Matthew 2:13-15 tells of the events that immediately preceded and followed Jesus' birth. Herod was terrified that he would lose his power to a new King, but he failed to realize that Jesus' kingdom is not of this earth. Here we see the narrowmindedness of the ungodly, and the severity of their mistakes.
2:18. "In Rama, the people cried, lamented, and wept, as when the prophetess Rachel wept for her children, for they have been murdered [senseless political extermination, q.v. genocide] . . .."
This was the fulfillment of prophecy from the Egyptian persecution immediately following the birth of Moses. The difference is that this time, Egypt remembered the outcome of that atrocity and did not want to see it happen again. Jesus was far safer in Egypt than his hometown, Bethlehem.
In the greater sense, Jesus always knew His destiny. He came here to die for us, when the time was right.
If He had suffered and died prematurely, His mission would have gone unfulfilled, and despots like Herod Antipas would continue their reign of terror. Here we see that God has specific timing of events that touch our lives, that He never forces anyone to act amiss, and that what we do amiss, we do because of sin that is in us from before our birth.
It is on the spirit of Herod Antipas for all the rotten things he ordered done, and it is on the spirits of the soldiers who carried out this bloodbath atrocity: they would have been tortured fror disobeying Herod, but their spirits would have been clean of that ghastly memory.
We cannot say that we are innocent of wrongdoing. The small wrongs we commit on this planet are insignificant compared to the wrongs that accompany original sin -- sin we were all born into, for things of the far distant past, before the time we are born onto this planet.
Until now, we have been afraid to speak of these things, even though we know them intuitively. That day is past. Now we may speak the truth we have been hiding.
In Jesus Name, I bid you peace.
