16. The Birth feared by Herod

Unhappy families

The family tree of the man we now know as Herod the Great is a complicated weave of intermarriages. Mariamne, who became Herod’s wife was a descendant of the family of the Maccabees. A determination of will and internecine murder seemed to run in the family.

Herod, the Great, married ten wives, by whom he had several children, Euseb. l. i. c. 9. p. 27. The first was Doris, thought to be an Idumean, whom he married when but a private individual; by her he had Antipater, the eldest of all his sons, whom he caused to be executed five days before his own death.

His second wife was Mariamne, daughter to Hircanus, the sole surviving person of the Asmonean, or Maccabean, race. Herod put her to death. She was the mother of Alexander and Aristobulus, whom Herod had executed at Sebastia, (Joseph. Antiq. l. xvi. c. 13. – De Bello, l. i. c. 17), on an accusation of having entered into a conspiracy against him. Aristobulus left three children.

The Hasmonean dynasty that sprang from Judas Maccabee was from the priestly tribe of Levi and when the monarchy developed they were essentially priest-kings. After the Roman conquest of the area, Antipater an Idumean Jew was appointed procurator of Judaea by Julius Caesar in 47 BC. Antipater in turn appointed his son Herod as the military procurator of Galilee, and the son’s ruthless energy commended itself to the Romans. At this time the whole area was ruled as a Roman province. Herod succeeded in being on the winning side of the famous Roman civil war. Ultimately he was nominated as King of the Jews. After 3 years of strife and warfare Herod began his governorship of Judaea. For 33 years he ruled as the loyal ‘friend and ally of Rome’. Ultimately he was confirmed as King of the Jews by Octavian (Augustus). It is because of the title King of the Jews that he becomes the arch-rogue of the nativity story.

The Hasmonean family resented Herod and the feeling seems to have been mutual. He resolved the difficulty by taking as his wife Mariamne, the grand-daughter of the former high-priest, Hyercanus II. Herod was ruthless in his paranoia and began a systematic culling of the Hasmonean bloodline. Herod’s father was by descent an Edomite, a descendant of Esau, whose ancestors had converted to Judaism. Herod was raised as a Jew but his father was by descent an Edomite, a descendant from the wrong branch, whose ancestors had converted to Judaism. For more information check out – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

The Magi

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” (Matt 2:1–2 NKJV)

The magi had travelled from the East led by the star, and their question triggered the tragedy so well known to watchers of children’s nativity plays. The term Magi is the word from which we get our word magic but that does not necessarily mean that these travellers were occultist astrologers. Magi was an all-purpose word for those honoured for their wisdom and science. Daniel was included among the Magi.

There are several clues in the narrative that this did not occur immediately after the events recorded in the gospel according to Luke: they found the child in a ‘house’ and Herod’s vengeance against the child that was heir to his own title was aimed at all male children under the age of 2 years. Herod consulted the religious experts of his day and received the information as to where the child should be born.

  So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ” (Matt 2:5–6 NKJV)

Ancient kings were frequently described as the shepherds of their people but we can hear again the familiar theme of a son of David, a shepherd king. The story is well known. Herod requires the travellers to bring him details of the child ‘that I may come and worship him also.’

Oriental Monarchs

As the events are so well known we will spend our time making a comparison between Herod and another formidable oriental monarch.

What does the word ‘repent’ really signify? When Christ used the word he tied it to a specific Bible story. He tied it to the account of Jonah and his preaching in Nineveh.

 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. (Luke 11:31–32 NKJV)

This is a really valuable statement because it illustrates exactly what Christ was thinking when he used the word repent. It is sometimes said that the Greek word for repentance metanoia simply means to change the mind and therefore it only means a change of our point of view. This is true as far as it goes but it doesn’t go far enough. I often say that words don’t have definitions, they have histories. This is just my way of saying that a word in the Bible is defined not by its derivation or from the way the Classical writers used it but rather from its Biblical usage. We know in our our day how words change their meaning with the passage of time.

Many scholars will say that New Testament Greek words must be defined by the usage of the day, hence ‘Street’ Greek. But this omits a vital factor. New Testament Greek words do have histories but often they have Hebrew histories. To trace the meaning of a New Testament Koine word we have to go back to a translation of the Old Testament scripture that was accomplished more than two centuries before Christ. We then have to discover the Hebrew word that was translated by that Greek word. In other words Koine Greek, the lingua franca of the day, is NOT Street or Marketplace Greek. It is Koine Greek used by Hebrew thinkers who are trying to convey the meaning of a Hebrew word with a Greek word that will best carry the sense of the Old Testament Hebrew it is replacing.

Complicated? Not really. The Greek word metanoia in Koine Greek does mean a ‘change of the mind’ but the Greek word metanoia in New Testament Koine Greek means much more. Take your concordance or better still your electronic Bible program and experiment…

The old King James Bible first uses the word ‘repent’ in the record of the flood.

 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Gen 6:6 KJV)

But the rest of the verse is very helpful. One of the Old Testament Hebrew words for ‘repent’ means to grieve, it derives from the sense of a heartfelt pant or groan. God didn’t just change his mind in Genesis 6; it grieved him, it cut him to the heart. The Biblical concept of ‘repentance’ is much deeper than the Greek word metanoia can really do justice to. Let’s put it to the test with the record of Jonah, remembering that for Christ this was a perfect illustration of true repentance.

Sargon II – Ruler of Assyria

Let’s unpack this.

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.” (Jonah 3:1–2 NKJV)

So, genuine — Biblical — repentance starts with God taking the initiative, and genuine repentance is not the consequence of sorrow or regret but is the authentic response to the word of God from the mouth of one of his servants.

Secondly, genuine repentance is the consequence of faith.

 So the people of Nineveh believed God,… (Jonah 3:5 NKJV)

It is so basic. God used Jonah, and he provided prevenient grace for the people of Nineveh but that had to have the response of their own believing. They believed God. That’s how the first act of justifying faith is recorded:

 And he (Abram) believed in Jehovah; and he reckoned it to him for righteousness. (Gen 15:5–6 ASV)

Abram believed God! So did the people of Nineveh. They heard a man speak but they believed God. Their encounter was not, at its heart, an encounter with a herald but with God himself. But they didn’t just ‘believe God’… they believed God and… they acted.

  And the people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.  (Jonah 3:5–6 ASV)

We could illustrate this from numberless Scripture examples but we must press on.

And the tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.  (Jonah 3:6 ASV)

A man or woman’s will is proclaimed from the throne. It is as though we had, each one, a king whose will is final in any matter. The king in this narrative is thought to be Sargon II. The message reaches the throne. In our lives too God’s word must reach the throne room and then we must choose. Sargon II relinquishes his right to his throne and submits to the word of God that has reached him. So must we. Ultimately the question is ‘who will reign’. The word and will of God or myself in my determination to have my own will enthroned.  Abdication is true repentance. Much more than a mere changing of the mind. This is a personal response to the word of God and must result in my abdication from what Oswald Chambers liked to call my right to myself.

Read on. Sargon’s genuine repentance made a change in the will of God possible. The message had been Forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. Not much good news there. But as a result of Nineveh’s repentance God was able to change his will.

Another Oriental monarch

The tidings come to Herod in his palace. How will he respond? Will he receive the word of God. Will he believe and turn from his wicked ways? Will he recognise the authority of the word that finds him and repent? Will he vacate his throne and make way for the true king?

No. He will defy the message. He will declare ‘not his will but my will’. There will be no repentance, no change in his way of life. He will persist in his ‘my way’ philosophy. He will not abdicate. He will fight this usurper to his own sovereign rights.

Ultimately, every human being, in one way or another, will be faced with this choice. What will we do with Christ and his demands upon our life? Will we crown him… or crucify him?

There are no other options.