"And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died." Acts 12:23
King Herod was a bad man. As the secular king of the Jews, he made sport of killing certain members of the church. In fact, he brought death to the apostle James. When he saw that it pleased the Jews, he also took Peter into custody with the intent of doing the same thing, Acts 12:1-3. God delivered Peter from this fate through the agency of an angel.
Later, during an audience with a beholden people, Herod gave a great speech. Whether moved or motivated simply by the desire to find favor from the king on whom they depended for their very food, the people lavished praise upon him saying that his was "the voice of a god and not of a man." It was at this time that an angel of the Lord brought Herod's existence to a close.
Beloved, there are two points to be made here. First, the will of God will not be confounded. Jesus told James that he would drink from the cup and be baptized with the baptism that he himself would endure, indicating his suffering and death, Mark 10:39. He told Peter, however, that he would be given the keys to the kingdom, commonly understood to mean that he would be involved in opening the doors to the church, Acts 2. He was therefore preserved in the face of certain death.
Secondly, we must always be careful to give God the praise. Herod, again, secular king of God's own people, was happy to be spoken of in terms of Deity. Needless to say, the praise was not his to accept. Let us always remember that we are who we are, have what we have and do what we do by the grace of the Almighty. Should praise come our way for anything accomplished by His might and in His service, we must immediately give credit where credit is due.
Loving Like Jesus,
Lee
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