Who Could Do such a Thing?
Matthew 2:13-23
This passage is certainly one of the most troubling in the New Testament. There are two parts to this passage. The one is how God warned Joseph to flee Bethlehem and later warns him not to come back there from Egypt because of Archelaus Herod’s son, but rather go to Nazareth. This is the easy part, which I have dealt with in a sermon in this archive called “Joseph the Dreamer.” It is the other part of this story which is particularly painful. We as ministers are charged to preach the full counsel of God contained in the Scripture. It would be easy to pass over Herod’s slaughter of the innocent children in Bethlehem. But this is the word of God also, so we must answer to it.
Herod the Great would be the poster child for an evil genius. He had for many years ruled over the Jews, even though he was not Jewish. He was a classic politician. He at first sided with Marc Anthony against Augustus in the power struggle and civil war in the Roman Empire. But he switched sides at an opportune time to Augustus. As Augustus defeated Marc Anthony in the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., it kept Herod’s head on his body as well as provided for his promotion as King of the Jews. The Romans often ruled through puppet kings raised up from the local population. It mattered not to Augustus that Herod was a descendant of Esau rather than Jacob. As long as he could keep the peace and keep the tax revenue coming in, all was well. Augustus knew well of the slimy reputation of Herod, but he was useful slime.
Herod realized that his continuing rule depended upon two factors. He needed to keep Rome happy and he needed to keep the Jews happy. Herod was quite a builder. Besides building many palaces like to Herodian and Masada for himself, he built a temple to Jupiter on the roan to Damascus, in which his patron Caesar Augustus was also honored. He built a magnificent port which he called Caesarea after Caesar. Cities were built, and Herod tried to Romanize Palestine. He wanted to brig “civilization” to the Jews like the Greeks before him.
Many of the Jewish people were not happy with Romanization, and this was dangerous. Herod had at all costs to keep them pacified. One of the ways he did this was to overhaul and essentially rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. The second temple was far inferior to the one built during the days of Solomon. Herod wanted the new Temple to be glorious. In many respects it was a monument to Herod’s glory, rather than Yahweh. It was one of the greatest building projects of the ancient world.
Herod had many wives, but he thought he would legitimatize his reign over the Jews by marrying the daughter of th High Priest. He had two sons by this marriage. But here is where the evil part of his genius came out. Herod would by modern standards have been called mentally ill. He was paranoid and fearful about his grip on power. He was afraid of being deposed and replaced by one of these two sons. So he had them killed as well as his Jewish wife whom he loved. Herod’s actions became more bizarre as he got older. He even gave orders for many prominent Jews to be killed on the day he died so that people would mourn his death. So far as we know, this was not carried out. So when we hear of what Herod did to these young boys in Jerusalem, it was true to his character. As Bethlehem was fairly small and Herod’s atrocities so great, the massacre of the innocents flew almost under the radar, unless, of course, one was the parents of these children.
Herod had heard from the Magi that a rival to his throne had been born. They had come to Jerusalem and had assumed that the great king would have been born in a great city. So they started asking questions. Many of the Jews did not want to upset the apple cart in Jerusalem, so they were troubled when the Magi started asking questions. Herod soon found out about it and pretended sincere interest in this newborn king. He listened carefully to them and gave instruction to come back with the location of the child in Bethlehem. But God warned the Magi not to return to Herod, and Joseph was warned to take Mary and Jesus with him to Egypt. Herod was mocked.
So Herod acted according to his evil character. He sent soldiers to kill every male child in the city two years and younger. He wanted to make sure that the rival to his throne was killed, and if a few peasant boys had to die in the process, it was no matter to him. Only a person who is possessed could do such a thing. He who killed his own children thought nothing of killing someone else’s children.
The text brings up difficult questions. This is because Matthew quotes a passage from the prophet Jeremiah about Rachel weeping for her children who had been killed. This prophecy was six hundred years old, and Matthew says that this horrific incident is the fulfillment. One question which some make is: “Did God make Herod kill these children?” God is all-powerful and all-knowing. So is God the author of evil? The Bible expressly states that God is not the author of evil. The question of evil is certainly a great mystery. In theological terms, this is called “theodicy.” Many theologians have tried to tackle this issue, even the great Augustine. The answer to this dilemma is beyond us, but let it be sufficient to say that Herod was responsible for his own actions. And the horrific death he suffered was just a down payment of the punishment he received for his actions.
A similar question is: “If God is God, why did he not prevent Herod from killing the infants?” He warned Joseph to leave. Why didn’t God warn the parents of these children? Even though God did not kill these children, some have problems that God, who could have intervened, did not. People are always trying to accuse someone else for their own evil. Adam blamed his wife. Eve blamed the serpent. People blame God as if it is God’s fault. But suppose we turn the question around. The humanists, who are trying to create a world without God like to make the statement that people are basically good. The question I would like to ask them is: “If people are basically good, why do they do such evil things?” Was Herod basically good? The answer might be that it is society which corrupts good people. If we fix society, we will bring out the best in people. We can see the utter futility of such an attempt. The real truth is that people in a fallen world are basically evil, and the societies they create are evil. Only perfect people can create a just society. But who is perfect?
If perfection in society and people were possible by human endeavor, one would think we would have arrived there by now. But what do we see? We see mothers killing their own children. We see a society which abuses children. We see men abusing women. We see the rich abusing the poor. We see elitists who look down at common people. We see nuclear bombs and missiles. We have wars. We have injustice. Many of those who proclaim they are for social justice are the most unjust of people. We slaughter the innocents. This is because we all have the same kind of spirit which motivated Herod. Herod did do some impressive feats. He could be rational at times. He did not appear mad and evil all the time. But this possession expressed itself from time to time in the ost horrible actions. We too are sinners. Perhaps we have not sinned to the degree Herod did externally, but we all have the nature of Adam.
We must understand that even though the baby Jesus escaped death in Bethlehem, He did not escape death. And the death He would suffer was far greater than a swift blow of the sword. This Jesus who fled with His parents to Egypt would return. After a short period of ministry in which He preached repentance and the kingdom, healed people and performed other miracles, would be rejected and condemned to suffer the cruelest of deaths on a cross. He would arise on the third day and ascend on the 40th day back to the Father. John tells us He is preparing a place for us. He will return and we will be gathered with Him into the perfect society. We shall be perfected. When we confess Jesus who died for our sins and rose for our justification we are confessing that we shall be made into His perfect humanity. It is because Jesus died for our sins that this is possible.
So the proper answer to the problem of evil is that Jesus died for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us. If we will believe this good news, then we have the proper perspective that the troubles we see in this life are only temporary. We will not have to deal with the problem of evil in the Kingdom of Evil. So let us keep this in mind. Without this perspective there is not hope at all. In Christ, all shall be well for the believer.
