Sunday, December 09, 2007
I read Gracie the story of Jesus’ birth the other night as a bedtime story. I figured since it is almost Christmas it was as good of a story as any. Never before have I realized how dysfunctional of a story this is. I have read and been taught that this is a story of God’s coming, which he choose to do so in a non-glorfying way. In way that was unnoticed, except to three crazy astronomers and in a way of total weakness and poorest of circumstances. Of this, is something that no one would expect of the prophesied King. I mean this is the Son of God we are talking about here. He could of come in a much more authoritative and glorified manner, but he didn’t. This isn’t the part of the story that disturbed me though.
It is written that when King Herod had heard of the birth of a King in Bethlehem he became threatened and asked the wise men to bring the baby to him so that he too could worship the new born King. Of course the wise men knew this was a trick and did not do as they were asked. Then the most cruel, disturbing and nefarious thing happens. King Herod orders the death of all male children ages two and younger in an attempt to rid of what he feels is a threat to his throne, the baby Jesus, the new born King. As we all know, an angel appeared before Joseph and directed him to take Marry and Jesus and flee to Egypt to escape the massacre.
I don’t know why the death of the newborn babies bother so much. It has never before, I have always read over that part of the story without much consideration of what that means or what that would have been like for the families who had their children murdered. Maybe it is because I have two children now, one of the which is a newborn and this part of the story hits a little close to home now. I don’t know… I did a little research though. It is guessed that between 20 and 200 babies were murdered at King Herod’s command. From what I have read most scholars believe the number of murdered babies between 20 and 50.
Odd that the good news for most of us, being that the Savior was born, meant bad news for the families who had their babies murdered.
It is written that when King Herod had heard of the birth of a King in Bethlehem he became threatened and asked the wise men to bring the baby to him so that he too could worship the new born King. Of course the wise men knew this was a trick and did not do as they were asked. Then the most cruel, disturbing and nefarious thing happens. King Herod orders the death of all male children ages two and younger in an attempt to rid of what he feels is a threat to his throne, the baby Jesus, the new born King. As we all know, an angel appeared before Joseph and directed him to take Marry and Jesus and flee to Egypt to escape the massacre.
I don’t know why the death of the newborn babies bother so much. It has never before, I have always read over that part of the story without much consideration of what that means or what that would have been like for the families who had their children murdered. Maybe it is because I have two children now, one of the which is a newborn and this part of the story hits a little close to home now. I don’t know… I did a little research though. It is guessed that between 20 and 200 babies were murdered at King Herod’s command. From what I have read most scholars believe the number of murdered babies between 20 and 50.
Odd that the good news for most of us, being that the Savior was born, meant bad news for the families who had their babies murdered.
