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Matthew 2:16

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The Escape to Egypt

13When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,15where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”Hosea 11:1

16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

17Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18“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.”Jer. 31:15

Topics: new anger war murder testament judea christmas infanticide bethlehem massacre herod preemptive strikes

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jilly35 - (eBible Novice) over 2 years ago.

There are two biblical passages that deal with preemptive strikes based upon fear.[29] The first happened in Egypt prior to the Exodus. The Pharaoh observed that the children of Israel outnumbered the Egyptians and were physically stronger. Thinking shrewdly, he said “should war befall us�? the Israelites might “join our enemies, fight against us, and escape out of the land.�? His solution was to kill all the male infants born to the Israelites. The second instance of a preemptive strike is often called The Massacre of the Innocents[30] in Matthew 2:1-18. After the three wise men visited King Herod, they told him the prophecy that a child was to be born in Bethlehem who would become “King of the Jews.�? Herod, who became suddenly alarmed, felt threatened at the news and he ordered the death of all the children in Bethlehem from two years old and under. Both these instances reveal the underlying warped thinking involved in the immoral preemptive murder of innocents: “Let’s get them before they get us!�? Fear is the motivator for the action. Hatred for anyone who poses even a remote future threat is the underlying psychosis of the act. The justification is always Machiavellian: the ends justify the means.