Jesus was born, Herod was king, and wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, asking where is the baby is who is supposed to be “King of the Jews”. They had seen his star in the east and came to worship him. But this troubled Herod, and when he’s troubled he troubles everyone, especially Jerusalem. So Herod got everyone together and asked them where Christ was born. Those suckers, they told him, He’s in Bethlehem, the prophet wrote it!
Well the prophet, said that in the land of Juda, in Bethlehem, the will be a governor that will rule Israel.
Herod was kind of sneaky and called the wise men and pumped them for information and told them he just wanted to know so he could worship the child too. So the wise men head off and lo, they see the same star and follow it until it stops over the baby and then they rejoiced. Well, when they say Mary and the baby, they fell down and worshiped him, and gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh.
God had warned the wise men in a dream that Herod was being sneaky and they shouldn’t tell Herod where the baby is.
God’s pretty busy in the dream world, because he then appears to Joseph and tells him to take the baby to Egypt and hide out there until he says so, because Herod hell bent on destroying the baby. Jospeph is sufficiently freaked out and takes Mary and the baby to Egypt that night.
God’s big plan is to wait until Herod dies, and then tell Joseph that the coast is clear.
In the meantime Herod’s getting angry because the three wise men have totally mocked him. We don’t like Herod when he gets angry, because he does stuff like KILLS ALL THE KIDS AGES TWO AND UNDER! Because he has to make sure he kills the right one. Because killing babies is ever appropriate behavior.
Jeremy the prophet had said that in Rama, there would be a big wailing, and weeping and Rachel couldn’t be comforted because the children were dead. I doubt I could be comforted either. He killed all the babies!
But all things come to an end and eventually Herod dies, and god can tell Joseph the coast is clear. So Joseph takes Mary and Child back to Israel. But Archelaus, Herod’s son is now in charge of Judea so Joseph decides it would be better to live in Galilee, in a city called Nazareth so I guess that’s where we get that whole Jesus of Nazareth thing.
Killing babies! Yee ikes! Herod's one mean dude. Am I wrong, or does God seem like he's wussing out a little on protecting his own son. I mean, if I an omnipotent God I might spare the babies and just kill the homicidal king myself. But hey, maybe that's why I'm not omnipotent, because I don't like murdering children.
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