Christmas is beautiful, magical and hopeful. But wake up the day after Christmas and everything changes. The departure of the wise men crossfades into a declaration of war. Neither Herod’s pride nor his politics could handle the birth of a truly Jewish king. So, he became the Scrooge of the real Christmas story and searched for Jesus to kill his rival. An angel tipped off Mary and Joseph to the assassination plan and directed them to escape to Egypt where they would hide until Herod’s death (Matthew 2:13-15). The king, realizing that he had been duped by the foreign Magi, ordered the slaughter of all baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding vicinity. If he got lucky, he could still stay any threat to his throne.
The “Massacre of the Innocents” was prophesied hundreds of years prior (Hosea 11:1) and was reminiscent of Pharoah’s extermination of the Hebrew boys just before the exodus (see Exodus 1:22). The enemy will continually create conflict with God’s people and God’s plans until Jesus returns. Even in the end times, kings of the earth will join forces with the antichrist and “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers” (Revelation 17:14). Just as the darkness of night wrestles to hold back the coming sun of dawn, so the devil wishes to prevent the rise of the Son of God. But Jesus will prevail just as the light of day always conquers the darkness of night.
THE QUESTION EVERYONE IS ASKING
The escape of Jesus and His family raises a delicate question: Why didn’t God rescue all the babies in Bethlehem? Matthew records,
Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted
because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:17-18)
Perhaps keeping to the shadows of the village as they fled, Mary and Joseph could hear the wails of grieving parents as Roman soldiers pushed their way into homes and put helpless babies to death at the sword. And while they would have no doubt been grateful for God’s rescue of them, they might have wondered, “Why not everyone?” God knew the storm was coming. Why didn’t He intervene?
This question rattles every soul whenever crisis strikes. Why doesn’t God stop the suffering in the world? If He knows that people suffer…If He has the power to alleviate their suffering…If He loves people truly, why doesn’t He rescue?
The question, though honest, forgets the source of all suffering. Our pain results from the lingering presence of sin.
When Satan tempted Adam and Eve to abandon God’s authority for their own autonomy, the resultant curse is that all of creation was contaminated by sin. Sin isn’t just a moral condition. Sin damages our relationships, disrupts our climate, decomposes our body, degenerates our decency, destroys our systems, dements our mind, denies our truth, debases our values, defaces our beauty, derides our authorities, defiles our worship, devastates our success, deceives our reason, disables our progress and dismisses our God. The principle of sin has leeched into every dimension of life so that “the whole world is a prisoner of sin” (Galatians 3:22).
Now you can see the problem: For God to remove suffering, God must remove the source. If sin is the source of all suffering and sin is in us, then God must remove every last one of us to free the world of suffering. One writer said, “If we asked God to erase all pain at midnight tonight, who of us would be left at 12:01?” Perhaps God could have rescued all the babies in Bethlehem, but they would have lived to face suffering again and again and again. Because they were born into a sinful world.
This reality would make us utterly hopeless if it were not for God’s ultimate salvation. God rescued the one baby who could rescue everyone else.
As a child, Jesus escaped death, but would eventually die so that all the children who were destined to die could escape eternal death. You see, God did not ultimately send His Son to save us from the myriad of conflicts we face throughout life—arthritis, final exams, bankruptcy, blown transmissions, broken relationships, pinched nerves, an inoperable brain tumor, the loss of a beloved pet and much more. Jesus came to save us from an insufferable eternity separated from God because of the dark sin in our heart. Because Jesus has saved us eternally, we can face every conflict hopefully. Because of Him, we endure any present difficulty with confidence of our rescue still to come.
The wonder of escape is that God was saving His Son so that His Son could save us all.