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Chapter 11
The SLAUGHTER of the BABES
and the SAFETY in the ETERNAL GOD
There is, in the record of the 'slaughter of the innocents', as recorded in Matthew 2:16-18, in fulfilment of the words of the prophet Jeremiah (31:15*1), a large message in a short summary.
It is most fitting for our present concern, as it also illustrates principles of the most striking kind.
The 'innocents' in the common phrase for this mass infanticide, are the babes 2 years old and under, whom Herod, a regional king with the complaisance of Rome, sought to kill. Indeed he did more than seek such a thing, for he had in mind a particular result; but he was not entirely successful. Indeed, in this particular result, he failed, for the OBJECTIVE of his gross inhumanity and unnatural bent, his ferocious indifference and his reckless passion, was not reached. He managed to slay kids, but not to kill the king in His own infancy of the incarnation!
It was this One whom he sought, and this very One whom he missed, like someone levelling a machine gun at a crowd, indeed a nest of machine guns at his disposal, and summarily disposing of thousands, leaving all apparently dead. But alas, the one he sought, this one was not among the dead. They died, in this respect, in vain; his ammunition in terms of his mortal aim for just one of them, could as well have been kept. This, indeed, is one of the most massive frustrations of history; and had it not failed, the Messiah would not have lived to die at the appointed date as shown in Daniel*2 , and the work of God would have been aborted, no Gospel would have arrived and this world would have been left with no verified God, but rather one frustrated.
Of course this is impossible and that is precisely why it did not happen. God does not need statistics of probability; He simply does with adequate power what is to be achieved; yet not in a dictatorial fashion as you see when Christ wept over a recalcitrant Jerusalem, more interested in survival than in saintliness, and hence not surviving, being kept for utter and entire destruction by Rome a generation later (when they had time to repent, but did not do so, in AD 70).
Thus as to Herod the first century leader in contrived infanticide, he missed, though launching for himself a name of infamy. If prodigy he was, he was likewise a prodigious failure.
It would be rather like some US attack in Afghanistan that, seeking to kill certain perilously placed insurgents, failed to do so, but did kill 100,000 people. This is not to condemn efforts to silence workers of atrocities, but it does suggest regard for life at a high level, and strategies that show this closely.
The KING of glory was not killed then, by Herod, though He was with prodigious divine control in the mere form of infant at that point! It was a desire for the extinction of that spiritual Ruler, who came like a tiny flower in an arena stamped by stampeding buffaloes, the termination of Him whom the mystic wise men from the East had in mind when they came seeking the infant king: it was this that Herod had sought to gratify. While he did not succeed, yet he did manage to kill a multitude of babies, which some religionists of certain persuasions might deem justified: ANYTHING seems justified to some, whose aim is pleasure, whose purpose is self-satisfaction or who even misuse the very name of God in their ramblings.
To be sure it reminds of the extirpation passion of Romanism (cf. SMR pp. 911ff., 1032-1088H) in the inquisition as documented in Ancient Words and Modern Events Ch. 14. Equally it inevitably brings to the roving mind comparisons with Hitler's intense and pseudo-idealistic devilries of denial of life to Jews, young and old, with the swagger of passion and principle, as clearly right as darkness is light, a sort of perversion of truth so vast as to become its own black hole. Nor does it lack relationship to the contemporary al Qaeda ideological catastrophe, expressly determined to overthrow Israel and seeking glory past as it is construed, for the Islamic suppression orders: for submission is central to its name. Its indifference to the young in its murderous maraudings and colossal thrusts into the torturous domains of odium, as it blasts its ambitious and nostalgic way into a crumbling world, like a sort of Appendix to World Wars 1, 11 and the 'Cold' one, and joins with various kings of conquest and calamity: this is as notorious as its rambling passion.
Has Islam only vast territories governed by it or
with heavy power in them for its purposes, from Morocco to Pakistan, with little
in the way of exception (and that of course is largely Israel) ? How deprived!
Does it seek, through such as these, more yet of the embattled Israel, duped by
the UN, so that it has not received the League of Nations' promise of Palestine,
but only a smidgeon*3 ? Does al Qaeda
desire the USA to STOP, repeat quit its aid to Israel before this lupine sally ?
Does it feel obliged to destroy in many nations for this illustrious end
*4? So be it. It will have its divine come-uppance as the Lord of
glory has seen fit to announce to all the earth for its travesties of truth,
invectives against realities and displeasures with the depositions of the
Almighty, which He is careful at all times to translate with precision into
history, as Christ indicated and the years continually confirm (Matthew 5:17-20,
cf. The Pitter-Patter ... Ch. 4, SMR Chs.
8 -
9).
Such arrant errancies and surreal altercations from contrariness against the divine power, leading to vast slayings, now cumulative over the past century as if the death wish had then come into its own, its Act V in the tragedy of travesty of truth, mount like storm waves, soon to cease, after hurling much to destruction. This current intensity is part of the death passion described in Revelation 6 which was to seize the earth, and now does so. It is like some rampant cancer, a disorder, invading in its own pathology.
In this case, however, while it is not without past, it is without reason but not without force, acting without understanding, a pathological bestiality, based on the irrational and determined by the same sort of lebensraum, with its own idiosyncrasies, that seized Hitler as he seized lands. How they mount, the tyrants for whom truth tolls, like a knell!
Thus with Herod in his famous infanticide specialty in particular, an introduction to the ferocity of the hatred of the devil for the dynamics of deity, his too was a grasping power. Here it was ungratified; but it was illustrated! Endeavours to kill off Christians, often found in the Middle East and some Islamic sites, will also remain ungratified, though they may silence for a time, before the judgment sits, some of them. Such is the frustration of this world, stopping at nothing, losing all and awaiting judgment: and these were all expressed in a small scope in this case of the slaughter by the hand of King Herod.
What however does it show, other than the obvious, concerning Herod and the gluttonous powers of this world, which so often confirm their dire status against tribes, believers, powers, groups and natural riches as they pollute the earth, fill the hospitals and grasp for glory ?
It shows first this: that when God seeks a result, even with the most vulnerable (an infant is not very strong) and accessible (the ruler's power was very substantial), and when man simultaneously resorts to violence, the Lord is still quite able to get the result He desires. In this He differs from rebels. They may illustrate the various results of misused freedom, and teach in the laboratory of history, for purposes of eternity, the message of their vanity and the vanity of their message. God however secures the results, leaving the affirmation that the promises of God in Christ Jesus are indeed yea and amen, as the apostle Paul affirms. We suffer; but He prevails. We are willing; and He is able.
Indeed, in this case, the Lord clearly foretold the event and the fact that the babe in question would reach maturity. He had to; for it was only then that He was predicted to die, and indeed, the date for that event was thrown in*3, though centuries later than the prophecy, with the rest of the predictions concerning the matter, so that all the world could see that God not merely knows what He is doing. He can even in His majesty and profundity, both warn of what it is and is to be, and then do it in the midst of the most passionate negatives you could well imagine, even precisely what He says. It is this precision and certainty which Jesus Christ stressed as noted in Matthew 5:17-20.
It is so with all the promises of God, whether arithmetic or personal: what He says, He does; and how valuable they are then, as in the illustration of Isaiah 54:17 where the servants of God, whatever their perils and the powers against them, are enabled past the slaughterous weapons or slanderous cavils of their opposition, to get the job done. One of the chief today is NOT ONLY the preaching of the everlasting Gospel in its changeless eternity and application (Galatians 1, Ephesians 1:10, Revelation 14:1ff.), but the teaching of ALL His commandments. A mechanic who checks only the engine, and not the wheels can still be guilty of homicide. ALL the commands and ALL the Gospel alike, these must be provided, preached, taught, and those who seek must find. Some organisations have capitalised on modern technical methods.
It is possible now to reach enormous numbers daily. It MUST be preached to all nations, and it is THEN, Christ declared that the end comes (Matthew 24:12-14). There was a beginning to the Age, to creation; and judgment, either on Christ for pardon for the believer or on this world and its disbelieving denizens according to truth without cover, this becomes the end of the matter (cf. II Thessalonians 1-2, Revelation 19-20).
There is no need to fear, when you walk with God - if God be with us, who can be against us! as Paul points out in Romans 8. IF you WANT pleasure or comfort or pap, then why bother to be in the Army of the Alpha and Omega ? His ways do not change (Malachi 3:6, Habakkuk 3:6); and consider Hebrews 11 for some of them, some of the fiery trials of His elect!
If however you want the will of the Lord more than necessary food, and if it is He whom you love, if it is He who has redeemed you and this you know by faith, having received Him and come thus to know Him (John 17:1-3, I John 5:11ff., Ephesians 1:11), then what IS there to fear ? HE is your guarantor. Eternity is not too large, the everlasting God is the friend of sinners, the purifier of the elect, the guarantor of the place prepared (John 14:1ff., cf. II Corinthians 5, I Corinthians 15). The point and the purpose of the program, of history, of creation is not merely its tempestuousness to be exhibited in its folly and its frustration (like a charing bull 'fixing' a car in lieu of a mechanic), but in the peace to be found in Him who made it.
Liberty is like that. Love is like that. Both are adequate; but when despised, what is enough for the disordered maw, that will eat peace like steak, and vomit war like the drunken...
The way is narrow (Matthew 7:15ff.). They may kill you (John 16:2), for it is their way when the need seems potent, as occurred to Herod when he evidently felt .... threatened! But since you live for ever, as a Christian, this is merely the end of a Chapter in the Book of life, in which you appear (Ephesians 1:4). While manuals of churches may contain many an unbeliever, yet HIS book is eternal and known before time was! Neither He nor it will ever change (as in Romans 89:29ff.).
Death ? Perhaps. Yet "not a hair of your heads will be harmed"! as we see in Luke 21:14-19.
"Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries
will not be able to contradict or resist.
"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends;
and they will put some of you to death.
And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake.
But not a hair of your head shall be lost.
By your patience possess your souls."
It is apparent then that being put to death is not an exception to not having a hair of your heads being LOST. How ? It is of course the resurrection which solves that 'puzzle'! When you trust God, you see things in the divine perspective! (( Corinthians 5:1ff., read in the light of 4:16-18).
God gets His will done in resurrection, whether in the crowning case of the King, Leader and Lord, Jesus Christ, the Head and founder of it, or of Dorcas, a member of His body (Acts 9:36ff.); or of those already resurrected BY Christ, when He was on this earth. There is a no risk situation. His people may suffer as did Joseph as seen in Genesis, till any 'rational', that is secularly unbelieving, approach would give up or become desperate, showing character degradation, whether to pride, violence or recklessness. Yet the spiritual person has a spiritual resource and recourse, even God Almighty, in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 4:11-12). For God's work, God is enough; and as Paul put it, HE is our sufficiency (II Corinthians 3:4-5). If you need $10,000, then infinity is enough!
It is no risk for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is not ... no suffering!
What then do His people do ?
The people of God have to OBEY, SAY what they should in clear witness to the truth (Luke 9:25ff.); for love does not relish hell for anyone, and seeks deliverance for all whom it may: and truth is its own standard! Christ BEING this very truth (John 14:6) - they endure. Even Jonah, often seen as rugged failure but in fact a rebuked hero, endured and was corrected! You see this endurance in Revelation 3:1ff., where those who had ENDURED did not have to face the coming desolations. They had been tested already.
The divine perspective takes power for granted. It is not the point, merely a means for the divine use (Matthew 28:19-20). Quality is more to the point, and in particular the quality of godliness, with virtue and longsuffering, understanding and integrity like wing-nuts on a bike, as it is held together (cf. II Peter 1).
Into this world came the vulnerable babe, using a manger. Out of Bethlehem went the babe, bound for international placement, in a nearby kingdom, that of Egypt, not noted for its goodness. Out of that kingdom it came when the time was ready and the ruler within Israel had changed. This came by divine direction to Joseph; and so into Israel the Holy Child was restored, so that He might grow up in Sprout City, as Nazareth might be called, that sprouting multi-route site, where frontiers of travel could meet. There He could live until at maturity, during His major Messianic mission, He could announce through the prophet Isaiah's words (Isaiah 61) who He was.
There, in that very Nazareth of His youth, they could seek to kill Him, by launching Him over a cliff; but they failed. The opponents of God use a lot of blood; but they fail. They cause a lot of suffering, but their menace, which can rise like a 100 foot wave, surging in grandeur, subsides. New waves come and fail. The Gospel continues; history is reaching its predicted maturity, and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ impends (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5).
In all these things, in immense and intense vulnerability from a common, secular point of view (which is a point rather than a view), this same Jesus Christ proceeded to deliver His own death at the RIGHT TIME, a product both voluntary and sublime (John 10:18)! Thus, having both fulfilled Daniel's prophecy of His death date, and His own complete ministry of testimony, grace and power first, Christ proceeded like a stately liner, except for the damage to her hull! The insurers, if you will, suffered nothing. He was resurrected.
In all these things, we are reminded of what Paul declares: we are more than conquerors (Romans 8):
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life,
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
To be more than a conqueror is select indeed. Time, age, poverty, oppression, caricature, slander, salacious or other, none of these things can stop, or deter the saint (all Christians are such as you see in the introduction to some of Paul's letters) from his task, or from hers, until it is finished. To please God in all things, this is the desideratum (Colossians 1:10): for He is good and kind, true and wise, understanding all things, ignorant of nothing, loving all, keeping those who are His own, apportioning the tasks to those in His church, even when false brethren rule and misuse the very name, and even when fidelity becomes a ground of social reproach! (Colossians 1:10, Acts 5:31-32,41).
If some do not come, charity is not lost, but they are; if some reject Him, provision does not cease, but their peace does; if some despise deity, and prefer to make their own gods, liberty is not cancelled, or hope is; and if ANY REPENTS, the past is not an oppressor, for Christ was oppressed that those who receive Him might, in justice because of HIS payment in their stead, out of love and in mercy. They are free (Romans 3:23ff.), and that without charge by any man or body, or office or power. He is both producer and administrator of pardon (I Timothy 2:5-6, Ephesians 2:1-12, Galatians 1-5).
As to the strategy of it all, obey and walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16,25), and leave that to God: if He shows you this or that, rejoice; but trust Him, whether it be the time or test when darkness seems to connive with your ignorance (cf. Isaiah 50:10), or when light comes to explain all things (cf. Ephesians 1:17ff.).
Those who trust in Him will never be ashamed (Romans 9:33 cf. Philippians 1:20); but never confuse the journey to Egypt, if you consider the baby Jesus, with desolation, or the cry to return from it, with troubles innumerable and inveterate. Each movement had a point, a purpose; and it was in one way, rather like a dance, to move from this, or back to that, as the case, the program, the plan, the need might be.
The power of God, it is this which is innumerable in its expositions and occasions. Yet power is not the point, it must be stressed, but a medium. What matters ? rather is it purpose and quality, the trust and the truth, the peace of God and the way to it, the recognition of the deity of Christ (Colossians 1:18), and through Him the grace of God and the way with it.
It is this that counts.
NOTES
For exposition of the passage in Jeremiah, see:
The Messiah in Jeremiah, Ch. 3 of The Secular, the Sacred and the Sublime.
*2 See Ch. 10 above for a summary of this prediction, and its reference for detail.
See It Bubbles ... Chs. 10 and 11.
See Lord of Life Ch. 8, *1.