Why did God allowed Herod to slay so many newborns?
While on earth, God rarely directly intervenes in the life of humanity, whether for good or for bad (physical illnessses). This is all part of the mystery of evil (“mysterium iniquitatis”).
In part, God permitted this to happen so that the Sacred Scriptures could be fulfilled.
God generally will not interfere with things on earth and will allow both good and evil to be at odds until the last trumpet sounds. Sure God could have given Herod some sort of disease in order to stop him from killing the Holy Innocents. God could have also given the children some rare disease that took their lives before they were martyred. But, He did not. Some questions can only truly be completely understood when we ourselves enter eternity!
The Massacre of the Innocents was the result of King Herod’s extreme paranoia and cruelty. Herod would do anything to protect his own interests, including murdering all the little boys in Bethlehem. The wise men had alerted Herod to the arrival of a new king in Bethlehem. In his fear and morbid suspicion, Herod could not allow a rival king to live. Not knowing how old Jesus was, but certain the wise men had said they’d first seen the star less than two years before their visit, Herod took no chances and had all male children under two in Bethlehem killed.
Matthew 2:17–18 cites the prophecy of Jeremiah 31:15. In its original context, Jeremiah’s prophecy relates to Israel’s period of captivity in Babylon and the murder of children during the invasion of Judea. The mothers of Israel, portrayed as Rachel, are weeping for their sons who were led into exile. Rachel was considered a matriarchal figure to the nation of Israel, and her tomb is near Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19). Matthew links the prophecy by Jeremiah to the Massacre of the Innocents, and the parallel is striking. Eerie similarities also exist between the Massacre of the Innocents and Pharaoh’s order to kill all Hebrew male infants at the time of Moses’ birth (Exodus 1:15–16).
Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents was carried out, but his plan to rid the world of the Messiah was thwarted when God intervened to protect Jesus in yet another fulfillment of prophecy. When the Magi left Bethlehem to return to their homeland, Joseph had a dream: “An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,’ the angel said. ‘Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: ‘I called my Son out of Egypt’” (Matthew 2:13–15, NLT; cf. Hosea 11:1). God the Father saved His Son to fulfill His purpose of securing our salvation.
Some ancient Christian traditions claim that the Massacre of the Innocents involved tens to hundreds of thousands of children. However, based on the population of the small village of Bethlehem, the annual birthrate, and the high infant death rate at the time, most biblical historians and demographers estimate the total number of male children under the age of two to be no more than 20 to 40. The lower number makes the crime no less of an atrocity. The death of even one child is a tragedy. - What is the Massacre of the Innocents?
It could be noted that in some Christian denominations these children are considered martyrs because ultimately they shed their blood for Jesus.
Massacre of the Innocents
Today, the date of Holy Innocents' Day, also called the Feast of the Holy Innocents or Childermas or Children's Mass, varies.
27 December for West Syrians (Syriac Orthodox Church, Syro-Malankara Catholic Church, and Maronite Church)
28 December is the date in the Church of England (Festival),the Lutheran Church and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. In these Western Christian denominations, Childermas is the fourth day of Christmastide.
29 December for the Eastern Orthodox Church.
10 January for East Syrians (Chaldeans and Syro-Malabar Catholic Church).
