Herod, Matthew 2:13-23

Matthew 2:13-23

¹³Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” ¹⁴Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, ¹⁵and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

¹⁶When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. ¹⁷Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: ¹⁸“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

¹⁹When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, ²⁰“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” ²¹Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²²But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. ²³There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”

I'll admit that it's taking a lot of my discipline to focus on writing and reflecting on Herod in this section instead of Joseph and his faithfulness, and even Joseph's willingness to get up, take his wife and child to a different land, based on a dream. (okay...I just focused on Joseph by writing that...oops!) We will get to Joseph in 3 days!

Anyways...Herod. Herod who was jealous of Jesus, who at times even referred to himself as the "King of the Jews", "POP, Driver-Bishop, p 7", ultimately decided that his best course of action was to kill all children that were even close to the age that Jesus would have been. It is about this act that the haunting scripture is written and words of prophecy are fulfilled “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” Just reading those words makes my heart sad...

It's amazing what Herod does in the face of possible loss of power. Maybe I shouldn't be amazed...Herod certainly isn't alone in his quest to be the most powerful, the best, the brightest, the most elevated, etc... And I am certainly not above examining myself and wondering what part of Herod dwells within me as well. Sobering thoughts...

*Have you done any soul-searching recently?

*What is it about Herod that elicits our negative response...not just his actions...but about who he is?

*How can you/I step out of the places that we find ourselves acting "Herodian" or "Herodish" :) ?