A nightmare follows the joy of the manger.
Herod was no cartoon villain.
History knows him as Herod the Great, a Roman-appointed king of Judea, known for his vast building projects and violent paranoia.
He had one obsession: holding power.
And anyone who threatened that power, even his own sons or his wife, paid with their lives.
So when Magi arrived asking about a newborn King, Herod saw red.
He lied to their faces.
He said he wanted to worship the child, too. But God warned the Magi in a dream not to return.
Joseph received a dream of his own: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt” (Matthew 2:13).
That night, they ran.
Herod’s fury exploded.
Unable to find the child, he ordered the unthinkable: the murder of every male child two years old and under in Bethlehem.
The village was small. Scholars estimate the number of victims may have been twenty, maybe fewer. Enough to avoid the attention of Roman historians.
But not too few for God to hear their cries.
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children… because they are no more” (Matthew 2:18).
Matthew quotes the prophet Jeremiah, reaching back to the sorrow of exile, when mothers watched their children being led away in chains.
Now, the same cry is heard again because the same evil still lingers.
This is what the birth of Christ does. It brings light. But it also reveals the shadows.
Herod’s rage was not unique to Herod. It is the rage of every heart that resists surrender.
His throne was threatened, so he lashed out. And if we are honest, we all have small thrones of our own.
The child in the manger is a King.
And His arrival means the old powers must fall.
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The birth of Christ exposes the darkness of every earthly kingdom, including the darkness in us.
Herod wanted control, and so do we.
He feared losing power, and so do we.
But the way of Jesus is not to seize control. It is to surrender it.
The true King doesn’t kill to stay on the throne. He dies to rescue His enemies.
So let this story shake you.
Let it remind you that salvation isn’t soft. It is fierce light breaking into fierce darkness.
And that light still calls us to choose: cling to power or bow to the King.
