To Offend Our Maker, Who Is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Father of Jesus, is Madness and Horrible Misery!

 A particular rare and extremely foul death was imposed upon some kings who harmed God's people.  Instances of it were described in the Old Testament, also in the time of Jesus Himself, and again in the Church age after that.  And it is an incredibly ugly death indeed.  It was possibly what is now called Fornier Gangrene.  Of course, I am not implying that all people who suffer from this disease are under the wrath of God.  But it is without doubt a very hard death.  There are pictures of Fornier Gangrene available on the internet, but it is not for the weak of stomach and so I'll not post them here. 

  In our present age, here in America at least where I can speak as one who should know, we think extremely little of offending God. I think that many in other countries might say the same for their nation, but they are the right ones to speak of that.  Here we go to church and read the Bible and we learn from those sources that God has rules, and that God can become angry with us.  True, we are under the terms of the gentler New Covenant taught through Jesus.  But that covenant also tells us to love God with all of our heart, our strength, our mind, and our soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves.  And just like the 'followers' of the Old Covenant, we obey horribly for the most part.  It's as if we expect no repercussions if we disobey.  And it's predominantly true; we mostly do not IMMEDIATELY receive punishment when we disobey.  Perhaps we smugly assume we can get away with things we should not do because of this?

   But if you think about it, if God immediately punished all sinners, then even those people most inclined towards evil behavior would act well...reluctantly.... just to avoid the punishments.  It's just common sense.  Perhaps God weeds out those of us who love evil more than good by delaying our punishments and allowing us the vain thought that we are too clever for him to catch and punish.  Or to think that He simply doesn't care that much when we sin.  

  That's only my speculation but certainly God is just in His punishments.  For the one who knows much or has been given much the punishments are more severe than for those less aware or in a very low position struggling away with little knowledge of God, perhaps under great duress.  For the one who has much knowledge of God's word, much is expected.  

  Take kings and rulers for instance.  The Bible tells us that our rulers, good or bad, are appointed over us by God.  And God the Father also warned Israel in the book we call 1 Samuel, chapter 8, speaking through Samuel who was their honest and upright priest and Judge, that having a king is a very bad thing.  He let them know that He, God, was a just and honest authority, but that kings would not be so righteous, and would take great advantage of them.  But Israel wanted a human king to lead them in war, and kept clamoring for a king, so God allowed them to begin having kings, and preciously few were good kings!  Some of those kings were disastrous for the Israelites, in fact, and HIGHLY offensive to God.

  But to certain of those highly offensive royal enemies God assigned particularly gruesome deaths.  In fact, some seem to have received the same particularly horrible death as each other.  Here are a few of these descriptions from the pages of the Bible, but also from history since Jesus as well.

  Jehoram (sometimes called Joram), king of Judah in the 9th century B.C., the time of Elijah the Prophet and part of the divided kingdom period in Israel:  Jehoram's father was Jehoshaphat, a fairly decent king and pretty obedient to God.  But Jehoram was no 'chip off the old block' as they say.  He was coronated, swiftly decided to kill all of his brothers to solidify his power, and then he began encouraging Judah's Israelites to worship completely false gods upon the hills and high places.  As a result, God seems to have sent punishments.  Many neighboring nations, under treaty with him, rebelled at this time.  God allowed Arabs and Philistines to attack Jerusalem and loot Jehoram's palace.  Then finally Jehoram contracted a disease of the bowels which gave him great pain for two years.  At the end of this time his bowels came out of his body, and he died in great pain.  "He passed away, to no one's regret, and was buried in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings."  2 Chronicles 21:20 

  Jehoram offended God greatly, and once in a while God decides to provide an erring and sinful human as an example to others, or so it would seem.  Jehoram is probably not much more sinful than many of us, so we should consider his case perhaps.  After all, the sinning he did was before the light of Jesus was shed among mankind.  The sinning that we all have done has been done when Jesus' guiding teachings were widely disseminated.  We, in other words, know more and may be held to a higher standard.  

  Herod the Great:  There were three different Herods, but the first of these was the great builder but arguably terrible human being titled Herod the Great.  It is probably quite fair to say that he is the most illustrious of the Herods.  He was a Roman-assigned King in the Jerusalem area when Jesus was born.   (Herod was actually not an Israelite or a Roman, but a descendent of Esau, who lived around 1800 B.C., and who was Jacob/Israel's hairy slightly older twin brother.  These descendants were referred to as 'Edomites' or 'Idumeans' in Herod's time period.) 

  This particular Herod was the dread king who had many babies killed in Bethlehem because he was told by the famous 'wise men traveling to Israel from the east' that a great future king of the Jews had been born there in Israel, as they discerned by signs in the heavens.  The king they sought was infant Jesus, of course, but Herod did not know that.  Herod pretended to give them friendly permission to pass through his kingdom and pay their respects, but inside he seethed at the news.  Herod had already officially been titled 'the King of the Jews' by the Romans and he wouldn't tolerate any future competition.  Herod made a plan to kill the competition in the cradle.  That takes a certain brand of cruelty, or ruthlessness. 

  Herod missed his chance to kill Jesus but killed many other infants and toddlers in the attempt. 

  Herod also was constantly suspicious of members of his own family plotting against him (and they sometimes did!) and he pretty frequently had them killed as well.  He killed enough of his sons that one highly placed Roman said that it was better to be Herod's pig than his son.  (Herod ate kosher just to please his subjects, the Jewish people.)  He killed the last of the well-loved Maccabees leaders, Antipater, and had his own brother-in-law from a Jewish wife that he had married, a handsome and regal looking 17-year-old, declared High Priest so that he could never become king.  But then, still suspicious and jealous, Herod even went on to drown him so that the young man would by no means or path pose any future threat to the crown. 

  Herod also had a terrifically bad temper about other matters at times. 

  Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote the following in his work "The Antiquities of the Jews" about the manner of death experienced by this talented, politically astute, yet blood thirsty king named Herod the Great.  

"5. But now Herod's distemper greatly increased upon him after a severe manner, and this by God's judgment upon him for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid supplying with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also ex-ulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also had settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay, further, his privy-member was putrefied, and produced worms; and when he sat upright, he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathsome, on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness of its returns; he had also convulsions in all parts of his body, which increased his strength to an insufferable degree. It was said by those who pretended to divine, and who were endued with wisdom to foretell such things, that God inflicted this punishment on the king on account of his great impiety; yet was he still in hopes of recovering, though his afflictions seemed greater than anyone could bear. He also sent for physicians, and did not refuse to follow what they prescribed for his assistance, and went beyond the river Jordan, and bathed himself in the warm baths that were at Callirrhoe, which, besides their other general virtues, were also fit to drink; which water runs into the lake called Asphaltiris. And when the physicians once thought fit to have him bathed in a vessel full of oil, it was supposed that he was just dying; but upon the lamentable cries of his domestics, he revived; and having no longer the least hopes of recovering, he gave order that every soldier should be paid fifty drachmae; and he also gave a great deal to their commanders, and to his friends, and came again to Jericho, where he grew so choleric, that it brought him to do all things like a madman; and...."

End Quote.  Found in 'Antiquities of the Jews' by Flavius Josephus. Herod died at this point. 

  This book, "Antiquities of the Jews" is said to have been the second most sold writing in the world after the Bible at one point in time, but few, even among pastors, seem to have read it today.  I think many serious Bible students would greatly enjoy it.  It follows the course of the Bible in many areas. 

  So, Herod ended up dying from what might be the very same disease as Jehoram.  It can be a hard and humbling thing to die the death of one who does not fear God, and more than that, purposefully offend him.  Worms eating your nether regions?  Not a real glamorous picture.  It probably caused more revulsion than sympathy in his family and courtiers after a certain point in time.  God holds our fate in His hands, not only in this world but in the next.  And for those who believe that He is not a very stern God at most times, these examples should give pause for thought.

  So, how about after Jesus' ministry, in the Church Age?  Are there examples more from our time frame, from the A.D. years?  The answer is yes.  An example is the death of Galerius who was a Roman Emperor from 305 A.D - 311 A.D.   He was a man of horrible temper, and he commanded one of the terrible persecutions against Christians to begin because they would not honor the false Roman Gods.  Some of his advisors told him that this was a bad idea because Christians were known to be pretty willing to die for their God Jesus and there could be a great deal of bloodshed in the Empire.  But Galerius commanded it to begin, and it lasted some years with many deaths.  During this time Galerius contracted a slowly advancing fatal disease that started with an open ulcer low towards his private parts and continues as follows per the account of the writer Lactantius in the writing "On the Death of the Persecutors."

And now, when Galerius was in the eighteenth year of his reign, God struck him with an incurable plague. A malignant ulcer formed itself low down in his secret parts and spread by degrees. The physicians attempted to eradicate it and healed up the place affected. But the sore, after having been skinned over, broke out again; a vein burst, and the blood flowed in such quantity as to endanger his life. The blood, however, was stopped, although with difficulty. The physicians had to undertake their operations anew, and at length they cicatrized the wound. In consequence of some slight motion of his body, Galerius received a hurt, and the blood streamed more abundantly than before. He grew emaciated, pallid, and feeble, and the bleeding then stanched. The ulcer began to be insensible to the remedies applied, and a gangrene seized all the neighboring parts. It diffused itself the wider the more the corrupted flesh was cut away, and everything employed as the means of cure served but to aggravate the disease.

Then famous physicians were brought in from all quarters; but no human means had any success. Apollo and AEsculapius were besought importunately for remedies: Apollo did prescribe, and the distemper augmented. Already approaching to its deadly crisis, it had occupied the lower regions of his body: his bowels came out, and his whole seat putrefied. The luckless physicians, although without hope of overcoming the malady, ceased not to apply fomentations and administer medicines. The humours having been repelled, the distemper attacked his intestines, anti worms were generated in his body. The stench was so foul as to pervade not only the palace, but even the whole city; and no wonder, for by that time the passages from his bladder and bowels, having been devoured by the worms, became indiscriminate, and his body, with intolerable anguish, was dissolved into one mass of corruption.

They applied warm flesh of animals to the chief seat of the disease, that the warmth might draw out those minute worms; and accordingly, when the dressings were removed, there issued forth an innumerable swarm: nevertheless the prolific disease had hatched swarms much more abundant to prey upon and consume his intestines. Already, through a complication of distempers, the different parts of his body had lost their natural form: the superior part was dry, meagre, and haggard, and his ghastly-looking skin had settled itself deep amongst his bones while the inferior, distended like bladders, retained no appearance of joints. These things happened in the course of a complete year; and at length, overcome by calamities, he was obliged to acknowledge God, and he cried aloud, in the intervals of raging pain, that he would re-edify the Church which he had demolished, and make atonement for his misdeeds; and when he was near his end, he published an edict …."  End Quote Chapter 33  On the Death of the Persecutors by Lactantius, available on line.  

  It goes on to say that Galerius published an edict ending the persecution.  He hoped to be spared by doing this, but he was not.  He died a very short time after the edict was ended.  

  And so, though this is unlikely to be the only instances of this strange death, speculatively diagnosed as Fornier Gangrene in our day, it is enough to make the point that it almost looks as if God purposely selected this particular death for these men who were highly placed enemies of His people (Jehoram), His actual Son when newly born into the flesh of man on this earth (Herod the Great), and finally, in the third case, a vicious persecutor of His Son's church (Galerius.)  

  "Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction."  Proverbs 1:7 

  The scripture says it is so.  It is right, yes?