Imagine if the government just didn’t tolerate protestors, or anything else....
King Herod was known for massive building projects all over Judea and that probably meant high taxes. He was also known for his brutality and his paranoia about any threats to his throne. Ordering the slaughter of all of the babies in Bethlehem was not even the worst thing that Herod the Great did! He ordered the death of his ‘favorite wife’ and four of his sons after only a suspicion. He was probably more aptly named Herod the Paranoid. Caesar even once remarked that “it was safer to be Herod’s pig than Herod’s son.”
So when this power-crazed king catches news from some rich-looking foreigners that there is a new King of the Jews in Bethlehem he needs to do something about that. After figuring out that the wise men duped him, he loses his mind and has all the babies in the area killed. There were no checks and balances to ancient governments’ power, so the king’s crazy plans just happen. How badly do the people of Israel need a good king on the throne? How excited and oh so ready for the Messiah must they have been?
Jesus was spared from Herod’s plans by an angel sending Joseph off to Egypt in a dream. So this young Jewish family moved to Egypt indefinitely. Tradition tells us that they used the gifts from the wise men to fund their move. In Egypt, Jesus and his family are oppressed and then treated like a minority. The text is silent for the most part on their time in Egypt. Were their language issues to deal with? Did Joseph struggle to find work? How long did their limited money last? Were they treated like second class citizens by the Egyptians?
After Herod died, an angel told Mary and Joseph they could move back to Israel. What a relief that must have been! In order to avoid Herod’s son Archelaus, who shared the family trait for brutality, they moved to Nazareth backwater Galilee. That’s like moving to Chetwynd, BC when you used to live just outside of Vancouver! Nazareth is an obscure, off the highway, little town with likely a lousy education system and lots of non-Jewish influences. And that is where the King of the Jews grew up.
Questions for Reflection
• What has God spared you from?
• Do you long for King Jesus to return as much as the oppressed Jews did?
• Here we see that Jesus and his family were threatened, oppressed, treated minorities and lived in obscurity. Jesus knows what troubles there are in this world because he experienced them. Is it comforting that Jesus can relate to our problems here on Earth?
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