Christmas – Day 24

This post is “Christmas – Day 24”, if you haven’t already read Day 1, please click here.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).


Christmas – Day 24

Matthew 2:7-8

Then Herod secretly called the wise men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. As he sent them to Bethlehem, he said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you have found him, report to me so that I may go and worship him too.”

The Thought

Why do you suppose Herod wanted to know the exact time and place of this king’s birth? He was lying, and had no intention of worshipping any future king.

He asked for that information so that he could know the age of the future king, and where He was living. His fear of being dethroned caused him to murder hundreds of young boys.

Matthew 2:16
When Herod saw that the wise men had tricked him, he became furious. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys two years old and younger in or near Bethlehem. This matched the exact time he had learned from the wise men.

Can you imagine the grief in Bethlehem? The joy of the shepherds having seen the angels and much celebration at the birth of the long promised Messiah disappeared quickly when Herod’s men came to town. Bethlehem changed from a place of celebration and rejoicing, into a place of mourning.

The visiting kings believed Herod that day and planned on returning to give him the information he wanted. It took another dream to convince them they should go home a different way.

Action

Pray for God to raise up righteous leaders in the world today, especially pray for those in your country.

Pray that at this festive season which, because of Covid, will be much less festive than most previous Christmases have been, many leaders will discover the truth and the reason for the season. Pray for the Lord’s inspiration in all their work as leaders.

Pray too for those who mourn this Christmas time.

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