I was thinking tonight about giving God credit for things. I am very bad at this. When someone compliments or praises me I feel pleased and thankful, but rarely in the moment do I stop to think that the qualities I exude or possess have a source other than myself. It’s only later that I ponder my missed opportunity to give God credit where credit is due. I think this is a result of my insecurity, self-doubt, and fear.
I was thinking about Herod in relation to this. Herod was a cruel leader in Roman times who is documented by many sources as a vicious tyrant who would kill anyone who disagreed with him. He massacred all the baby boys in Bethlehem when Jesus was born, killed and lied his way to the throne, and has an otherwise bloody biography (read more about it here). Of particular interest to me is the way he died. This account takes place after Peter miraculously escapes from prison:
In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there a while. He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. Having secured the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.
On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. -Acts 12:18-23
The fact that Herod died of a disease involving worms is documented in other sources than the Bible (incidentally, if you can find in this document the place where it talks about Herod, you will understand why he deserved to die like this):
But now Herod’s distemper greatly increased upon him after a severe manner, and this by God’s judgment upon him for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also exulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also had settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay, further, his privy-member was putrefied, and produced worms; and when he sat upright, he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathsome, on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness of its returns; he had also convulsions in all parts of his body, which increased his strength to an insufferable degree. –Flavius Josephus, “Antiquities of the Jews,” The Works of Josephus, trans. William Whiston (Hendrickson Publishers, 1987) 17:6.5.
The thing that caught my eye (in thinking about my own shortcomings) is the fact that God killed Herod because he failed to give God praise. Herod deserved to die a horrible death long before this, but that omission seems to be what did him in!
While God has graciously never slain me like this for failing to give him credit (though I deserve it), I should understand the principle of giving God “praise” or “glory” when I can. It’s a hard thing for me because of my fears and insecurities, as well as the fact that I’ve rarely seen this modeled in an appropriate way. I welcome advice on the subject!
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