Matthew 2:7-18
Herod Ordered All Boys in Bethlehem Two Years Old or Younger to be Killed
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Herod the Great had a fear that the King of the Jews would one day grow up and take his throne...Herod feared a baby...He feared One that was not interested in a throne, but One that was interested in souls...God warned the wise men and Joseph of Herod's thinking and they escaped his sword...Herod did not want Jesus to take over his job, his territory, or his power...Jesus was not interested in any of those three things...
Herod's way of thinking was to get rid of those who might be a threat to him...And there are many who think like this...This type thinking still is around with us today...Herod haunts us even today, in trying to get rid of Star in Bethlehem...