No one faced worse than Jesus. Yet He faced it with courage. He drew amazing strength from amazing prayer. His prayer time was not mere “quality” time, but also a significant QUANTITY of time. He got up before dawn. He stayed up all night. He went away to places of solitude.
Consider Gethsemane: Jesus began that time filled with grief and terror. But by the end, He was so bold that when the torch-bearing crowd came to arrest Him, His words made them fall to the ground in fear! John 18:6.
Jesus was equally bold in the face of other threats, such as that posed by King Herod. Jesus’s childhood had been radically changed by death threats from Herod the Great, forcing the family to move to Egypt. Jesus, surely a sensitive and compassionate child, knew that King Herod had murdered innocent children in his rush to kill Jesus, a child “born to be king of the Jews.” Now Herod’s son, King Herod Antipas, is on the throne in Galilee, and suddenly decides Jesus is a threat!
“They came and told Jesus, ‘Go, get out of Galilee! Herod wants to kill you!’
“But Jesus said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox, ‘Look, I’m driving out demons and performing healings today and tomorrow and on the third day I will complete my work.’ I will travel each day and make my way to Jerusalem. After all, it is not possible for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem!’” Luke 13:31-33.
Jesus laughs at Herod, saying, “Go tell that fox I have more work to do in Galilee—and he can’t touch me here. After all, everyone knows Israel never murders God’s men until they arrive in the bloodthirsty city of Jerusalem.”
Jesus defies Herod, knowing nothing will happen to Him in Galilee. God has a plan, and it will be fulfilled in Jerusalem, a city Jesus loves, but a city with a terrible history of rejecting God and God’s messengers.
His courage is amazing. Do you need courage? It comes through PRAYER.
Read Luke 13.
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