Acts -- Receiving Glory Intended for God

Today's devotion compares two texts from Acts:

Acts 12:21-23
21On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22They shouted, "This is the voice of a god, not of a man." 23Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. (NIV)

Acts 14:11-15
11When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language, "The gods have come down to us in human form!" 12Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. 13The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
14But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting: 15"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. (NIV)
taken from www.biblegateway.com

The first story takes place in Cesarea, where Herod was staying for a while. The second story occurs in the city of Iconium, about 550 miles away. We don't know the timeline between the two events, but it is pretty safe to say that Paul was not present when Herod died. He was most likely on the island of Cyprus, so we don't know if he even heard of the event.

We don't know the topic of Herod's speech, but it was apparently planned and eagerly awaited by the people. On 'the appointed day' Herod wore his royal robes and sat on his throne to give his public address. He was speaking to people from Tye and Sidon, who had previously been fighting but were now seeking peace so they could receive food from Herod's country. Herod was well aware of their backgrounds, since they had been working with his trusted personal servant, Blastus, to arrange for Herod's visit.

As people will often do, they heaped praises upon Herod for the encouraging words he spoke. He may have announced a new program to deliver even more food to these people than before. They fed his ego by saying that he was more than a mere man, he was a God. And Herod ate it up, accepting their accolades.

By this point, God was pretty fed up with Herod and he had an angel strike him down. We learn that he was first eaten by worms, then he died. Sounds like a pretty awful way to go, doesn't it?

On the other hand, when the people of Iconium proclaimed Paul and Barnabas to be gods, they tore their clothes, extremely frustrated that the people had completely missed the point of their message. Even with convincing speeches, they had difficulty keeping the crowd from making sacrifices to them. The story continues with some Jews coming in and winning the crowd over. They go from wanting to worship Paul as a god to stoning him, leaving him for dead! I'm sure this experience wasn't much more pleasant than being eaten by worms...

But the disciples gathered around them, helped them up, and they continued on their missionary journey. Not much later, they returned to Iconium strengthening the disciples and winning more to Christ. They said, "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God."

So what is the point of these two stories? Why did we hear graphic details of Herod's death? Why didn't God reward Paul for clearly showing the people that he was only a man, not a god? Instead he allowed him to suffer through a stoning. Think about that today, and think about how you respond when someone gives you glory for something that should reflect God's efforts more than yours.