Matthew 2:16 and King Herod

We cannot trust anyone in power without weighing it by the Word of God in Scripture…and the insight of the holy spirit. in these times we need to listen very, very closely to him!

The religious right can be dangerously wrong!

Uncontrolled ambition can turn a person into a monster. God helps us keep things in the proper perspective when we focus on him above all else.

Matthew 2:16–18 (NKJV)

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 

Herod was the King of the Jews at the time of Jesus’s birth. The head of the religious right. GOD can allow people to rise in power to show HIS strength and our necessary dependence upon HIM to survive in times of chaos and destruction. 

Herod was a brutal man who killed his father-in-law, several of his ten wives, and two of his sons. He ignored the laws of God to suit himself and chose the favor of Rome over his own people. Herod's heavy taxes to pay for lavish projects forced an unfair burden on the Jewish citizens.

Herod strengthened Israel's position in the ancient world by increasing its commerce and turning it into a trading hub for Arabia and the East. His massive building program included theaters, amphitheaters, a port, markets, temples, housing, palaces, walls around Jerusalem, and aqueducts. He kept order in Israel but by using secret police and tyrannical rule.

Herod worked well with Israel's Roman conquerors. He knew how to get things done and was a skilled politician.

But:

He was a brutal man who killed his father-in-law, several of his ten wives, and two of his sons. He ignored the laws of God to suit himself and chose the favor of Rome over his own people. Herod's heavy taxes to pay for lavish projects forced an unfair burden on the Jewish citizens.

Although he ruled over the Jews in Israel in the time before Christ, Herod the Great was not completely Jewish. He was born in 73 B.C. to an Idumean man named Antipater and a woman named Cyprus, who was the daughter of an Arab sheik.

King Herod was a schemer who took advantage of Roman political unrest to claw his way to the top.

During a civil war in the Empire, Herod won the favor of Octavian, who later became the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. Once he was king, Herod launched an ambitious building program, both in Jerusalem and the spectacular port city of Caesarea, named after the emperor. He restored the magnificent Jerusalem temple, which was later destroyed by the Romans following a rebellion in A.D. 70.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the Wise Men met King Herod on their way to worship Jesus. He tried to trick them into revealing the child's location in Bethlehem on their way home, but they were warned in a dream to avoid Herod, so they returned to their countries by another route.

Jesus' stepfather, Joseph, was also warned in a dream by an angel, who told him to take Mary and their son and flee to Egypt, to escape Herod. When Herod learned he had been outwitted by the Magi, he became furious, ordering the slaughter of all the boys who were two years old and under in Bethlehem and its vicinity.

Joseph did not return to Israel until Herod had died. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus reported that Herod the Great died of a painful and debilitating disease that caused breathing problems, convulsions, rotting of his body, and worms. Herod reigned 37 years. His kingdom was divided by the Romans among his three sons.

One of them, Herod Antipas, was one of the conspirators in the trial and execution of Jesus.