Matthew 2:16-18 - Homilies By J.a. Macdonald

Providence in evil.

Josephus does not mention this massacre. The event occurred ninety-four years before he wrote; it was but one of the many frightful atrocities of Herod, and, not being apparently connected with any political event, was easily passed over by him. Lardner, however, cites Macrobius, a heathen author of the fourth century, who refers to it thus: "When he [Augustus Caesar] heard that among those male infants above two years old which Herod, the King of the Jews, ordered to be slain in Syria, one of his sons was also murdered, he said, ' It is better to be Herod's hog than his son.'" The event is also thus noticed in a rabbinical work called 'Toldath Jesu:' "And the king gave orders for putting to death every infant to be found in Bethlehem." The history cannot be doubted, but we are now concerned with its lessons. It teaches—

I. THAT MORAL EVIL IS PERMITTED THOUGH NOT ORDAINED OF GOD .

1 . It cannot be ordained of God.

2 . Moral evil is the work of evil moral agents.

(a) Wicked men are never so gratified as when they can make wisdom subservient to their ends. Absalom, in his unnatural rebellion, sent for Ahithophel ( 2 Samuel 15:12 ).

(b) They are "exceeding wroth" when the wise elude their grasp or disappoint them of their prey.

(c) They do not see that they are "mocked" of God (cf. Psalms 2:4 ; Psalms 37:13 ).

3 . God is not necessarily chargeable with what he permits.

II. THAT THE PHYSICAL EVIL IS BOTH PERMITTED AND ORDAINED OF GOD .

1 . It is permitted to afflict the morally innocent.

2 . It is ordained for the punishment of sin.

3 . It is ordained as a warning against sin. To this end physical evil is made emblematical of the moral.

(1) Injuries and privations of the body represent corresponding injuries and privations of the soul—mutilations, lameness, blindness, deafness, etc.

III. THAT GOOD IS ORDAINED AND EVIL MADE SUBSERVIENT TO IT .

1 . Good was ordained in the creation of moral beings.

2 . Good was ordained in the redemption of simmers.

3 . The subserviency of evil to good will appear in the issues of the judgment.