NO GREATER LOVE: HEROD AND JESUS 

On December 28 of each year, the Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Innocents. These were the first of the huge number of persons who gave their lives for Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict, in his Infancy Narrative volume of Jesus of Nazareth gives us more details about their martyrdom. After the end of the Magi story, Saint Joseph reappears as the principal actor on the stage, albeit acting not on his own initiative but in accordance with instructions that he receives once more from the angel of God in a dream. He is asked to rise in haste and take the child and its mother, to flee to Egypt, and to remain there pending further instructions, "for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him" (Mt 2:13).

In 7 B.C. Herod had had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus executed, as he considered them a threat to his power. In 4 B.C. he killed his son Antipater for the same reason (cf. Scuhlmacher, Die Geburt des Immanuel, p. 85). He thought solely in terms of power. The news the wise men brought him of a pretender to the throne must have alarmed him. It was clear from his character that he would stop at nothing. 

"Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, was in a furious rage, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had ascertained from the wise men" (Mt 2:16). It is true that we have no record of this event from non-biblical sources, yet in view of all the atrocities that Herod did commit, that is not enough to prove that it did not take place. Rudolf Pesch quotes the Jewish author Abraham Schalit on the subject: "Belief in the proximate arrival or birth of the Messianic king was in the air at the time. The suspicious tyrant sensed betrayal and hostility everywhere, and a vague rumour reaching his ears would have been enough to put into his sick mind the idea of killing the newborn children. There is nothing impossible about this command" (Die matthäischen Weihnachtsgeschichten, p. 72).

The rivalry between Herod and Jesus goes back over 1700 years. Herold was not Jewish or even an Israelite from one of the other tribes of Israel besides Judah. Herod was an Edomite. The nation of Edom was often at war with Israel. In scripture, the nation of Edom began with Esau who was the son of Isaac who was the only son of Abraham and Sarah. Through a servant, Abraham arranged for Isaac to marry a Mesopotamian woman named Rebekah. (Genesis 24) 

Eventually, Rebekah conceived and had fraternal twins, named Esau and Jacob. However, the pregnancy was very difficult for the twins struggled with each other in the womb. “The children struggled together within her; and she said, ‘If it is thus, why do I live?’ So she went to inquire of the LORD. And the LORD said to her, ‘Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples, born of you, shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the elder shall serve the younger.’ When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came forth red, all his body like a hairy mantle; so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came forth, and his hand had taken hold of Esau's heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.” (Gen 25:22-26) This competition between Jacob and Esau foreshadows the rivalry between Herod and Jesus.

In the book of Exodus, Moses encounters God at the Burning Bush. At that time God tells Moses “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Ex 3:6) Why was Jacob at the end of the list and not Esau since Esau was the first-born son of Isaac? (Gen 25:25) We do not know the reason for God’s choice, yet it is true that Jacob and Esau were very different. “When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game; but Rebekah loved Jacob.” (Gen 25:27-28) One could say that Esau was a “he-man” while Jacob was a “mamma’s boy”.

Scripture does give us clues concerning why Rebekah’s choice was also God’s choice. First, Esau had the birthright since he was first-born, yet he sold his birthright to Jacob for some food when he was very hungry. Esau acted on impulse rather than the long term. (Gen 25:29-34)

Esau also was disobedient to his parents. When Abraham sent his trusted servant to Mesopotamia from Canaan to find a wife for his son Isaac, He told his servant, “Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell, but will go to my country and to my kindred, and take a wife for my son Isaac.” (Gen 24:2-4) The servant did find a wife in Mesopotamia for Isaac named Rebekah, who was the granddaughter of Abraham’s brother Nahor. However, Rebekah’s son Esau took two Canaanite women to be his wives and “they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah” (Gen 26:34). Esau also married a daughter of Abraham’s son, Ishmael. (Gen 25:12-18) Ishmael, however, did not inherit God’s promises to Abraham, but only Isaac. (Gen 17:15-21) 

When Isaac was old and near death, he still wanted to give his primary blessing to Esau. He told Esau to kill some wild game for him, cook and flavor it the way he liked it, and then he would give Esau his blessing. However, Rebekah overheard the conversation and by stealth put Jacob in Esau’s place, so Jacob got Isaac’s blessing. (Gen 27:1-29) Soon after this Esau returned with the game he had killed and prepared and brought it to Isaac. Isaac realized that he had been tricked. He also must has seen that Rebekah was behind all of this deception and that it was God’s will that Jacob got the blessing. Esau pleaded with Isaac that he would also get a blessing. Isaac then said that Esau would dwell away from the rainfall and agricultural riches of Canaan and live by the sword and conflict. (Gen 27:30-40) Later, when God did bless Jacob with many sons (twelve) and riches, Esau moved to the desert region to the south of Canaan and became the father of the nation of Edom. In the time of Jesus, Herod was an Edomite who came from an area to the south of Judea, which at that time was called Idumea. 

God changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Gen 32:28, Gen 35:10) since he was God’s choice to inherit the land of Canaan which became the land of Israel. (Gen 35:12) Jacob was certainly aware of Abraham’s command that Isaac should marry a wife from Mesopotamia. (Gen 24:2-4) He obeyed Rebekah and Isaac and did go there to obtain a wife, Rachel, the younger daughter of Rebekah’s brother Laban, to be his wife. Laban also had an older daughter named Leah. Jacob had to work seven years for Laban in order to marry Rachel. He did that gladly, and Laban prospered because of Jacob’s work. (Gen 30:27) When Jacob completed the work, he then asked to marry Rachel in accordance with their agreement. However, on the wedding night, Laban arranged for Leah to sleep with Jacob rather than Rachel. In the morning, Jacob discovered Leah there and not Rachel. Laban explained that in Mesopotamia it was not the custom for the younger daughter to marry before the elder one, (Gen 29:26) but Jacob could marry Rachel also if he worked another seven years. Jacob did that and continued to enrich Laban by his work. 

When he competed the time, Jacob wanted to take his wives and children back home to Canaan. Laban pressed Jacob to continue to work for him for wages since Laban’s flocks of sheep and goats increased because of Jacob. Jacob chose wages, which Laban agreed to, to increase his own flock, using breeding techniques which he probably learned from his father Isaac, at the expense of Laban’s flock. When Laban became angry at this, Jacob was able to placate Laban and also return to Canaan. (Gen 31:43-55). When Jacob returned to Canaan, he had to placate with gifts his brother, Esau, who was angry since Jacob had taken his birthright and blessing. Although Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah, Leah did bear for him one daughter and six sons who became six of the twelve the tribes of Israel including the priestly tribe of Levi and the royal tribe of Judah from whom came, David, the other kings of Judah and eventually Jesus Christ. Leah’s maid, Zilpah, bore Jacob two more children who were also were considered to be Leah’s children. Rachel bore Jacob two children herself, and two more through her maid, Bilhah, although Rachel died in childbirth when her second son, Benjamin, was born.

There were many reasons why Jacob was God’s choice to become Israel. Jacob was certainly obedient to his parents and to God and prudent in placating those who were angry with him. He also was a man of prayer, for Genesis 27-35 recounts many encounters Jacob had with God including the famous “Jacob’s Ladder” dream at Bethel (Gen 28:10-22) and his wrestling with God at Peniel. (Gen 32:22-32) We can see why God chose Jacob to be the ancestor of David and Jesus Christ while Esau was the ancestor Herod. – Jim Nugent, CFP