Tricked by the Wise Men

Tricked by the Wise Men

Matthew 2:16 – When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men to kill all the children in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men. 17 – Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: 18 – “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were gone.”

What words can be used to describe Herod?  He was a monster, turning on the families in Bethlehem, destroying their young children in the hopes of killing Jesus, to protect his throne.  He could not get to Jesus, for He has already in Egypt.  Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him – but that’s not the reality.  The reality was that the wise men followed a warning they had received from God in a dream.  Herod didn’t realize he was dealing with God.  

Herod took all the intel he had gleaned from the wise men and used it to find Jesus for himself to kill him, but he was too late.  Can you imagine taking everything we know from the Bible to use it for destruction?  There is a major problem with the use of such logic.  How could Herod, knowing he’d been tricked, trust anything the wise men had told him? – yet He did and fulfilled the Jeremiah prophecy being the cause of ‘Rachel weeping for her children’ and was nowhere close to finding Jesus.

To take the Bible and use it for sin and destruction – is to walk straight into the prophecies of destruction. “Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood!” – Revelation 22:14-15.  At the end Herod will be found outside.  All his intelligence that he gleaned in his life will not lead him to a throne.  It will lead him to a place outside the city gates to await judgment for his acts of murder on all those children.  

Herod was a monster.  Cherishing sin will turn us all into monsters.  We will trample on the lives of others, misusing the Scriptures for our own gain – not realizing that the only place we will find ourselves in the end is outside the city looking in.  Jesus came to this earth to keep as many as possible from walking that path.  “Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.”  I have a robe that needs washing.  How about you?