Matthew 2

As I suspected in my comments on the previous chapter, this section contains more of the 'Christmas Story' as we traditionally think of it. The visit of the magi, or wise men, is often pictured as being right at Jesus' birth - but it certainly looks from the text like it came later, maybe even as much as a year or two after He was born.

It is also pretty cool that the closest things they had to scientists back then came to worship Jesus, after observing some sort of new star in the heavens. I've often wondered if that was God using a supernova or comet - something like that which He simply timed properly - or if it was something altogether supernatural. It doesn't much matter, just something I've thought about a few times.

We've also got the account of Herod's mass murder of children in this chapter. As with all violence, especially against the young and innocent, it is a tragedy... but it shows just how much some people love power, and how twisted our sinful, human nature can be. It also fills another prophecy about Jesus' birth (Jeremiah 31:15), as does His family's return from Egypt after Herod's death and their eventual settling in Nazareth.