The warning against Herod: V. 31. The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto Him, Get Thee out and depart hence; for Herod will kill Thee. V. 32. And He said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. V. 33. Nevertheless I must walk today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
Jesus was still in the territory of Herod Antipas, and this man was being driven by the furies of an evil conscience. Whether Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected or not, He was in the way.
As one commentator states it: "In every work of Jesus he saw the hand of John the Baptist extended from the grave toward him; in every word concerning the Judgment that Jesus uttered he heard again the voice of John: Thou murderer of prophets!"
It is hardly likely that the Pharisees had been commissioned by Herod to bring this message to Jesus. It was rather thus with these enemies of the Lord: They had exhausted every possible means that they could think of to make Him desist from the work of His ministry with the exception of touching His body, and they hoped to intimidate Jesus and cause Him to remove from the country.
Upon Jesus the request "Go away from here, because Herod wants to kill you," made no impression. A threat of this kind could not make Him desist from the usual work of His ministry.
Therefore He answers according to the character of the warning, bidding the warners go and take His return message to Herod. Jesus calls Herod a fox, both on account of his crafty, cruel disposition, and because of the fact that he had become a fox, a destroyer, in the vineyard of the Lord, Lam. 5, 18; Song of Sol. 2, 15.
The threat had no effect whatever upon Jesus. The scorn of the Idumean tyrant could not force the Prophet of Galilee to yield. He had work to do in the near future, and that work would be done. He must continue to cast out demons and to cure sicknesses as He has done hitherto, for the time set in the counsel of God is near.
Then, according to His own will, at the time appointed by Him, the end will come. That was the obligation resting upon Him, and that He would carry out. And He adds, with bitter sorrow, that He must die in Jerusalem, the murderess of prophets, chap. 11, 51. It is in accordance with God's will that His career shall end in that city.
In the same way the disciples of Christ of all times, the believers, fulfill their day's work, the portion decreed to them by God. And in this no power of earth and hell can hinder them or shorten the time which God has fixed for their work. But when the hour has come which God has intended as the last, then they will have completed their course, then they will have finished their labors and may enter into the rest of the saints.