LUKE 13:31-35 HEROD WAS HELPLESS BECAUSE THE FATHER IS FAITHFUL

HEROD WAS HELPLESS BECAUSE

THE FATHER IS FAITHFUL

LUKE 13:31-35

Luke 13:31 The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.

Susan: Since Jesus had been venturing into Perea which was a part of Herod’s territory, the Jews warned Jesus that Herod had issued a death warrant for Him. However, this was not because they necessarily wanted to save Jesus from Herod. There was no love lost between the Pharisees and Herod. They may have been trying to move Jesus back into their own jurisdiction in Judea because they wanted to be the ones to arrest Him.

Susie: The Pharisees were kind of the pot calling the kettle black since they were plotting Jesus’s demise themselves!

John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Susan: We must point out that not all Jews wanted Jesus dead. His disciples were Jewish, and even some of the Pharisees—most notably Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea—secretly followed Him.

Luke 13:32 And he said unto them, Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected⁵⁰⁴⁸.

Susie: Describing someone as a “fox” was calling them crafty, but worthless. Foxes were also a symbol of destruction as they tore up crops. Jesus had perfect divine prerogative to put this label on Herod just as prophets were often called upon to confront leaders.

Susan: A well-known example would be when Nathan confronted David with his sins of adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12:7).

Susie: “Today, tomorrow, and the third day” are not meant to indicate a specific three-day time period. It is Jesus’s way of saying He was going to continue at His own pre-ordained pace to accomplish the mission the Father had for Him, namely becoming the final Passover Lamb to die on the cross.

Susan: He would be “perfected” when He had given His life for those who would trust Him, those chosen by the Father, because that would be the fulfillment of His purpose on earth. God sent Jesus expressly to redeem His people.

The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible

5048 tĕlĕiŏō – to complete, i.e. (lit.) accomplish or (fig.) consummate (in character): consecrate, finish, fulfill, (make) perfect.

Galatians 4:4-5 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Luke 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

Susie: Jesus reiterates that He is on God’s timetable rather than that of Herod or any other man. He knew Herod would not, could not kill Him in Perea or Galilee because as John states in his gospel over and over, “His time had not yet come.”

John 7:6 Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.

John 7:30 Then they sought to take him: but no man laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come.

John 8:20 These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as he taught in the temple: and no man laid hands on him; for his hour was not yet come.

Susan: If our Father had a specific plan and time table for His son, He also has a plan for each and every one of us, His children, to fulfill.

Susie: God is sovereign, and His plans cannot be thwarted. He sees what will be even before it has begun.

Isaiah 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

Psalm 139:16 (CJB)      Your eyes could see me as an embryo, but in your book all my days were already written; my days had been shaped before any of them existed.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Susie: Not every prophet who died was killed in Jerusalem. However, many of the Jewish prophets died at the hands of their fellow Jews, not those of an enemy. Once again, Luke uses this to underscore Jesus’s determination to make Jerusalem His final destination.

Luke 13:34 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Susie: Jesus laments over the city of Jerusalem. Rather than listening to the prophets and obeying what God said through them, they often had rebelled against God and killed His prophets. One example is the stoning of Zechariah in the very courtyard of the temple!

2 Chronicles 24:20-21 And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also forsaken you. And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the Lord.

Susan: Despite Israel’s constant rebellion, the Lord described His parental inclination to protect and shelter them with the example of a mother hen gathering her chicks under her wings. There, they are sheltered from rain or sun and hidden from peril and predators.

Susie: However, the Jewish leaders had rejected God’s protection and were now poised to have the Son of God, the Messiah, crucified! Jesus weeps over their rejection. Those who do trust in Jesus, those who place their faith in God are sheltered and protected by Him.

Ruth 2:12 The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Luke 13:35 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Susan: The nation of Israel, by rejecting Jesus as Messiah, had removed themselves from the protective covering of the Lord.

Susie: In A.D. 70, the temple and much of the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans, left desolate. As history has shown, the people of the Jewish nation were scattered abroad and persecuted. They are now once more a nation, and in the end times, many Jews will recognize Jesus as the Messiah, in essence saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” Therefore, Jesus is holding out hope for Israel in the future.

Ponder this and Apply it: Although this passage is speaking of the nation of Israel, we as individuals can seek refuge under the mighty wings of God as Ruth did. When we place our trust in Jesus, we are adopted into God’s family, thus becoming His “chicks” or in another analogy, His “sheep”. The Lord is both our mother hen and our Good Shepherd. Nothing can remove us from the security of being in His hands.

John 10:27-29 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.