[Dan]

HEROD

Now that you are all here. You must be wondering why I have summoned you at such short notice.

I have had you brought here to tell you about a planned heretical insurrection that I have discovered has re-appeared in your town of Bethlehem.

You are the leaders of that place, and you must take ultimate responsibility for everything that happens there.

I am saddened about its reappearance after all of this time. But I am more saddened by the fact that this has happened while you were in control, and, yet none of you has reported its existence to me.

I am even more concerned that some of you may have had had knowledge of it, and have failed to speak up about it.

Am I not a benevolent ruler of this land? I have repaired the temple here in Jerusalem. I have built up Bethlehem, created new cities, reinforced our defences and garrisoned them with troops.

I have also improved many places by building palaces, forts and other structures.

In particular:

Jericho – 3 palaces

Herodium – Palaces

Masada – Store rooms, a water system, bath houses and a palace

Caesarea Maritima – a new city!

Sebaste – Rebuilt the city

Paneas, Bathyra and Antipatris have all benefitted from my largess over the years.

I have brought peace to this land. I have put down rebellion and insurrection and I have appointed suitable high priests to serve in the temple and carry forward our obedience to the Divine, after I found their predecessors to be inadequate and unsuited to the roll.

I have brought to you the best of civilisation, found in Rome and in Greece. I have built a great amphitheatre and a Colosseum to house the games and other entertainments. I have been able to do this because of my friendship and allegiance to Rome, my sons were educated there, and through my relationships with the regional governors appointed by Caesar over us.

These friendships mean that we are able and trusted to govern ourselves and, for the most part, live with our religion and customs uncompromised.

You will know full well that there were the beginnings of heretical insurrection in Bethlehem a few years ago that had to be dealt with by the local garrison.

Drunk and crazed shepherds came into the city, leaving their valuable flocks unattended on the hillsides vulnerable to wild animals and groups of foreign rustlers in the area, claiming that Messiah had been born in the city and that they had gone into Bethlehem and seen it for themselves.

Fortunately, it was late at night and only a few gullible people heard and believed this ignorant, drunk, herb crazed rabble.

My garrison quickly rounded them all up and interrogated them. The shepherds, all foreigners in our land, claimed that an angel from heaven had come and told them where and when Messiah would appear and that they had gone into the town and found a baby in a stable. The others, mostly foreign and of no fixed abode, only knew what they had been told in the streets.

Unfortunately, we were in the middle of a mass migration and there was great turmoil as people moved back and forth across the land to get to their ‘family’ town for a census organised by our Roman friends. I had counselled the governor against such massive upheaval saying that it would bring chaos, crime and illegal immigration into our country, towns and cities but I was overruled. But it would appear, in hindsight, that I was correct.

My garrison were unable to find this ‘Messiah’ in the turmoil. They found several landlords who had allowed people to stay overnight in their stables as accommodation was so difficult to find as the town was overcrowded.

These people had all, unfortunately, vacated their temporary lodgings by the time my authorities arrived.

In the ensuing days people had to employ new shepherds to watch their flocks, many of whom, are, again, foreigners to this region and are under constant monitoring to this day.

The unfortunate outcome of this, today, is that we cannot re-interview the original troublemakers as they all apparently fled into the desert when released, where they must have died.

My political astuteness kept this matter of incompetence and ineptitude from our Roman friends as the only troops in Bethlehem, at the time, were mine.

Unless we are able to contain this latest reappearance of this Messianic cult, Caesar or the governor may get to hear about it, and we will all have to bear the consequences of that!

Let me get to the matter in hand. A few weeks ago, I was visited, in Jerusalem, by a group of wandering mystics, such was their pretence, looking for a child who had been born king of the Jews. They had, they claimed, been following a star!

Another messenger in the heavens! There is some consistency linking these events.

I was more than a little troubled by their request because, as everyone knows, I was appointed King of Judea by Caesar Augustus himself as a reward for bringing peace to this land which, of course, means that I am King of the Jewish people.

They were quite open about their quest and from the information that I gleaned from them my advisors were able to work out where and when this child had, apparently, been born.

I hastened them on their journey with an undertaking that they would return and share with me what, or who, they had discovered.

In the meantime, I have dealt severely with our teachers of the law and chief priests who, apparently, were unable to read the information so easily available to these foreign infiltrators, and I have also replaced the commander of my troops on the eastern borders for not spotting and apprehending these foreign agitators before they were able to enter Jerusalem.

Unsurprisingly, these dishonest, foreign nomads have now failed to return to Jerusalem and so I must take steps to find them and any associates that they might have in Bethlehem, your town. They are either still in your city or have recently left it.

They were a very large group and should have been easily spotted as they moved through the countryside.

You are all well aware of my willingness to deal with insurrection and treachery when I discover it, I have demonstrated that within my own close family, and so you know what to expect for those who have had any part in this hideously treacherous, foreign sponsored plot.

Once again, should I find that any of you knew of this matter, but failed to report it, your punishment will be severe, and the full weight of my anger will fall upon you.

Since you left it, my troops have sealed off Bethlehem and the area around it. No-one can leave and no-one may enter until this matter is resolved fully to my satisfaction.

Half of you will return to Bethlehem, tonight, you will visit every household in the city and its surrounding villages and record the presence of any foreigner and any male children under the age of two years.

If you discover either, you will instruct everyone in the household to remain indoors until troops have visited and cleared the household and then report it to the garrison commander immediately.

Let me be clear, I will use any and all of the measures that I have at my disposal to bring this matter to an end, once and for all. I will, if necessary, shed blood to achieve my purpose.

The other half of you will remain here, under my protection, to ensure that your friends and colleagues carry out their work diligently and thoroughly. While you wait, you will be able to sample the hospitality that I have in store for you.

Those of you returning to Bethlehem will leave now. You are on my urgent business and failure is not an option for you. I have arranged for a detachment of my troops to make sure that you all arrive … in one piece … to carry out my orders.

 

Imagine that you are a member of the delegation from Bethlehem. How do you feel?

How, in our journey with God, can we begin to deal with people like Herod, today?

Prayers:

For those journeying not knowing when or if they will arrive

For those living under despotic regimes

For those struggling for their freedom

For those imprisoned unjustly, for the innocent tortured for information that they do not hold

For those whose relatives have ‘disappeared’ not knowing if they are imprisoned or dead.

 

 

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