Avalon Chronicles #129: Headline: Wise Men Visit Herod

      Herod's press secretary woke the king up and said there have arrived at the palace wise men, who have traveled from the East. They asked Herod, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." (NKJV: Matthew 2:1-2). This got Herod's attention, because this was a direct threat to his sovereignty. Herod demanded of his staff, "Where is this birth to happen?" In the immortal words of Mark Twain, "I wonder who found that out?" The answer came back from what the prophet Micah had written seven hundred years previously that the birth was to have been in Bethlehem of Judea. 

     Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem with instructions to report back to him so that, "...I may come and worship him also." The wise men went to Bethlehem, but proceeded home without a return visit to Herod. Herod realized that the birth of this young boy could prove a direct threat to his reign. It is written in Matthew 2:16, "Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he set forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under." An angel had appeared to Joseph to instruct him to take the child Jesus and escape to Egypt until Herod soon died thereafter. 

     Christendom celebrates the birth of Jesus on December 25th each year with great merriment and celebration. The tradition of sharing of gifts began with those to Jesus from the wise men. But, what is the larger picture here? Again, it was the move of Satan through his instrument Herod to kill Jesus, who would be the means through His earthly ministry to bring forth God's plan for humanity's redemption. Jesus' birth would be the final nail in the coffin to disrupt Satan's plan since the Fall in the Garden to stop God's goal to establish a way by which those, who choose to believe in the Coming of the Christ, would have the privilege of living eternally with God. 

WE CELEBRATE THE GREAT GIFT OF THE BIRTH OF THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD ON THIS DAY!