The man who reigned as king at the time of Jesus’ birth lived amid a spider web of intrigue. He tried to balance all the political and religious systems in his arms. He was challenged by Jewish leaders even to the point of appeals all the way up to Caesar himself. He was involved in several wars and uprisings. He was the king at the time of Masada, a hidden away Jewish community on a plateau.
He had 10 wives and multiple children. The man under discussion is King Herod the Great. His background was that of being an Idumean which means he was half Jew himself. History tells us that he murdered at least two of his wives. He was quite paranoid and distrustful of his own family. He lived in a constant state of insecurity. Even though he enjoyed the royalty of being a king, his life was in constant flux. Herod created a complex chess game of cynicism. He attempted to be all things to all people while accomplishing little as a successful human being.
His efforts included trying to appease Caesar the ruler of the Roman Empire, and the Sanhedrin court, the rulers of the Jewish religion. He was granted the title of King by the Roman Senate. No matter how hard he tried he never won the affections of the Jewish people. He ordered the murder of whole brigades. In turn the people did not grant him popularity but were resentful of him. At one point he was ordered to appear before the Sanhedrin court but later when he came to power, he took the lives of those opponents. Herod found himself between two friendships. He had loyalties to Cassius and Brutus who killed Julius Caesar versus Mark Anthony who was even a closer friend.
The reason for one of his marriages was to be accepted by the Jewish nation. It is believed that when Jesus spoke the words of Luke 19:12, about a nobleman who went into a far country to gain power and then return he had in mind Herod. This man is like a ping-pong ball bouncing his loyalty between Rome with Mark Anthony and the questionable Cleopatra. Even with his own family one of his wives vented her better jealousy, sowing seeds of distrust in the mind of Herod. Because of a foolish decision for the murder of one of his wives which he regretted, he fell into deep grief and was never the same man afterwards. He was morose and suspicious more than ever.
To counter his problems, he plunged into a vast program of public works which is probably one of the reasons he was called Herod the Great. He even rebuilt the Jewish Temple starting the work in 20 BC but was still not completed in the days of Christ. His personal palace was lavishly adorned. He ordered a breakwater on the Palestinian coast to be constructed which created a needed port. Nearby a large amphitheater was constructed for games. Even though he was a pagan at heart he ordered temples to be constructed in communities outside of his own border and assumed a subsidy for the Olympic Games. His manipulation of his own subjects was by fear with punishment and the care he gave them when hard times for food appeared
In the final decade of his life, he became more and more irritable and difficult. Members of his own family developed a plan to poison him, but it failed. His massacre of infants in Bethlehem according to Matthew 2 was near the end of his reign. He was bloodthirsty. His mental and physical condition deteriorated for the last course of his life which made him a madman out of control. It is no wonder that when the wisemen came from the East seeking the location of the newborn Jesus, he lied saying that he too would want to go to worship him. Herod was furious when the Magi did not return as he requested. It was under this man’s rule and during the latter part of his life that our Lord Jesus Christ was born in a manger in Bethlehem.
Christian Writer 