“We Have Seen His Star”
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to Him. Our gold and silver, our most precious earthly possessions,
our highest mental and spiritual endowments, will be freely devoted to
Him who loved us, and gave Himself for us.
Herod in Jerusalem impatiently awaited the return of the wise men.
As time passed, and they did not appear, his suspicions were roused.
The unwillingness of the rabbis to point out the Messiah’s birthplace
seemed to indicate that they had penetrated his design, and that the
magi had purposely avoided him. He was maddened at the thought.
Craft had failed, but there was left the resort to force. He would make
an example of this child-king. Those haughty Jews should see what
they might expect in their attempts to place a monarch on the throne.
Soldiers were at once sent to Bethlehem, with orders to put to
death all the children of two years and under. The quiet homes of the
city of David witnessed those scenes of horror that, six hundred years
before, had been opened to the prophet. “In Ramah was there a voice
heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
This calamity the Jews had brought upon themselves. If they had
been walking in faithfulness and humility before God, He would in
a signal manner have made the wrath of the king harmless to them.
But they had separated themselves from God by their sins, and had
rejected the Holy Spirit, which was their only shield. They had not
studied the Scriptures with a desire to conform to the will of God.
They had searched for prophecies which could be interpreted to exalt
themselves, and to show how God despised all other nations. It was
their proud boast that the Messiah was to come as a king, conquering
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His enemies, and treading down the heathen in His wrath. Thus they
had excited the hatred of their rulers. Through their misrepresentation
of Christ’s mission, Satan had purposed to compass the destruction of
the Saviour; but instead of this, it returned upon their own heads.
This act of cruelty was one of the last that darkened the reign
of Herod. Soon after the slaughter of the innocents, he was himself
compelled to yield to that doom which none can turn aside. He died a
fearful death.
Joseph, who was still in Egypt, was now bidden by an angel of
God to return to the land of Israel. Regarding Jesus as the heir of
David’s throne, Joseph desired to make his home in Bethlehem; but
learning that Archelaus reigned in Judea in his father’s stead, he feared