“He would call in the leaders of the Jews and would say, “See if there is a rival to the throne, there will be strife. The Romans will come in. Our whole land would be inundated with blood. Is it not better that the children should be killed in one village than that our whole country should be involved?”
And they would say, “Dear Herod, you are undoubtedly right.”
And so this bloodhound could cover his brutality with the air of justice.
Now Joseph was warned in a dream, and he was not one of those who say, “Well we’ll get started in a couple of weeks.” He said, “Mary, wake up! Your secret is out!” And before dawn, they were beyond the boundary of Judea.
That night the mothers in Bethlehem served soup to their children, tucked them in bed and said their prayers. And in the morning, there was not a single home in Bethlehem where not one or two children had been killed. And there was weeping. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted! Oh why did God let his Son escape and let these parents so suffer? I’m not so sorry for the children; they were taken straight to heaven as blessed martyrs. But their fathers and their mothers, they didn’t understand that if God allowed his Son to escape, it was because his time was not yet come.”
