WWUTT 1907 The Massacre at Bethlehem (Matthew 2:13-23)

In Matthew 2, we read about a wicked slaughter that happened at the hands of a jealous tyrant.

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Thank you, Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we've been in chapter 2, reading about the visit of the

Magi, which we considered yesterday, verses 1 -12. Let's finish up the rest of the chapter.

I'll begin reading in verse 13 and go through verse 23 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

Hear the word of the Lord. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the

Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child, to destroy him.

So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night, and departed for Egypt.

And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying,

Out of Egypt I called my son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the

Magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the

Magi. Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,

A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she was refusing to be comforted, because they were no more.

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,

Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.

So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judah in place of his father

Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the district of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called

Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets would be fulfilled. He shall be called a

Nazarene." So what we read about here, this is the story of the flight to Egypt, the massacre of the innocents, and then the return of Joseph and Mary and Jesus back into Israel to settle in Nazareth.

So let's come back to verse 13 here, when they had departed, that's in reference to the Magi, because remember that an angel had warned the

Magi in a dream not to return to Herod. Well, it doesn't explicitly say that, actually.

So verse 12, and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the

Magi departed for their own country by another way. We might assume it was an angel, because previously in Matthew, it was an angel that spoke to Joseph in a dream, saying that Mary was with child from the

Holy Spirit. And then, of course, here in verse 13, an angel addresses Joseph in a dream again and tells him to flee to Egypt.

So we just assume it was an angel that addressed the Magi, but it doesn't exactly say that.

It just says, they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. I know it's kind of a minor point, doesn't really mean that big a deal, but hey, we're going with the exactness of the language here.

We don't know for sure it was an angel that warned the Magi in a dream. So anyway, an angel does speak to Joseph and says, get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.

So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and departed for Egypt.

Now remember, once again, Jesus is about a year, year and a half years old at this particular time.

So Joseph and Mary and Jesus, it says in verse 15, remain there until the death of Herod in order that what had been spoken by the

Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, out of Egypt I called my son. That's out of Hosea 11,

I'll come back to that here in a moment. But we see something in the writing style here that Matthew does periodically throughout the writing of this gospel.

Sometimes when he mentions a particular happening, he follows that all the way to the end and then returns back to the main action that was taking place.

Another example of this is in chapter 27 at the crucifixion of Jesus. He talks about the resurrection of Jesus before he even gets to that part of the narrative in chapter 28.

He mentions that when Jesus rose again, there were many other saints who rose too and went into the city of Jerusalem and testified.

But then Matthew comes back to the main action of Jesus dying on the cross, being taken down and buried, the guard being placed at the tomb, and then he gets to the resurrection in chapter 28.

So that's just an example of kind of the narrative way in which Matthew tells a story.

He'll focus on one action, follow that all the way through to the end, and then come back to the main action. And we see that here with Mary and Joseph and Jesus being gathered up, fleeing to Egypt and being well ahead of Herod's order by the time he gives it.

So verse 15 concludes by showing us that what was spoken by the prophet was fulfilled out of Egypt, I called my son.

With Mary and Joseph and Jesus going to Egypt, then when they come back out of Egypt into the land of promise, they will be fulfilling what was said in Hosea 11.

Now when you go there to Hosea 11, you read, when Israel was a youth, I loved him.

And out of Egypt I called my son. The more they called them, the more they went from them.

They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to graven images. And you read that in context,

Hosea 11, 1 and 2, and you think to yourself, how could this possibly be pertaining to Jesus?

This is exactly about Israel and how they fell from grace.

They turned from God and they were worshiping false gods. And yet, Matthew is pointing out that Hosea 11, 1 is talking about Jesus?

Yes, in this particular sense, that Jesus fulfilled everything that Israel failed at doing.

What they failed at, Jesus fulfilled. And so over and over again, you have Israel being referred to as a son, as a child of God.

That comes up multiple times throughout the prophets, including here in Hosea 11, 1.

And yet, this was a son that continually rebelled against God. They went after false gods.

They became stiff -necked and complained against God, and on and on it went. So in everything that God gave to Israel, or in everything that he commanded

Israel, they failed at every point. But Jesus succeeds at every point.

He fulfills where Israel failed. And so Matthew is demonstrating here that Jesus is true

Israel. He's going to be faithful Israel as opposed to faithless

Israel. So hence, showing that Jesus being called out of Egypt is going to be the fulfillment of faithful Israel.

Out of Egypt, I called my son. Israel was called out of Egypt, but they didn't do so well in obeying

God or even in the land that God had given to them. But Jesus is going to do perfectly in this very same land.

So that's what Matthew is demonstrating by pointing out that Jesus is the fulfillment, even of Hosea 11, 1, out of Egypt, I called my son.

Jesus is going to fulfill everywhere that Israel failed. Alright, continuing on, verse 16, where we have the account of what is commonly referred to as the massacre of the innocents.

Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the Magi, he became very enraged and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the

Magi. So remember the Magi told Herod exactly when the star rose and from the other prophecies that they had said they were following,

Herod was able to determine that this child, this one who has been born king of the

Jews the Magi are talking about, had to have been about two years old or under. So he gives the order that all male children from two and under were to be killed.

This is referred to as the massacre of the innocents, and it's hardly accepted by historians as being true.

The only place it's recorded is in the Gospel of Matthew. There's nothing else in history that speaks of this slaughter.

According to Lutheran minister and historian Paul L. Meyer, the massacre has been drenched with doubt by historians, biblical commentators, and biographers of Herod the

Great. In fact, except for the virgin birth, no aspect of the nativity has come under heavier critical challenge than the infant massacre at Bethlehem.

When Josephus wrote his biography on Herod the Great, he didn't even mention the massacre of the innocents.

One theory regarding the lack of evidence is that though Herod had ordered the massacre, it was never actually carried out.

However, this explanation would contradict Matthew, who will go on to say that the slaughter of these children was prophesied in Jeremiah 31 .15,

a cry heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children. Ramah was just a few miles to the north of Jerusalem, as far as Bethlehem was to the south.

Ramah would have been in the vicinity of Herod's order. Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob, and Jeremiah 31 .15

is a reference to her offspring. Herod had no problem killing his own people, as he'd also killed a wife, his brother -in -law, and three sons, as well as hundreds of others.

The reason that we're puzzled by the lack of extra -biblical evidence for the massacre that's recorded here in Matthew 2 is because the number of lives lost has been grossly overstated.

And when I say overstated, I mean really, really overstated.

The Byzantine liturgical calendar records that 14 ,000 holy innocents were slain by Herod at Bethlehem, and I've seen it with my own eyes.

I've read the Byzantine liturgical calendar, and I have seen on there that according to the date that they recognize as being the date to honor those innocents that were murdered, 14 ,000 of them died that day.

In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the doxology for the 144 ,000 is sung to remember 144 ,000 children killed by Herod.

That is a crazy high number, and that would have been about a quarter of the population of Jerusalem at that time.

Several Renaissance artists have illustrated the massacre of the innocents, like Dutch painters Cornelius van

Haarlem and Pieter Brueghel. Haarlem's scene is a depiction of a mass execution outside of a city with hundreds of lives lost, while Brueghel's version of the event happened in the middle of a town square with a band of foot soldiers carrying large spears.

Italian painter Tintoretto also portrayed a public slaughter that looks like it happened in the streets of Jerusalem.

Outside of the scriptures, the number of dead children and the size of the military campaign is believed to be so great that the story has become unbelievable.

But in reality, the number of lives lost was probably about two dozen.

A few in Bethlehem, and then another dozen or so in the surrounding towns. Now that's still a massacre.

One mother losing one child at the hands of a tyrant would cause Rachel to weep in agony.

But it's just not the massive slaughter that it's been painted to be, literally painted to be, over the course of church history.

Keep in mind that Matthew 2 .16 says, Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under.

These were only male children, not all infants. How many baby boys could there have been under the age of two in Bethlehem or any of the other small towns outside of Jerusalem?

The number of soldiers deployed to carry out the order would not have been high either. But if Herod demanded such an execution, why didn't

Josephus bother to write about it, since he's the earliest biographer of Herod that we have?

Well, the reason why Josephus didn't write about it is because Herod killed hundreds of people, including members of his own family.

And the drama throughout all of Judea immediately following the Magi's visit was vengeful chaos, to say the least.

This going on with the massacre of the innocents, this was but one thing in all of the other murders and massacres that Herod was doing.

Herod was actually ill at the time that the Magi came to Jerusalem, and his health declined rapidly after they left.

This was surely by the just hand of God. Herod had such a thirst for blood toward the end of his life, the

Jews were counting down the days until he died. So to prevent a celebration among the people upon his death,

Herod summoned all the notable Jews from all over the kingdom and shut them in the Hippodrome at Jericho, Hippodrome being like a large stadium.

He ordered that the moment he died, all of those officials were to be killed so that there would be national mourning instead of a national festival.

Needless to say, no one carried out his demand. When Herod died, everyone he held captive was released.

And again, all of this happened like right around that same time that the

Magi visited and then left. There was a lot going on in Judea apart from Herod's order to kill baby boys under the age of two.

We have no reason to doubt the truthfulness of Matthew's account, but we should certainly doubt claims that the number of the dead ranged in the tens to hundreds of thousands.

So in verse 19, when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, get up, take the child and his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead.

So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. Now where Mary and Joseph would have gone when they left

Bethlehem and went down to Egypt, they would have gone to the Jewish settlement that was at Alexandria.

And that was a huge booming Jewish settlement. They would have been able to pay for their stay using the gold that the

Magi would have given them. So they lived there for a little bit of time. We wouldn't figure it would have been very long.

It probably wasn't even a couple of years before the Lord then said to them, Herod's dead so you can go back.

Now this journey of Mary and Joseph and Jesus into Egypt, there are some who will say this makes them refugees.

And usually they've got a certain political message in mind whenever they say something like that.

You've surely heard it said Jesus was a refugee. But does that really make them refugees?

After all, they're fleeing the hands of a tyrant. That is one way that we define a refugee.

Like they're trying to escape a war -torn area or an area that's been devastated by disease or some tyrant is afflicting the people, whatever it might happen to be.

But they're fleeing one country into the next looking for asylum or safety. And so we refer to those persons as refugees.

But keep in mind, Mary and Joseph and Jesus never left the Roman Empire. They just went from one area of the

Roman Empire to another. And they even stayed with their own people. An established Jewish settlement that was there every bit as much a part of Egypt as a native

Egyptian with the Jews that lived there at Alexandria. And so then, of course, they come back into Israel after just a couple of years.

It's not like they had to reestablish citizenship or anything like that. So it wasn't anything like we might define a refugee today.

Maybe you could make the case, but it's probably a semantic argument. And scripture does tell us not to quarrel about words.

It's funny how people will twist this particular story to progress their own political agenda.

But they don't seem to make the connection between Herod and many of today's political leaders.

Herod was out to kill children. And he hated Jesus. He wanted to destroy

Jesus so we could say that he hated Christianity. Is there a particular political party that you can think of that really, really wants to kill children and hates biblical

Christianity? Yeah, there's a political party I can think of. They're blue in color, starts with a

D, and they want to do everything that they possibly can to slaughter unborn children, even by the thousands in America every single day.

But I digress. Let's finish up the rest of the story, and I will make some practical application to our present day.

Verse 20, the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph again, saying, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel.

For those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there.

Then after being warned by God in a dream, he departed for the district of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called

Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets would be fulfilled. He shall be called a

Nazarene. This is a very chaotic chapter that we're reading here regarding the coming of the

Savior. Yet what did the angels say when they delivered the good news of the birth of Christ to shepherds in a field, according to Luke 2?

Those angels said, Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

Well then you read this story and you don't see a whole lot of peace on earth. Well when we proclaim peace through Jesus Christ our

Lord, what we're really talking about is peace with God. For as we read in Romans 1 .18,

the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

God's wrath is burning against sin and evil that goes on in the world. The only way to be saved from God's wrath that rightly burns against you if you're not a follower of Jesus, the only way to escape the judgment of God is to believe in Jesus Christ whose death on the cross and resurrection from the dead has been for your justification, for those who believe in Jesus.

So when we sing about peace on earth, we're talking about peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now Jesus will certainly bring an everlasting peace to us when he returns.

He will remove those who are evil. He will cast them into the lake of fire. He will usher us into his perfect kingdom where there will be no more sin, no more death or dying or pain or mourning.

He will wipe every tear from our eyes for he is making all things new. What a beautiful message that is, but to be sure that you're entering into that kingdom and not cast into the lake of fire is to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Our world today is no less chaotic, no less evil than it was back then.

It was just a couple of weeks ago we had a story in the headlines of Christian children in a

Christian school gunned down by a sexual deviant who was there to kill Christian kids.

Lord have mercy, but we hold fast to the promise of Christ that he will destroy the wicked and he will deliver the righteous.

And the only way we can be sure that we will be delivered out of that judgment that is coming against this wicked world is to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here in Matthew 2 and may we be able to make that application of recognizing the need for the gospel and may we proclaim it in this lost and dying world, this crooked and depraved generation, so that those who have not yet heard may know

Jesus Christ and put their faith in him and live forever with God in glory.

Come quickly Lord Jesus, we ask in his name, amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the

Text with Gabriel Hughes. Pastor Gabe is the author of 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says, examining some of our most common

Christmas beliefs and traditions and bringing them back to the truth of scripture. You can find this and other books at our website, www .utt

.com. Join us again tomorrow for more Bible study, When We Understand the Text.