Matthew 2:15–23
Herod was angry when he saw he’d been tricked by the wise men. He ordered his solders to kill all the babies in Bethlehem. He wanted to be sure he killed the king of the Jews.
Hundreds of years before, Jeremiah said this would happen:
I hear a voice in Ramah, near Bethlehem.
It is Rachel crying for her children.
She won’t be comforted
because they are gone.
But Jesus was safe with his family in Egypt.
When Herod died, an angel came to Joseph in a dream. “Get up and go back to Israel,” the angel said. “Those who wanted to kill the child are dead.” Long before, a prophet had spoken of this: “Out of Egypt I’ve called my son,” he wrote.
But the family didn’t return to Judea. Herod’s son was ruling there, and Joseph was afraid. Again, he’d been warned in a dream. So Joseph took Mary and Jesus to Nazareth in Galilee. There they were safe. Another old prophet had seen this would happen. He said, “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Questions: Why did Herod kill the children of Bethlehem? Why did Joseph go to live in Nazareth?