A Secret Meeting

A side door. A quiet corridor. Guards who ask no questions. The magi are led into a private room, where a king is waiting for them, smiling.

King Herod has had a troubling day. Foreign visitors, magi from the east, have been asking all over Jerusalem where the newborn king of the Jews is. Herod has already called in the chief priests and the scholars of the law, and they have told him what the prophet Micah wrote: the ruler will come from Bethlehem. Now Herod knows where. But he wants to know more. And he does not want anyone else to know what he is planning.

Matthew says Herod privily called the wise men. He met them in secret. Not in the great public hall with courtiers listening, but quietly, away from the crowds. And there, he enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. He asked carefully, question after question. When exactly did you first see it? How long ago? Herod was not interested in astronomy. He was working out how old the child might be. A ruler who had spent his life staying in power knew how to gather information.

Then Herod sends them on their way, with directions. Bethlehem, just a few miles south. And he gives them an instruction, in the friendliest voice you can imagine. “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.” Search carefully. Find him. Come back and tell me. Then I can go and worship him too. How generous he sounds. How humble. An old king, wanting to bow before a baby.

But Matthew's readers know Herod is not telling the truth. His heart was troubled, not glad. He had no intention of worshipping anyone. He wanted the magi to be his spies, to lead him straight to the child. The magi, strangers in a foreign land, had no reason yet to doubt a king's word. They thanked him, perhaps, and left the palace into the night, ready to continue their search. They did not know they were carrying a dangerous secret. But God knew. And God was watching over the child.

Secret dealings were typical of Herod. The historian Josephus describes how, later in his reign, Herod banned people from meeting together, planted spies in the city and on the roads, and is even said to have gone out at night in disguise to hear what people were saying about him. A private meeting with foreign visitors fits the king Josephus describes.

You'll find Herod's secret meeting in Matthew chapter two, verses seven and eight. Kind words hiding a cruel plan, and a God who sees what is hidden. So here is a question to carry with you. Why does God care not only about the words we say, but about what is really in our hearts?