And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.
I would beg the Reader to pause over those verses, for several interesting circumstances of improvement arise from them. What an awful picture is here drawn of the human heart, in the character of Herod! He was now an old man; had long reigned; and this young prince just born, supposing all that Herod might suppose of an earthly monarchy could not, in the nature of things, hastily arise to oppose him. And yet with what deep artifice and hypocrisy did he cover over the cruel design he had formed of murdering the newborn stranger. Look at the chief priests and scribes also. Though they saw, as well as Herod, with what earnestness and labor the wise men from the East had come, a vast journey to worship the king of the Jews yet they who were Jews, felt no concern about the glorious area of his birth; though their Prophets had so plainly declared both the place and the time of his coming. The wise men were told where they might find Christ; but none of the priests or scribes, it should seem, went with them to see him. But, Reader! do not fail to remark a circumstance yet more interesting than either; surely, it must have been the Lord, by his providence, over-ruling things, that so Jesus might remain in safety, until a more convenient season for his flight into Egypt should arrive.