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Herod Kills the Children  

The carol Joy to the World by Isaac Watts includes the line, “He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” In this passage, we hear and feel the deep, resonant, throbbing echoes of that curse.

“The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her seed and your seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel’” (Genesis 3:14-15).

God’s curse on Satan promised Satan’s ultimate defeat through the seed of the woman, Jesus, who would take away the sins of the world. But this curse also foreshadowed generations of conflict between Satan, his angels and humans who reject God, and Jesus and those who follow Him. 

Herod was a monster. He was an Edomite and a servant of Rome. He viewed the arrival of the Messiah not as the fulfillment of a long-awaited promise but as a threat to his power and position. And so, like the great red dragon of Revelation 12, he sought to devour the seed of the woman. And when God rescued the child, as He did in today’s passage by warning Joseph in a dream, Revelation 12 says, “The dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (verse 17). 

The slaughter of the babies in Bethlehem was horrific. Feel the grief expressed in the quote from Jeremiah 31: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” 

Jesus came to conquer death. He has crushed the head of the Serpent. Indeed, “He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” The victory is assured … but the curse has not been lifted and the battle rages on. Around the world there are believers and unbelievers suffering the ongoing enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. It is appropriate, then, that we remember those in pain and temper our joy with tears.  

Dr. Ken Smith
Dean, McLane College of Business, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor