Detecting Christmas December 21 Devotional

MATTHEW 2:8, 12-13, 19 | ⁸ Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring word so that I may also go and pay him homage.

¹² And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. ¹³ Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joesph in a dream and said, “Get up, 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.”

¹⁹ When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said,

Where was Jesus born? He was born right into the brutal politics of the first century. Herod was a megalomaniac and paranoid, who killed members of his own family, lest they become rivals. One emperor joked “Better to be Herod’s swine than his son…” Jesus was born into the ongoing battle between good and evil. This battle is played out in politics and in our own hearts, as well as in every area of human life. Herod conducted a local pogrom on infants when he could not locate Jesus directly. The holy family fled to Egypt to escape him. In verse 19, Herod dies and is never mentioned again. The child he sought to kill, and those who embrace him, live forever.

Where are you currently fighting the battle?

Gracious God,

Thank you for coming into the messy places of our lives with your truth and grace. Touch every sphere in which we live and work. Amen.