Advent Day 23

December 23

“A voice was heard in Ramah, a lament with bitter weeping---Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more.”  Jeremiah 31:15

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My Son.”  Hosea 11:1

Two Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in the life of Herod.  When King Herod ordered the murder of all babies two years and younger in Bethlehem, it fulfilled Jeremiah 31:15.  Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt because of this threat.  After Herod died, they returned, fulfilling Hosea 11:1.  Herod was a ruthless ruler.  When the wisemen showed up in Jerusalem asking everyone where they could find the king of the Jews, Herod heard about it and was deeply disturbed.  Herod’s father was a Jew, so he likely knew about the promise of the coming Messiah.  Like everyone else, he was expecting a conquering hero or someone of royal descent.  But unlike the other Jews, he was not happy about the news of the Messiah’s birth because it threatened his own political ambitions.  He tried to trick the wisemen into telling him the location of Jesus and when he learned that he had been outwitted by them, he flew into a rage.  His solution was pure evil.  He ordered that all baby boys two years and younger in the whole area were to be slaughtered.  God warned Joseph in a dream to flee to Egypt to protect Jesus from the massacre. 

This brings us to the question of why God would allow such evil to happen.  Instead of preventing the massacre, He chose instead to remove Jesus from the situation.  We know that God is capable of preventing evil and He desires to prevent evil so why does He allow it?  He could have created us without the ability to sin.  Instead, He gave us free will with the ability to choose good or evil.  We can respond to His love and trust Him or choose to disobey. He also could supernaturally intervene to prevent evil every time, but if He did that ultimately our free will would not exist. He would have to intervene every single time our choices are bad.  God chose to create a “real” world in which real choices have real consequences.  Good and evil actions have direct and indirect consequences on us and those around us.   God’s desire is that we obey Him because He knows what is best for us.  Unfortunately, we too often choose our own way and disobey Him and then we blame Him for not stopping us.  Thankfully, God does prevent and restrain some evil.  The world would be a much worse place if His Holy Spirit was not present in the world as the Restrainer.   Through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us we have the ability to choose good.  We can be light in a dark world and overcome evil with good. 

We do see in this account that even though God did not stop the massacre of the babies, His plans were not thwarted.  We can be assured that no matter what happens, God’s will is going to be done.   His promises are sure and if He says something will happen, it will.  The power Satan has is completely subject to God’s will.  He can do nothing if God chooses to stop him.  We are able to rest in the knowledge of God’s sovereignty, His power and His love.