Remember those Magic 8-Balls? I never owned one, but I had a few friends who did.
We never thought much of it, nor really gave it much credence. After all, how could an inanimate object predict the future anyway? If we only knew that there were 20 standard answers inside of the ball…
Nevertheless for fun, we would, one at a time, ask the Magic 8-Ball questions about our future.
As a pre-teen, our questions were usually about becoming professional hockey players or whether or not certain girls liked us. Once again, we never really gave it much credence—unless it gave us the answer we wanted it to.
“Signs point to yes,” “Outlook good,” and “Without a doubt,” were among my favorite answers. I think I remember throwing the ball against the wall when, “Concentrate and ask again,” “My sources say no,” or “Better not tell you now,” would come up too frequently.
Toys like these were so popular because they fed into our craving to have some semblance of direction for the future.
It was our longing to uncover the future, our desire to know our next steps, and our curiosity as to what’s around the corner that toys like this took advantage of. In a sense, this toy helped us predict the future—well, not really, but it at least gave us the illusion of doing so.
What if the way to predict the future was to simply look into the past? What if the best predictor of the future was the past?
This past weekend, I preached through Matthew 2 at my church (you can listen to the message here by clicking on the sermon from Dec 11, 2016). We’re in an Advent Series entitled, Jesus: The Story. So as I prepared this message, I decided to preach it from three different angles or lenses. Just like a movie director has several cameras he or she can look through, I noticed that this chapter could be viewed three different ways: from Herod’s camera, the Wise Men’s lens, and Joseph’s point of view.
Herod’s Camera
Now, I knew Herod was pretty messed up, since “he gave orders to massacre all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under” (Matt 2:16), but I didn’t realize the extent to his “messedupness.”
So I began looking into the history books to uncover Herod’s story. This was my driving question:
What if the cause for Herod’s manic behavior had to do with his past?
Herod, at the young age of 25, started his political career as the governor of Galilee in 47 BC, and everybody loved him at first. The Jews and the Romans admired his leadership, so he quickly became powerful and popular among the people.
He was so loved that other politicians, filled with jealousy, went behind his back and ousted him from governorship. Well, they were only partially successful, since he ended up becoming the governor of Coele-Syria instead—only serving to further his experience.
Over the next few years, Herod’s life was complicated, to say the least, as he had to deal with revolts, black mail, treason, and more. Eventually, he went to Rome and was promised Kingship, as long as he “took matters into his own hands,” and gained back control of the region.
So what did he do?
Pay close attention to this next part of the story because, as Henry Cloud so powerfully noted in his book, Necessary Endings, “the best predictor of the future is the past,” unless there has been some big change—and for Herod, there wasn’t.
Herod was the same man as a governor as he was when he became king, when Jesus was born, and when his kingship was threatened. So when Herod was promised Kingship of Judea as long as he took “matters into his own hands” and gained back control of the region, he went in like a bull in a china shop.
When he returned to Palestine from Rome, he recaptured Galilee, and then he captured Jerusalem. He then married the niece of the king, so that he would have a claim to the throne. Once that was settled, he went ahead and beheaded the king, and took his position as king of the Jews.
This guy doesn’t joke around.
And once he grew in power and became king, he basically “took care” of anyone who opposed him.
It’s like in the movie Godfather when Sonny said,
I want you to take care of that **** right away. Paulie sold out the old man, that stronz. I don’t want to see him no more. I want you to make that first thing on your list, understand?
I mean this guy, Herod, executed 45 of the wealthiest aristocrats because they sided with the man he beheaded, the previous king. And then he went ahead and confiscated all their property, adding it to his own kingdom.
He even went up against Cleopatra. And in spite of an earthquake killing 30,000 people in Herod’s land, he still ended up beating her forces.
Then over the next few decades, after accusing his first wife of committing adultery and sentencing her to death, he married over 10 women and had many sons. The only problem is, now he had all of these sons who began fighting over the throne to the point where one son, trying to poison Herod, accidentally poisoned one of his other brother’s who drank the poison by mistake.
Herod’s entire political career consisted of one person after another trying to gain control over his throne—including his family.
Since the best predictor of the future is the past, there’s no wonder why Herod acted the same way when his throne was threatened again—but this time, by a baby who was “born King of the Jews.”
Do you see this in your life?
While the best predictor of the future is the past, that’s not justification to stay the same, remain in sin, in weakness, and in bondage. That statement is only true, unless you experience big change. Unless you learn something new, consciously act differently, and develop new patterns of behavior, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the past will be the best predictor for the future.
The source of lasting change, true change, and deep inner change is the Holy Spirit. Don’t forget this. But also, don’t neglect that you also need new patterns of behavior to accompany it.
If this resonates with you, let me encourage you to pick up any one of these resources. They will help you take your next step into change, freedom, and a future that’s different than the past:
- Breaking Free – Beth Moore
- Necessary Endings – Henry Cloud
- The Good and Beautiful God – James Bryan Smith