1. It was towards the end of this tyrant's reign, probably in the year 6 b.c.-the common chronology being erroneous-that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Tertullian makes the strange statement that some of the Jews were of opinion that Herod himself was the Christ-“Christum Herodem esse dixerunt.” That is incredible. Herod might more correctly have been designated the Anti-Christ than the Christ. Bishop Westcott says truly that “the history of the Herodian family presents one side of the last development of the Jewish nation. Side by side with the spiritual Kingdom of God, preached by John the Baptist, and founded by the Lord, a kingdom of the world was established, which in its external splendour recalled the traditional magnificence of Solomon. The simultaneous realizations of the two principles, national and spiritual, which had long variously influenced the Jews, is a fact pregnant with instruction. In the fulness of time a descendant of Esau established a false counterpart of the promised glories of the Messiah.”
2. But the star of the true Messiah arose, and shone over Bethlehem, in the dark night of history when Herod's star was near its setting. And the momentary conjunction of the names of two so diverse Kings of the Jews is one of the strangest things in the book of time. Herod's conduct towards the Magi is just what we should have expected. All his morbid jealousy, all his lying craftiness, and all his bloodthirsty cruelty, are revealed in the Evangelical narrative. He who had built a temple to the God of the Jews, and many temples to the gods of the Gentiles, had no religion of his own. His proposal to worship the child at Bethlehem, who was “born king of the Jews,” only masked his intention to destroy one more rival. And when he found the Magi had, as he said, “befooled” him, he would doubtless have dealt with them, could he have laid his hands upon them, as he was wont to deal with all who crossed his purposes. It was well for them that they received a warning to return to their own country by another way. But it was ill for the innocent babes of Bethlehem, who were left to bear the brunt of the tyrant's wrath. In the hope of laying his murderous hands on one young life-which, however, was far beyond his reach-he spread a wide net. “He sent forth, and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under.” These were the first Christian martyrs. At least theirs was the first innocent blood that was shed for Jesus' sake.
The truth of this story [of the massacre of the innocents] has been questioned. The chief ground is the silence of Josephus on the subject. While he speaks of many cruel deeds of Herod, he passes this one by. But it is plainly quite of a piece with Herod's well-known character, and, indeed, compared with his other deeds of monstrous cruelty, it would easily escape notice. The whole number of victims, probably not more than twenty or thirty, would not make a very great sensation at that time. Besides, the whole of Josephus' statements in regard to the Messianic expectations and doings of his time are to be looked upon with some suspicion, for he seems to have been afraid to make many clear and direct allusions to those matters. The deed illustrates well Herod's general character for bloodthirsty cruelty and short-sighted folly.1 [Note: D. M. W. Laird, in the Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, i. 829.]
3. But at last the wicked cease from troubling. The Evangelist's words, “Herod was dead,” are more than a statement of historical fact; they are a sigh of relief heaved by a long-suffering universe. Heaven as well as earth could now breathe more freely. In a dream Joseph heard a sympathetic angel say, “Arise … for they are dead that sought the young child's life.” The plural number “they” expresses a general idea, a class, though only a single person is meant. Herod and all his kind “have their day, and cease to be.” Of course he received a splendid funeral. “There was a bier all of gold … the conclusion of the life of Herod” (Josephus, B.J. 1. 33.9).
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave,
Awaits alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Meanwhile the Child of Bethlehem, born in this tyrant's reign, and providentially saved from the massacre of the innocents, was opening His eyes to all the wonder of the world-the world which He had come to redeem. The Herodians played their part for a little while upon the stage of history, and then sank into oblivion. Their sovereignty had none of the elements of stability. But while Herod Antipas was tetrarch of Galilee, and Herod Philip tetrarch of Ituræa, Jesus the true Christ founded the spiritual Kingdom which is to endure unto all generations; the Kingdom which is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; the Kingdom which is to bring to all mankind numberless, priceless, endless blessings. That Kingdom has come, is now coming, and is yet to come. Herod's palaces soon crumbled into dust; of his temple not one stone was left upon another; and all his cities are one with Nineveh and Tyre. The Great Herod is dead, but the Holy Child, whose blood he tried to shed, is alive for evermore. King of kings and Lord of lords, He lives to emancipate the world from all Herodian tyrannies, to enfranchise the whole human family with the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
So be it, Lord! Thy throne shall never,
Like earth's proud empires, pass away;
Thy kingdom stands and grows for ever,
Till all Thy creatures own Thy sway.
Everybody in this room has been taught to pray daily, “Thy kingdom come.” Now, if we hear a man swear in the streets, we think it very wrong, and say he “takes God's name in vain.” But there's a twenty times worse way of taking His name in vain than that. It is to ask God for what we don't want. He doesn't like that sort of prayer. If you don't want a thing, don't ask for it: such asking is the worst mockery of your King you can insult Him with; the soldiers striking Him on the head with the reed was nothing to that. If you do not wish for His kingdom, don't pray for it. But if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must work for it. And, to work for it, you must know what it is; we have all prayed for it many a day without thinking. Observe, it is a kingdom that is to come to us; we are not to go to it. Also, it is not to be a kingdom of the dead, but of the living. Also, it is not to come all at once, but quietly; nobody knows how. “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.” Also, it is not to come outside of us, but in our hearts: “the kingdom of God is within you.” And, being within us, it is not a thing to be seen, but to be felt; and though it brings all substance of good with it, it does not consist in that: “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost”; joy, that is to say, in the holy, healthful, and helpful Spirit. Now, if we want to work for this kingdom, and to bring it, and enter into it, there's one curious condition to be first accepted. You must enter it as children, or not at all: “Whosoever will not receive it as a little child shall not enter therein.” And again, “Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”1 [Note: Ruskin, The Crown of Wild Olive, § 46 (Works, xviii. 427).]
