One day when Jesus was traveling through the territory of Herod Antipas—the ruler who had killed John the Baptist—some men came to the Master with a warning about his personal safety. "Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee," they told him.
These men were Pharisees, members of a group that was generally opposed to Jesus and his mission; some have suggested that they might actually have been sent by Herod himself to get Jesus out of the way under the pretense of giving him friendly advice. But, however that may be, Jesus saw through the advice they gave him and rejected it. He was neither fooled nor intimidated. He said: "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." Luke 13:31-33
The Master knew what his mission was. He was to prove God's all-power and the nothingness of any other pretense to power. He was about his Father's business, casting out devils, doing cures—healing both the sick and sinning. Jesus' God-ordained mission was clear to him. And he also understood that his mission was God-directed and God-sustained. He was not about to be "foxed" into limiting his ministry.
