Come & See: 10 Cowboy Devotions to Strengthen Your Ride With ChristSample

One Bad Hombre

After the strangers had lit out, an angel came to Joseph while he was dreamin’. “Saddle up,” the angel told him. “Ride hard for Egypt and hunker down there until I tell you it’s safe. Herod’s gonna start killin’ all the kids and he’s hopin’ Jesus is one of ’em.” Matthew 2:13

When Jesus was born, Herod was the king of Judea (often referred to as Herod the Great). This dude was one bad hombre. No one really liked him because he always sought Rome’s favor. He was so disliked that he hired over two thousand soldiers as personal bodyguards to keep him safe.

There’s a common misconception surrounding the Christmas story that the Magi (wise men) went straight to Jesus and the manger, but that isn’t what actually happened. They went to Herod and asked where the new king was. This bothered Herod immensely because he really liked being king and didn’t want to share his throne. He tricked the Magi into finding the baby King, saying he wanted to worship Him as well.

Truth? He really just wanted to find Jesus and kill Him. An angel appeared to the wise men after they had found Jesus in Bethlehem and told them not to report back to Herod and reveal Jesus’s location.

When Herod realized his plan had failed, he took matters into his own hands and had all the boys in the area who were two years old or younger killed. This is known in history as the Slaughter of the Innocents.

Then an angel appeared to Mary and Joseph telling them to flee to Egypt to protect baby Jesus. They remained there until Herod died.

Some historians claim that Herod knew he wasn’t liked—so much so that he didn’t want his death to be celebrated. So, this bad hombre planned to have many popular and influential people killed when he died to ensure that the nation would mourn his death. Fortunately, that wasn’t carried out when he died because his son and Herod’s sister supposedly kept it from happening.

Cowboy Call:

Authentic Christianity isn’t for sissies. We were never promised an easy ride. You must learn to lean on God’s strength . . . ‘cause you’re gonna need it.