The Wise Men and Herod

How many times have I read the Christmas story? How many sermons have I heard? But as I was preparing my Sunday school lesson this morning, a verse jumped out at me that I'd never seen before.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts therof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

In my mind, the wise men and Herod have been a nasty, but cut-and-dried part of the Christmas story. The wise men leave Herod, and they worship, then Joseph takes Jesus and Mary to Egypt, and then Herod, some time later, remembers that the Wise Men haven't returned, and so comes and kills the babies in Bethlehem. As I understand it, Bethlehem was a small town, maybe a few dozen baby boys killed then. Awful, but not heart-pounding.

Today, though, I realized that's probably a naive reading. Herod the Great was insane—he murdered his beloved wife, and many other relatives, to keep the throne. He wouldn't have waved good-bye to the magi and forgotten about them! He would have sent spies to trail them.

And guess what? A star that guides to the house would have been visible to the spy, too. Even if he somehow hadn't managed to keep sight of the entourage of foreigners bearing expensive gifts.

The internet gives the distance from Bethlehem to Jerusalem as a little less than five miles. As a child of eight, I could run six miles in an hour. An athletic man could cover that distance in less time, certainly; trained assassins, fully armed would probably take an hour, even if they had to stop and ask for directions.

The wise men sleep at some point after they worship, and are warned to return a different way. Did they get up in the night and leave? When they pointed their camel's noses away from Jerusalem, is that when the spy headed to Herod, to tell him that he would have no first-hand report from the magi?

While evil intrigue begins to work in Jerusalem, Joseph, warned in a dream, takes his family, buys passage for a trip to Egypt with the recently-given wealth.

And then Herod comes. He "slew all the children." Male and female. But maybe he had wind of the night escape. Perhaps the spy was there, saying, "This was the house! They were right here!" But the occupants had fled.

And so, in a rage, the killing spread "to all the coasts thereof." As I read that, the killing followed Jesus and his family as they escaped.

How terribly important for Joseph to take "the young child and his mother by night," to leave immediately, not to wait for morning. Immediate obedience on the part of the earthly father kept Jesus alive.

I look at this story in awe of how the pieces work together: wise men, possibly told by Daniel 400 years before to watch for the star that would tell of the birth of the King of the Jews. The people who know that the Messiah would come to Bethlehem in the land of Judah, and the census that sends Mary there for the birth. The wise men who bring gifts to pay for the flight to Egypt, which fulfills the prophecy both that "out of Egypt have I called my son," and, horribly, "In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not."

I don't know what to do with this story. It terrifies me. I want Jesus to be in danger enough that the prophecies are fulfilled, but not actually at risk of his life. I want gentle fulfillment, not ferocious pursuit that ends horribly for those the angel didn't come to warn.