A conscience is what hurts when everything else feels good. A conscience is something that God has placed in every man and woman. It is that sense of right and wrong, the smoke alarm that goes off when there is trouble.
I read somewhere that the author of Sherlock Holmes was a practical joker. And one day he decided to pull a prank on his friend, so he wrote an anonymous note to 12 of his close friends that read, “Flee at once all is discovered.”
Within 24 hours, all of his friends had left the country. Now that what I call having a guilty conscience.
Our conscience is that inner voice that warns us that someone may be watching,
The Bible talks about a man whose conscience was dead. King Herod was that man and his account was one of the life and death of a conscience. He had the greatest prophet in the Bible as his personal counselor, friend and confidant – John the Baptist.
King Herod was known for his paranoia, for his wickedness, and for having members of his own family executed because he thought they were a threat to his throne. King Herod was a wicked man.
His son, Herod Antipas was also wicked. Historians tell us that Herod Antipas was cruel, scheming, indecisive, and utterly immoral.
When John the Baptist showed up and began preaching. Israel has not heard from God for 400 years. There hadn’t been a single miracle, an angelic appearance, or one prophet speaking for God. There was an icy silence from heaven. Then out of nowhere John the Baptist emerged, right on God’s timetable. He was powerful and fearless, everywhere he went crowds gathered.
John was the greatest prophet that ever lived. He was the last of a long line of spokespersons for God. Jesus said of him, “Among those born of women there is not a greater prophet that John the Immerser, yet he who least in God’s kingdom is greater than he, (Luke 7:28). John was greater because he, and he alone, was the direct forerunner of Jesus -the forerunner of the Messiah. He occupied a unique place in history.
John was everything Herod was not. Herod was unsure proud and worried about the opinions of others, John was sure, humble, and concerned only with the opinion of God. John was a man of immense moral courage, and Herod was a man of spineless weakness. John was a man who kept his conscience and lost his head, and Herod was a nan who took John’s head but lost his conscience.
The Bible tells us that Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, bye was puzzled. Yet he liked to listen to him (Mark 6;20). But on the other hand, Herod’s wife, Herodias, hated John, she had been Philip’s wife. And when she was still married to Philip, Herod’s brother. Herod seduced her and took her for his wife.
But it gets worse. Herodias as the daughter of Herod’s half-brother, making her Herod’s niece. And Herod lusted after Herodia’s daughter in which Herodias was fully aware of.
John the Baptist called Herod out on this. He simply told Herod the truth. A true friend that occasionally hurts to help. (if you have that kind of friend don’t lose them). John told Herod the truth, and it ultimately hosted John his head.
Herod had two things that prompted him. One is Herodia’a daughter dancing in front of Herod which led to sexual lust. Herodia’s daughter asked Herod to cut off John’s head, which also led Herod to want to impress and please others. This led to Herod’s unbeknownst conscience dying.
When Herod began to hear reports about Jesus and His miracles. He thought John had come back to haunt him. (Mark 6:16).
Sometimes we think we can commit a “little” sin and just move on with life. And we don’t realize that there are repercussions that don’t hit us until later. Numbers 32:23 says, “Your sins will find you out.”
The death of the conscience starts with small things and invariably becomes larger things. When we do something we know is wrong and continue and try to cover it up, our conscience becomes hardened, callous and resistant.
We need to go to Jesus, He is the only one who can forgive sin and resensitize our conscience,
From Pity to Praise 