The Holy Innocents – 28 December 2022, Anno Domini

 

 

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HEN Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.  (Matthew 2:16-18)

 

                        Herod’s guilt of the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem does not eclipse the national guilt of America in the murder of millions of innocent babies in the mother’s womb. But the mindset was the same – it satisfied his convenience of power just as abortion is a convenience to evade moral responsibility for one’s criminal acts.

 

            Herod was a great deceiver and would find complete comfort as a member of the Executive, Legislative or Judicial Branches of the United States government today – he would find himself in agreeable company to his treacherous disposition.

 

            When the Wise Men evaded his request for knowledge of the Christ-Child, Herod was enraged. Such a king as would be heralded by the prophesied Star would, in his mind, be a great threat to his own throne. But why specify all male of two years age and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men? The appearance of the Star marked the birth of the Christ-Child. Counting the time down from first sight in the distant East where the Wise Men first saw the Star, Herod calculated two years duration considering their travel time. By the time the wise Men had traversed mountain and desert wilderness, His estimate approximated two years. To be sure that the Christ-Child was included in the massacre, he ordered all infants from two years and under to be killed.

 

            You will recall when the Wise Men arrived to see the Infant Jesus, He was no longer in the stable yard, but in a permanent dwelling. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11) This visitation necessarily occurred some months from the first sighting of the Star.

 

            Consider the mournful cries of the mothers that night in tiny little Bethlehem as their precious children were dragged from their arms and put to the sword before their very eyes. Mother’s had far greater love for their children in those dark days than many have in the world today. The heart of man can be most cruel when supported by malicious government! Legalization of murder is still murder in the eyes of God.The Prophet Jeremiah had uttered the prophecy of this event more than six centuries before the fact: ¶Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah (Bethlehem), lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not. (Jeremiah 31:15)  Bethlehem was the home city of David and the burial place of Rachel, the beloved wife of Jacob and mother of Joseph.

 

            The innocent babes of Bethlehem were the first martyrs of Christ to occur during His ministry, and they certainly share in a heavenly bliss with Christ as I write. Being babes, they had no sin, but even if they did have, their blood sacrifice was more efficacious to wash away their sins than that of goats and oxen. Their blood was shed for Christ whose blood would redeem them of the taint of sin at the last.

 

            Can such atrocities be repeated in our modern world? The question is rhetorical! It is being repeated daily even today by moslem radicals in the middle east, and by sterile hospital environments where the white-gowned ministers of death take the lives of innocent babies ere they see their first sunrise – God forbid!

 

             How does God view a nation that sheds innocent blood? That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee. (Deuteronomy 19:10) The following text fairly sums the present moral state of the Land Beautiful: Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace.  Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. (Isaiah 59:7-11)  All logic and judgment has abandoned us in our lust for more and more sin.  I no longer pray for God to bless America in her current state, but that God would save America so that He will then be able to bless her once more.