Bad Theology

Text for today: Acts of the Apostles 12 xx-xxiii

King Herod is annoyed with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and as their country's food supply depends on him they sue for peace through the king's servant. Herod delivers a ceremonial speech, which the people acclaim as the voice of a god, not of a man. Immediately an angel of the Lord strikes Herod down for neglecting to credit God with the glory.

It is notable that this episode occurs after Herod's persecution of the apostles, which included having James the Greater put to the sword and Peter imprisoned. In response to earnest prayer God sends an angel to rescue Peter; but James is deemed as expendable as the sentries and the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon who fall victim to Herod's irritation.

Tyre and Sidon, whose people the Saviour clearly despised, was a place of restless natives as far back as the glorious days of the holy Canaanite genocide; this explains why the all-merciful Father did not see fit to intervene and stop the violence and starvation with which Herod was presumably inducing them to participate in the peace process. God's hired killer waits until Herod makes his ceremonial oration and omits to give God the proper tithe from the flattery of his vassals. Hence, as so often occurs upon a careful reading of Scripture, the mystery of God's priorities becomes rather simple to solve.