Mat 2:13-18 & Hosea 11:1….Why wasn’t Jesus killed by Herod?

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah “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.

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.

Comment: King Herod was nasty but not intellectually stupid. He deduced from his conversation with the Wise Men roughly when the ‘King of the Jews’ whom they mentioned was born. Presumably he deduced the date from when the Star first appeared to the Wise Men. Knowing from the Scripture-knowing Priests in Jerusalem where Jesus was born, he devised his fail-proof plan to solve the problem of his losing the royal lineage. I’m not at all surprised that God knew Herod’s thinking and had Joseph whisk his wife and adopted son across the nearest border into Egypt. I feel terribly sorry for the families who lost their sons and no doubt some if not all of us wonder why God let that happen. I wish to make three points. i) sinful actions have consequences which God usually doesn’t erase. Herod’s action was a major sin! ii) A prophecy concerning Egypt was fulfilled. The initial context in Hosea suggests that the son mentioned there was Israel and the exodus, but Matthew clearly saw it as having a Messianic meaning as well! iii) There are two towns of Ramah in Israel. Bethlehem is relatively near one of them but certainly not in it. But Rachel, the favourite wife of Abraham, was buried in the Ramah area near Bethlehem. I suggest that quoting the Jeremiah prophecy Matthew is envisaging Rachel, as the highly honoured wife of Abraham, representing ‘all’ Israeli mothers weeping and particularly those from Bethlehem because of the slaughter of so many caused by Herod’s action, a reaction to the coming of the Messiah who bears the Title KING OF KINGS!

Prayer: Keep me from acting nasty spiteful deeds, please Father.