Matthew 2:16-18 (ESV)
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. [17] Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
[18] "A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more."
“According to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men,” there is a lot of time being skipped over in this chapter. The Text indicates that the wise men did not show up until two years after Jesus was born, or at least two years after the star appeared. That is a long time to be travelling; perhaps they delayed for a while themselves to prepare for the trip who knows. Maybe Herod was overzealous and killed all the children a year before and a year after the time that the Wise men gave; just to be on the safe side. We don’t know. But Jesus had been there a while. And again the whole even goes to fulfill a prophecy, which maybe doesn’t look like a prophecy on the outside. If you read this verse in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah it could almost be missed as a prophecy dealing with the coming messiah. Yet, when the early church and the apostles especially, looked at the whole of the Old Testament to see in what ways the histories, the prophecies, and everything in them pointed to Christ, and reflected the life of Christ.
3 comments:
Question:
Maybe this is stupid straining at gnats, but I often wondered about this. Tradition says that the first martyr is Stephen. I have no real problem with this. but, as the Innocents of Bethlehem were the first to be killed because for thier relationship to Jesus, and specifically for being Christ-like, would it be improper to think of them as the first martyrs?
How must Jesus have felt about those babies being killed because of him? This makes my head spin because it's difficult for me to conceptualize God develping personality as he grew up as a man.
Scottydog,
It is a tradition of the church to think of the victims of the Slaughter of the Innocents as the first martyrs.
I'm thinking Jesus must have known that these innocent ones were now enjoying a much better life because of the death he was going to die for them. It is hard though to speculate on what all that must have been like.
Looking back in history, and forgetting that God knows things we as mere humans don't/can't...God and the Christian Church(corporate) have been "slammed" for this type of historic event since the advent of the relationship with Abram...
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