Our scripture reading tonight is from Matthew chapter 2, a chapter that contains many familiar stories surrounding the birth of our Lord. And we'll read the whole chapter, Matthew chapter 2. Let us hear God's own word. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him. When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed and all Jerusalem with him. When he had called together all the people's chief priests and teachers of the law, He asked them where the Christ was to be born. In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. And as soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their own country by another route. When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. So he got up and took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet, Out of Egypt I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious. And he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled. A voice is heard in Ramah weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead. So he got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee and went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, he will be called a Nazarene. So far the reading of God's word. This second chapter of Matthew has a number of stories that are so vivid and so memorable. that they have very much captured the imagination of poets and theologians and songwriters through the centuries. And indeed, people have wanted to know so much more than the story actually tells them, that there are all sorts of traditions that have floated around. Daphne Jaspers tonight said, why aren't we singing We Three Kings of Orientare? She was joking, of course, she knows the answer to that. That song is full of pious sentiments that have no certain foundation in reality. We don't know that there were three of them. Some people speculate because there are three gifts, gold, incense, and myrrh, that there must have been three agents carrying those three different gifts, but we don't know that, do we? There might have been ten of them with gold, incense, and myrrh. There might have been two of them. We just don't know. They're not called kings. The only thing the first line of that song gets right is that they were from the east. So these stories of the wise men or the magi, magi is just the Greek word. NIV didn't know quite how to translate it, so it just left it. These are some kind of wise men, perhaps astronomers or astrologers of some sort. It's always fascinating to me how people want to know what the Bible doesn't tell them. And in speculating about what the Bible doesn't tell them, too often they miss what the Bible really does want to tell them. And so we have these wise men, we have a star, we have the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem, we have the flight into Egypt, these vivid stories that remain as they should in our minds. But sometimes we miss the more fundamental picture of what's going on here. And the fundamental reality of chapter 2 is that there is a great struggle going on between two kings. See how the chapter starts. After Jesus, the son of David, chapter 1 of Matthew is all about reminding us he's the son of David. He's the son of a king. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod. It's never a good time for a country to have two kings. One of the things that I've admired about Barack Obama is that when he's asked questions about what should be done, he says, we only have one president at a time in this country. And that's right. Countries that have two kings at a time often end up in civil war. And what chapter 2 is about, in a sense, is about civil war. It's about two kings. And the wise men from the East are important, but not that important. And that's why we don't really know a whole lot about them. We don't know their names. We don't know how many there were. We don't know exactly what their work was in the East. We don't know exactly what country they came from. We don't know exactly what the star was like that led them. How did that work? We don't really know. They come asking, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? How did they know that this star was about a king who was going to be king of the Jews? We don't know. And all of those are somewhat interesting questions, but they're obviously not interesting questions to Matthew. So we shouldn't get hung up on them. We ought to say, what's Matthew telling us here? And what he's saying is, Gentiles, without the benefit of the word of God, somehow had come to recognize that one of the most important things in all of human history was going to take place, was taking place, had taken place. And they were so interested in this that they've been traveling a great distance. I think the implication is they've been traveling two years to try to find the place where this king of the Jews has been born. They see this as a critical moment in history, something that God has testified to even by the heavens themselves and they're dedicated to trying to find this king. And so they've traveled and so they've arrived in Jerusalem and so they begin to ask questions. And word reaches Herod that these wise men are in town and that they have questions about a king of the Jews. And how does Herod react? He is disturbed, we're told. Now, if you know anything about the history of Herod, Herod the Great, The Herod in this story. Disturbed is probably a mild word. At this time, Herod was very aged. He had reigned over 35 years. And through those years, he had had some remarkable experiences. He'd been a friend of Augustus Caesar. He'd been a friend of Mark Antony. He claimed that Cleopatra tried to seduce him. He'd been at the center of power in a variety of ways. and he'd undertaken lavish building projects throughout Judea. The most famous of them was the remodeling and rebuilding of the temple, so that it would become the magnificent building that was there in the time of our Lord Jesus. And because of that amazing building work of Herod, he came to be known in history as Herod the Great. But the older he got, the more he began to believe that people were plotting against him. The more he began to think that people were trying to overthrow him. And the more violent and the more brutal he became. He ended up murdering three of his sons, and one wife, and one mother-in-law, and various other members of his court. This was a man of great abilities and great violence. And so it's not surprising that we read in Matthew chapter 2 that when Herod was disturbed, all of Jerusalem was disturbed. Very late in his life, Herod realized how much he had alienated people through his violence. And he ordered a number of noble people to be arrested and held with orders that they were to be killed as soon as Herod died. And he said, I want all these noble people killed so they'll be mourning in the land, because if I die alone, no one will mourn for me. Caesar Augustus is supposed to have said, it's better to be Herod's pig than his son, because you're more likely to get out alive. This is how violent, how brutal Herod had become. This is late in his life, and these men arrived to say to Herod, who for 35 years has been king of the Jews, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? And what we see then is a revelation of Herod's essential nature. These wise men, unnamed and unnumbered for us, have been traveling perhaps two years to find this child born king of the Jews, that they might worship him because they are confident God is doing something remarkable in him. But Herod, who should have been the king of his people, the caretaker of his people, the guardian of the law of God, the guardian of the blessed inheritance of Israel, the leader of those who look for the coming of Messiah. Herod is only disturbed at this news. He's not eager to find the Christ child. Oh, he knows about the Christ, doesn't he? He knows that there's a promise of a Christ. He knows when these wise men have come and said, Where is he who is born king of the Jews? That this is the Christ they're looking for because he goes to the wise men, as we read in verse 4, and asks the wise men and the experts in the law where the Christ was to be born. Herod knows what was promised in redemptive history. Herod knows that God is going to send a Messiah for his people. But Herod has not taken that word into his heart as his hope. Herod isn't eagerly anticipating the coming of Christ who will be the Savior of his people. Herod's only interested in himself, in his own well-being, in his own reputation, in his own power. And when he hears this strange story from these wise men from the East, that they've seen a star and that they think the king of the Jews has been born, there's no hope, there's no anticipation, there's no faith, there's no joy. There's only this selfish reaction. What will it mean for me? How will it affect my kingship? Now, I was motivated to preach on this passage in part because in the December National Geographic magazine this year, the cover article was on Herod. Maybe some of you have seen it. Herod, the Holy Land's Visionary Builder. It's a very interesting article, a lot of good material in there. Some wonderful pictures about some of the things that Herod built. They've just recently found Herod's tomb, apparently, after it's been lost for almost two millennia. But in the course of the article, the author writes, Herod, writing about the killing of the children in Bethlehem, Herod is almost certainly innocent of this crime, of which there is no report apart from Matthew's account. Now, in writing this article, the author is following a kind of well-established scholarly tradition. The second chapter of Matthew is one of the most attacked parts of the New Testament as to its historical reliability. Oh, there weren't really wise men from the East. There really wasn't any killing in Bethlehem, and Jesus certainly wasn't taken to Egypt. Scholars repeat that over and over again, and National Geographic repeated it again. and when you think about how Herod heard the word and would not believe it, when I read that article, I almost felt like Herod's error is being repeated all over again. People hear the word, but do they believe it? And what really angers me is that you have a very respectable magazine that does a lot of good work, repeating something by an author who doesn't know what he's talking about. The last article this fellow wrote in the National Geographic was on biology. This is not a biblical scholar. This is not a scholar of ancient history. And he makes other errors in his article. We don't have time to go into all of that. You'll be thankful to know. But notice what the claim is. It can't be true because only Matthew tells us about this murder. Josephus didn't tell us. Although any historian who studied Josephus knows that Josephus is full of made-up stories. The Roman historians didn't tell us. Only Matthew. How can we believe him then? There is no part apart from Matthew's account about this. If you know anything about ancient history, you know that all sorts of things we know about ancient history are preserved in only one report. We don't have libraries full of newspapers from 2,000 years ago. In fact, later in this same article, the author tells the story about how Cleopatra supposedly tried to seduce Herod. He tells that as an absolutely factual event. But it's only told us by one account in the ancient world, only by Josephus. And if you study the context in Josephus, you can see why Josephus might well be making it up. I read another ancient historian about this. I really was agitated. I read another ancient historian who said, well, of course Josephus just made up the account of the seduction by Cleopatra. And what's distressing is that I'm sure well-meaning people repeat allegations against the word of God without any foundation, without any historical corroboration. Do you know what the next sentence is in the article? After saying, oh, of course, Herod didn't kill the children in Bethlehem. The next sentence goes on, but children he certainly slew, including three of his own sons. Now, if he was violent and brutal enough to kill his own sons, who were perceived as a threat to him, what would have stopped him from killing children in Bethlehem? And it's not surprising that other accounts don't record it. Bethlehem was a relatively small town. What happened there wasn't terribly important. One commentator estimates there probably can't have been more than 6 to 20 boys under 2 years old in a town that small. This was calamitous for the families in Bethlehem, but it wasn't a worldwide story. Herod was murdering people all the time. And so in a fresh way, we come to this text and say, is God telling us the truth in his word? Is what is recorded here reliable? And in light of the character of Herod and the history of Herod, this measures up exactly with the kind of person he was and the kind of thing he would have done to try to save his own position. But the tragedy is that God has given us his word, and too often we don't listen to it. And it's not just the world that doesn't listen. We have to think for ourselves, do we treasure this word? Do we look carefully into this word for what it's telling us? It's interesting, when you look carefully, all the little things you discover. When the chief priests and teachers of the law were asked where was Jesus born, they quoted from Micah, chapter 5. But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For out of you will come a ruler. Now that's exactly what Micah said. But the next line is an addition. We don't know whether it's an addition by Matthew or an addition by the teachers of the law as a commentary. Out of Bethlehem will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. Who will be the shepherd of my people Israel. What's the nature of a shepherd? He's someone who keeps the sheep alive, who protects the sheep, who guards the sheep, who preserves the sheep, who sometimes even lays down his life for the sheep because he recognizes his calling, his responsibility is to care for the sheep. That's the ruler that God intended for his people. That's the character of the Messiah as king of the Jews that God would send. Not just someone with authority and power and the exercise of power in a violent way, but someone who would exercise all his power in caring for his people and protecting them. Someone who would recognize that the people given to him are God's people. Who will be the shepherd of my people, says the Lord. Herod saw the Jews as his people to use and abuse and discard at will. And that's the nature of many of the rulers of this world, isn't it? It's part of the long, sad history of our world. It's why Psalm 146 that we read for our call to worship says, Put not your trust in princes, because they live to serve themselves. But God's sending a different kind of king for his people. A king who will be a shepherd, who will lay down his life for his people, who will preserve the people of God and protect them and preserve them. And so Matthew is developing this contrast, you see, between the brutal king who will not listen to God's word and the true king who's come in fulfillment of God's word. and who all his life will fulfill that word. So there was a word for Herod, but he did not listen, and instead he allowed the full wickedness of his personality to come through. Oh, initially he sounds very pious, doesn't he? He says to the wise men, Oh, you search diligently, and as soon as you find out, you come and tell me. so that I may go and worship him too. The wise men, if they were very wise, should have suspected right at that moment that this was not a man to be trusted. Bethlehem was five miles away from Jerusalem. If Herod had really been interested, how much time would it have taken for Herod to go with them down to Bethlehem? If he had really wanted to see if the word of God was being fulfilled, if he had really wanted to worship this child? Would he have waited and delayed? But that's what he did. You can see what's really on his mind when we read that he secretly met with the wise men and inquired carefully when they had first seen the star. He's already thinking and plotting, how old might this child be? So that when I send my troops to kill him, I won't miss him. Right from the beginning, Herod knows what he's going to be. He knows what the wickedness of his life and of his heart and of his commitments are going to lead to. Already he's plotting and he's planning. Now again, some scholars have said, well, you know, he kills all the children up to age two. I guess Jesus must have been about two. Again, I think that's reading things into the text. I think probably the star appeared two years early because it was going to take so long for these men to get there. I think Jesus was newly born at this time. I don't think Mary and Joseph would have been in Bethlehem two years after the birth of Jesus. They weren't regular residents there. They'd only gone, as Luke tells us, to be enrolled there. Probably Jesus is newborn. But none of this matters to Herod. And Herod is committed that whatever it takes, he's going to be sure that this child does not escape his violence and his fury. And so he sends his troops to kill the child, to kill all boys under the age of two in Bethlehem and the vicinity, just in case they might be out in a barn. He's thorough, and he's vicious, and he's no shepherd. This is exactly the kind of thing that Herod might well have done. And Matthew tells the story so pointedly because he wants us to recognize what's happened in Israel. What's happened amongst God's people? What kind of king do they have? They have a king who's become a pharaoh. Isn't it ironic? It's not pharaoh now who's killing the boys born into Israeli families. It's the king of the Jews who's doing that. It's not the land of promise that's the safe place for Messiah any longer. He must be taken away to Egypt as a refuge. What an irony. The king of the Jews is not safe in Judea, but he's safe in Egypt. And Matthew, you see, is painting for us the war of the worlds, we could say. The clash of powers. The confrontation of two kings, one devoted to himself, and one the Son of God, come to save his people from their sins. This is a very important chapter in the Gospel. This is a very important chapter in redemptive history. To remind us of the king that we need, of the king whom God has sent for us. Just after God promises in the prophet Hosea to call his son out of Egypt, he talks about the kings that the people have wanted for themselves. Hosea 13, verses 10 and 11. We read, Where is your king that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns of whom you said, give me a king and princes? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away. Here's really a prophecy of Herod. This is the kind of king that the people deserve for their sins. But God in his mercy has sent a loving king, a shepherding king, a faithful king, a life-giving king, and God in His mercy is preserving that king. Herod, in all his wisdom, in all his wrath, in all his brutality, in all his power, is unable to stop God's purpose. And that should be a great encouragement to us as God's people. Sometimes we look at the world and its powers and its influences, and we say, we're so small, we're so uninfluential, we're so unimportant, The purposes of Christ seem so despised. The advancement of his kingdom seems so slow. So little seems to have been accomplished. And here we see God always accomplishes his purpose. God always preserves his people. God always is faithful to his word. And so these remarkable stories end not only with the word to Herod and the wickedness of Herod, but making clear the wages of Herod. Verse 19, after Herod died. I think Herod would have hated that. Not after Herod the Great died, not after there was great mourning in the land, not after everyone recognized what a terrible loss had been suffered in the death of this great and famous man. After Herod died, the wages of his life was death. And to go unnoticed as to his greatness, unmourned, unremembered in many ways so that even the grand tomb he built for himself was lost to history. He died. He failed to destroy Jesus. And in history, isn't he entirely overshadowed by Jesus? And why is he overshadowed by Jesus? Not because Jesus built great buildings. Not because Jesus was infamous for his use of the sword in killing people. he's overshadowed by Jesus because Jesus came to be a shepherd of God's people. He came to preserve his own. He came to be the good shepherd who would lay down his life for the sheep. And so Matthew 2 needs to be treasured by us as a passage in Scripture because it's true, it's utterly reliable, But its importance goes beyond its truth. It's important because it tells us a basic reality of our Lord Jesus Christ. That he came in weakness to be our shepherd, to be our friend, to be our savior, to be our life giver. And to establish a kingdom that will never end. A kingdom in which we will live forever as his people. Praise God for such a king. Amen. Let us pray. Lord our God, we are thankful for your word which points us to the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. And as we look at human history, we see kingdoms rise and fall. We see kings powerful and forgotten. But rising above all of the frantic brutality of human history rises one who is a shepherd of his people, who is a life giver. And we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you preserved him. We thank you that you gave him to us. We thank you that you fulfilled the words of your prophets in him. And we're thankful that he is our life and our hope. And that in him we see a great kingdom ever growing. Not in power, but in faith and in holiness. Help us to be faithful members of that kingdom and always look to him with hope. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.