten the tar out of Antipas’ army.

That was not the end of Antipas’ problems. Just about the time that he lost the war to Aretas, a message comes from Rome that his brother Philip the Tetrarch had died, and that the emperor (who was Caligula at this time) was appointing another Herod—Agrippa—as the king of the Tetrarchy of Philip’s. The emphasis is on the word king.

Now, Herodias was incensed, because here was this upstart, Herod Agrippa, who was a king and her husband Antipas was nothing more than a tetrarch. And so she started talking to him to try to convince him that he ought to go to Rome, take his silver and gold, appeal to Caligula, buy himself a kingship. Do anything possible. But she wanted to be married to a king. Well, for a good while, Antipas would not have any of it. But you know how it is with that kind of a woman. She just talked and talked. And finally, Antipas threw up his hands, and says, “Okay, let’s go.” So he takes off for Rome. But Agrippa is not asleep. He finds out that Antipas (sounds like a soap opera, does it not?) is on his way to Rome. And so he sends messengers in front of Antipas, and they beat Antipas to Rome, and they tell Caligula that Antipas is on his way, and that he is going to foment a rebellion.

Well, Antipas gets to Rome, and he does not know any of this is going on, and he comes before Caligula, and I will tell you, it was not Antipas’ day. Everything went against him because Caligula believed Agrippa, rather than Antipas.

Do you know what happened to Antipas? He lost his territory there in Judea and Samaria, and was exiled to Gaul, which was part of France, and he had to take that gum-beating woman with him! He got stripped of his estates, and everything, and he was banished to Gaul.

So you see, he ended up with nothing. But the thing that was causing all the trouble in the first place (cannot help but feel sorry for a guy like that. . .if he would have just said no, he would have been all right. But he allowed her to wear the pants, and he was manipulated by her, and he ended up with nothing.) Bet you did not know there was that much hidden. You can read that whole story in Josephus, because he records it.

Matthew 14:13-14 When Jesus heard it [referring back to the death of John], He departed from there by boat to a deserted place by Himself. But when the multitudes heard it, they followed Him on foot from the cities. And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick.

Well, it is highly likely that that Jesus wanted to get away to be alone. I am sure He very deeply felt the death of his cousin (second cousin I guess would be more correct) John. I am sure He felt spiritually closer to John than any other person, because He certainly recognized what a significant role John had played in His own ministry. And He, of course, paid him tribute as certainly being one of the great men who has ever lived on this earth. And so, I am sure He wanted to get away in order to meditate on that. And also, to really slow events down somewhat because the crowds that had formerly been forming around John the Baptist were now forming around Him. And even as they also wanted to make John a king, they were also leaning in that direction with Christ, and He wanted to get away in order to cool off their fervency as well. If He would be out of sight and out of mind for a while that would cool off and things would not move any more rapidly than they already were.

Now, it mentions the word “multitude,” that the multitude was around him. In studying for this particular Bible study, I came across some figures that I am going to pass on to you, for whatever they are worth. These figures come from Josephus, and I cannot vouch to you of their accuracy. The commentators tend to denigrate them. They feel that what Josephus says could not possibly be true. But then again, Josephus lived then, and these commentators are living almost 2,000 years later. It is possible that Josephus is correct in his figures. And if he was, I am sure it is going to change your ideas of the Holy Land.

I think that whenever you went to Sunday school when you were a child, it was very likely that they gave you a picture of Palestine as being a place, or an area of scattered farms, with generally few people throughout the land. Maybe it gives you visions of maybe the way South Carolina is, with small concentrations of people in towns here and there and a few cities. But there are great areas in which nobody lives—lots of open land.

If Josephus is correct, then that could not possibly have been. Galilee is an area that is roughly about 50 miles long, and about 25 miles wide; about 50 miles north and south and about 25 miles east and west. And it is not all land because the Sea of Galilee is there.

If you multiply 50 times 25 you are going to come up with 1,250 square miles of which well over 100 square miles was the Sea of Galilee. So there was about 1,100 square miles of habitable land.

Now, Josephus says that contained within this area were 204 cities that had a population of at least 15,000 people. All it takes is some simple multiplication, and you will find that the population just of those 204 cities was in excess of 3 million people, which is more than the population of South Carolina. In addition to that, he said that there were 10 or 12 cities among these 204 towns that had populations of around 40,000-45,000 people. Galilee is about the same size as Rhode Island at roughly about 1,200 square miles. The population of Rhode Island in 1980 was 1,700,000 people. If Josephus is correct, it means that Galilee had a population density of 2,780 people per square mile. Even if it was only half of that, it was still a pretty high population density. Maybe you can begin to get a feel for the word “multitudes.” Maybe the crowds that were coming around Jesus were far bigger than we think, because after all, in this one example, there were 5,000 people there.

Now given a population of 300,000 people who are in the metropolitan area here of Colombia. And there is an itinerant preacher who comes through the town, and he speaks. Then he goes to another area that is 20 or 30 land miles away that he walks to or goes by ship or whatever. How many people out of that 300,000 people in Colombia would you get to walk to that area?

What I am saying is this: There must have been a pretty good population base in order to get 5,000 people to walk away from their jobs, to follow an itinerant preacher, to hear him speak, and to walk maybe 20 or 30 miles in order to hear them.

So I think it is an indication that the population was probably somewhere at the very least halfway between what today's commentators think that it was, and what Josephus says. It is likely that Josephus' figures are not anywhere near as exaggerated as they appear. So I will give you something to think about for a little bit.

At any rate, Jesus was trying to get away from these people, and I am sure that there were reasons, and at least two of them I gave you.

Matthew 14:15-20 When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food." But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat." And they said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." He said, "Bring them here to Me." Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.

There are several different lessons that we can get from this example. But I just want to concentrate for a minute on the one that we probably overlook. And this one actually puts you and me in the picture. (There may have been 10,000 for all we know which makes the population base even seem larger.) By using this miracle, we see Christ using His disciples. It is Mark's account that shows that the food came from the disciples. Christ then took what the disciples had and multiplied it for the crowd.

The lesson to you and me is that (we have to go all the way back to this other example about this treasure that we bring into the work of God—we bring out treasures old and new that all of us come into the work, possessing capabilities to serve the work of God) the capabilities that we bring are not really adequate to do our part in the work. And so what happens is a miracle takes place. If we are willing to give of our capabilities, God in turn, will then multiply those capabilities and use them in His work as long as we are willing to use them first. He shows that He does not just add to them, He multiplies them! He goes phenomenally above and beyond what we are able to accomplish of and by ourselves.

Now, that work can be anything from the building of character to the serving of the work in prayer, in Bible study, in overcoming, in doing some of the physical services, in regard to serving one another, in regard to serving this world. And it has to do with even Ritenbaugh being up here in front of you speaking, because Ritenbaugh of and by himself probably has some ability to speak. But I know very well, and my wife knows very well, that when you see Ritenbaugh up here talking to you, you are not seeing the Ritenbaugh that we knew before. God multiplied what little ability that I have to communicate, in order for me to carry out this responsibility within the work.

I was telling the YOU down in Augusta that when I was in high school I was nominated in my junior year to run for Treasurer of the school government. The only trouble was I had to get up in front of the student body and make a speech because nobody knew who Ritenbaugh was. And so they wanted to introduce all of the candidates to the student body.

I will tell you, I was so worried, so terrified about doing that, I broke out with something that looked like the measles. I convinced my mother that I was sick, and I stayed home on that day the speeches were going to be made. Some girl, who was not as chicken as I was, got up on the stage, and they elected her. She became the treasurer. But I will tell you, I fear to get in front of people and speak. It is not quite as bad now as it was, but it is still nonetheless there.

And I know that you men who speak in Spokesman's Club, you feel that fear of getting up in front of people and speaking. Everybody feels a measure of fear in carrying out something that they feel insecure about doing. And I will tell you, doing the work of God is not something that we have a lot of experience in. And so, we are always stepping out into new experiences, whether it is building character, or offering ourselves in service to somebody, sacrificing our time.

So the lesson here is that God will multiply what little we have to bring to Him in order to accomplish a compassionate work.

In addition to that, apart from the miracle itself, there is certainly the example that God was extremely generous, but He was not extravagant, and there was no waste. There are excellent principles involved there for you and me. If we are to become God-like He wants us to be generous in giving. That does not mean being extravagant, and it does not mean being reckless or foolish either. God was careful, and God in the flesh said, “Look, let’s gather everything up, and then we will have it to give to somebody else later on.” And that is what occurred.

Now, we should look upon this miracle as an ongoing process. It was not a one-time thing. God is still multiplying the capabilities of His people in order to carry out His work. Mr. Armstrong mentions that every once in a while. He does not have any special brain, special intelligence. He is just an average person that God has used. Nothing special about him, and I am sure that that keeps him humble, very humble because he recognizes that he has to depend upon God constantly. And especially now that he is almost 90 years old, and physically weak, it just multiplies God's part in the work that Mr. Armstrong is doing. And we are going to see that become more and more apparent as we go along. More and more, you are going to understand that it is God doing the work through Mr. Armstrong, and it is not Mr. Armstrong doing the work.

Maybe when Mr. Armstrong was 45 or 50 years old in the vigor of his middle age, we could say, “Well, that is Mr. Armstrong doing that!” But the older he gets, his infirmities become more apparent, and the strength of God becomes more apparent too. And that is why Paul said that he will glory in his infirmities, because it kept him humble, because he recognized that God was doing the work through him. And that is the way it is with Mr. Armstrong, and that is the way it is with you and me. When we give our capabilities to God, He will multiply them and enable us to do the work.

Matthew 14:22 Immediately Jesus made [compelled] His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away.

In John 6, we have John's account of this same occasion. And in verse 15, it says:

John 6:15 Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by Himself alone.

So you see His departing to that side of Galilee had not really worked to that point. And then after doing this miracle, why even His disciples were caught up in the enthusiasm and excitement of, “Hey! This is the Messiah! We’re going to make this guy a king. We’re going to throw the buggers out!” (Meaning the Romans.) And so they were beginning to get all hepped up about making Jesus king. And the first thing He did was get rid of His disciples, send them on a boat back to the other side. After they were gone, then He sent the crowds away. And then after they were gone, he went up into a mountain.

Matthew 14:24-33 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God."

Now, what can we say about a thing like that—walking on water? I do not know what I could add to that. I mean, He was not stepping on stones that were hidden under the surface. The disciples knew right well that He was walking on the water.

There is an interesting aspect about Peter. This shows his impulsiveness. He was impetuous, he was the kind of person apparently who was willing to walk where angels fear to tread. I think also when you put a couple of other places together, notably the time when Jesus was about to be crucified. Just before that it was Peter also who spoke up and said that he would never deny Him; though everybody would forsake Him, he, Peter, would not. And of course, Peter did.

I think that one thing we can say on Peter's behalf is that his heart was right. He wanted to do the right thing. He just did not understand his weakness yet, but he certainly wanted to do the right thing. He was wholehearted. I am sure in his concern, and his care, and his love for Christ, as much love as he had within him, he wanted to do the right thing. And of course, he made a lot of mistakes. But later on when he was converted, then his impulsiveness, the strength of mind that he had was put to much better use. And he began to follow Jesus’ advice a little bit better.

In Luke 9 Jesus makes a very pointed comment in regard to us, taking thought about what we do before we do it, to count the cost. Well, Peter was not the kind of person who normally counted the cost until he was converted. And then I think that he counted the cost a lot more carefully than he had. But I think that his heart was right. And we can see here that he did not ultimately fail because when he began to think, that he at least did reach out and grab on to Christ, which is what we have to do.

It is worth noting before we pass through this, that Peter's faith was firm as long as his eyes were on Christ, and he was not yet aware of what he was doing, and where he was. When he became aware of the water and the waves and the wind, which are all physical things, he then recognized that he was doing something that was impossible. And what happened to his faith? It went right to the bottom of the sea. Well, it went to the bottom of his feet. That is what happened, and it pulled him under.

Now there is a powerful lesson there, brethren. Physical things weaken faith, whether that thing is a doctor, some kind of an instrument, or whatever; doctors, physical things, have a tendency to weaken a person's faith, because that man is more real to us than God is. He is right there. You can reach out and touch him. And being physically minded, we are oriented in that direction. But you know, Paul said to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

So just remember that; a very powerful lesson—the physical tends to weaken faith.

But faith operates when you cannot see what it is that you want, what you hope for.

Matthew 14:34-36 When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent out into all that surrounding region, brought to Him all who were sick, and begged Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched it were made perfectly well.

One thing that I forgot to mention a little bit earlier. When Jesus left the area of Galilee and went across the sea, and into the area of Peraea on the other side in order to get away from the crowds, the crowds followed Him there, of course, and Jesus did not get the solitude that He was seeking after. But it is an excellent example of His willingness to give up, to sacrifice, to deny Himself that which He desired, in order to meet the needs of those people. And He did it without resentment.

He could have felt “Why are you people crushing around Me? Why don’t you let Me alone? Give Me some time by Myself! Can’t you see that I need a rest. My best friend on this earth just had his head chopped off, and I need time to meditate and pray.”

Now that would sound real logical. And if somebody said that to you, you would say, “Oh, I’m sorry, I don’t want to keep you back from talking to God.” But apparently, He did not say that at all. He just allowed Himself to be crowded in on, and He took care of their sick people, and took care of their needs first. Then He took care of His.

But when we find Him going back on the other side, after He walked on the water, we find again multitudes of people coming around Him, and He met their needs.

Now, there is something sad here. Apparently these people only wanted to get something from Him. All they wanted to get was healed. Of course He gave them what they wanted. But they were missing the point entirely. There does not seem to be any indication that they were giving themselves to Him in any way for service.

So it is a good lesson to us that along with our privilege of having God's truth comes the responsibility of serving God.

JWR/rwu/drm