Day 15 of Preparing Your Heart for Advent

To understand the birth story, we need to understand a bit about Herod. Here is a short rundown. Very short, I know, but feel free to study him for yourself.

• Ruled Judea from 37BC until his death in 4BC.
• Known as Herod the Great.
• Known for his impressive architecture. He used Jewish labor to complete his designs.
• He lived in a multi-story, fortress-like place. it was called the Herodium. It was strategically placed to sit on a hill so that he could see the entire region from his palace.
• He was a horrible person with no regard for human life.
• He married ten times.
• One of those times of marriage, he actually married a woman from the royal Jewish family. Ironic, huh?
• He had his uncle, mother-in-law, (favorite) wife Mariamme, father-in-law, his three sons: Antipater, Aristobulus, and Alexander, his barber, and a close friend all executed.
• He had the high priest and his brother-in-law drowned.
• Five days before he died, he had 3,000 of Jerusalem's most respected citizens arrested and ordered for them to be executed when he died. It has been said that he wanted the people to mourn on the day he died, even if it wasn't necessarily for his own death.
• He had all children, age 2 and under (including his own son) killed because he was afraid of losing his position as King. It is believed that 30-60 children who lived in a village of three hundred were killed. The range is said to be between 200-2,000, though. Despite the true numbers, that is a lot of mothers with broken hearts, wailing for their child. I can't even imagine the grief that was heard that night.

Taking all of this into consideration, can you see why the wise men could have been afraid to NOT return to Herod? They could have been executed for their disobedience. However, they followed God and chose to return home via a different route.

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Info taken from Preparing My Heart for Advent by Anne Marie Stewart. She used the information from Vander Laan and Focus on the Family Video (video production) and from Joseph J. Walsh's book, Were They Wise Men or Kings? The Book of Christmas Questions.