We saw in the last post that the chief priests and scribes accurately knew where the Christ was to be born. Also we know from Matthew chapter one that the Christ, had just been born there! The rest of the story told here is a standard piece of Herod’s paranoia and duplicity

“Then Herod secretly called the wise men,

“and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.””
Matt. 2:7-8

The “wise men” are treated as just that. Wise gentiles who are able to seek and know as any Jew can. There are others in Scripture, including Job and Melchizedek, and even Balaam before he turned bad for money. Also the magos are treated as worthy to be warned about what was about to happen.

“Being warned in a dream that they shouldn’t return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way.”
Mtt 2:12

Also Joseph and Mary were warned.

“13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.””
Mtt 2:13

When Herod realized he had been tricked, was in a rage, and his solution was to simply kill all of the male babies in and around Bethlehem, Mtt 2:14-17. All of that was of course completely in character with evil man Herod had become.

And others also knew about Bethlehem

It was discussed in one of the posts on “Common traps and pitfalls in interpretation,” that most thought Jesus was “from” Nazareth. But they thought the Christ was to be from Bethlehem!

“41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “What, does the Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the seed of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?””
Jn 7:41-42

This makes our investigation even more interesting, for many understood that the Christ would be born in a specific place: Bethlehem. But that means we must be aware of another central idea in the interpretation of prophecy:

We need to be aware of recurring themes
and ideas in Scripture.

There are many of them. Among them are the idea of the Christ coming from a special seed, and the “day of the Lord,” and a special uproar or tumult of the nations, and the “root of David,” the binding power of sin, and a day when all will be released from their sins, and so on and so on.

One of these ideas is about a special ruler of the Jews who will come and deliver them from all of their troubles. It is assumed that you the reader are familiar with this recurring theme in prophecy.

Scriptures are from the World English Bible (WEB), a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901