The News Herald

The Baptist Beheaded.
International Sunday School Lesson
for March 20, 1898.
[Based Upon Peloubet's Select Notes.
THE LESSON.-John the Baptist beheaded. Matthew 14:1-12. If used as a temperance lesson read also account of Belshazzar's drunken feast (Dan. 5:1-31).
GOLDEN TEXT.-Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.-Prov. 4:23.
TIME.-John was imprisoned in March or April, A. D. 28. He was beheaded a year later, in March or April, A. D. 29.
PLACE.-Jesus was in Galilee with His twelve disciples. John was imprisoned and put to death at Macherus, a strong fortress and castle on the borders of Arabia, nine miles east of the northern end of the Dead Sea. The feast held by Herod at which Herodias demanded the head of John the Baptist was probably held in this castle.
LESSON COMMENT.
Collect together all the Scripture notices of the life of John. The parallel accounts should be kept before us as we study. They are found in Mark 6:14-29: Luke 9:7-9.
Temperance can be taught incidentally but effectively, from the fact that the crime was probably committed under the influence of strong drink.
The martyrdom of John is the main subject of the lesson. His life was successful, although short, and crowned with a martyr's crown.
I. A Troubled Conscience.-Vs. 1, 2.
Jesus, in chapter 10, had sent the twelve disciples on their Galilean mission, which continued all winter. About this time they returned to report to Jesus, and Jesus' own marvelous works and teachings had so penetrated and stirred the whole people that the news reached King Herod. Herod said: "This is John the Baptist, risen from the dead." He thought that John had brought back with him those larger powers, those diviner gifts, which the spirit receives when it enters upon the Heavenly life, and the prophet could now exert these powers, together with his former terrible reproofs.
II. John Imprisoned for His Courage and Faithfulness.-Vs. 3-5. "For," and the account goes back to tell of Herod's having been brought face to face with his sins by a prophet of God, of the imprisonment of this prophet, and the subsequent execution pleaded for by his partner in sin, Herodias. He imprisoned John that he might have peace in his crime unreproved, and because Herodias wanted John put out of the way. For John said (probably many times unto him: "It is not lawful for thee to have her." It was not lawful (1) because he had put away his lawful wife. (2) He had persuaded Herodias to forsake her husband, Herod's brother Philip, for the sake of his rank and wealth. (3) He had married Herodias, his niece and sister-in-law, contrary to the law (Lev. 18:12-14). The only way to stop the reproof was to repent or to destroy the reprover. But there is nothing so cowardly as a guilty conscience, or so to be feared by evil doers as a holy man who voices the truth of God. Besides the people believed John to be a prophet, and Herod feared an uprising, so John was kept in the dungeon for a year.
III. The Birthday Banquet and Its Outcome.-Vs. 6-12. Herod's birthday was kept with a great banquet, to which the nobles and military officers were invited. Salome, the daughter of Herodias, by her former husband, danced in their midst. She had been sent by her mother to gain an opportunity for killing John. It was a shrewd scheme to take advantage of Herod's half-intoxicated condition, and the scheme succeeded. Herod was pleased and promised "to give her whatsoever she would ask." On such occasions men vie with each other in the value of their gifts to the dancer. Many a man finds himself in straitened circumstances long after taking part in a similar entertainment. A writer on the far east gives this curious fact: The dancer, Laal-Koner, gained such an ascendency over the Mogul Emperor Ma'az ed-Din, that he made her joint-governess of the empire with himself.
"And she, being before instructed of her mother said, Give me here John the Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry, nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her."
Herod was not penitent, but troubled and anxious. He had expected some entirely different request. There was danger and a troubled conscience in the gift. But the wily Herodias had gained her desire, which for a year had been refused by Herod. "He sent and beheaded John in the prison." John at last was silenced, but conscience and the voice of God were not silenced. The stain of blood could never be washed away, nor "all the perfumes of Arabia sweeten the guilty soul."
IV. A Contrast. Two Kinds of Success. We have here two impressive instances which will picture the two kinds of success-the worldly and the Heavenly, the false and the true. Herod seemed to succeed, but his life was a failure. John seemed to fail, but his life was a marvelous success.
Herod's success was brief as well as troubled. In A. D. 38, ten years after the death of John, Herodias stirred up her husband to go to Rome and obtain from the emperor the title of king. But being followed by complaints of the oppressed Galileans the result was that he was deposed even from his tetrarchy. Then he was banished to Lyons, in France, and afterwards to Spain, Herodias accompanying him in his exile, where they died in banishment.
IN REVIEW.
1. What was the sin in the life of Herod and Herodias for which John reproved them? 2. How did Herod attempt to quiet this voice of conscience? 3. Why was not John beheaded immediately he was apprehended? 4. What gave Herodias the opportunity of accomplishing what Herod was too cowardly to do of his own wish? 5. What was her scheme and how did she carry it out? 6. What was the probable part strong drink played at this tragic banquet? 7. Did the beheading of John the Baptist quiet the voice of conscience? 8. What was the ultimate fate of Herod and Herodias?
Love is the apex, humility the foundation of the Christ-like life.