More than Half the Kingdom

"And he vowed to her, 'Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.' And she went out and said to her mother, 'For what should I ask?' And she said, 'The head of John the Baptist.' And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, 'I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.' And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb." Mark 6:23-29

A lot could be said about the king, but I only wanted to touch on two points. 

The first is that the king was focused more on saving face. He needed to maintain his reputation as one in charge, but by doing so, he had ultimately lost authority and played for a fool to the girl and her mother. 

The second is that the king had not held God greater than all. Had he known who God was and what it meant to be a man of God such as John the Baptist, he would not have ordered the death of John. Had the king held the man of God greater than half his kingdom, John the Baptist could have lived longer years.