How can it be that the Eternal One is contained in a form that we can see with our eyes and hold in our arms?

Book 17: Sixth Covenant (A.D. Chronicles #6) by Brock and Bodie Thoene

My rating: ****1/2

After just finishing this book, I feel...sad. My heart aches for these fictional people. Call me crazy. Maybe it's mostly because, while this is a fictionalized retelling, these things ACTUALLY happened. Maybe not exactly this way, but they happened nonetheless.

Kings Herod in his old age became more and more troubled by dreams and visions that some coming king was going to usurp his throne. He had a reason to be afraid - he wasn't the rightful one to sit in his throne. He wasn't a Jew, but he proclaimed himself the king of the Jews. Rumors were spreading to Jerusalem that a baby had been born who was the true King. A visit from a group of astrologers who sought to worship this same baby only confirmed Herod's nightmares. The joy of the people of Bethlehem over the birth of the Messiah was trampled by Herod's murderous paranoia.

The Gospel of Matthew records Herod's order that all baby boys under the age of 2 were to be slaughtered. That's something I've read a number of times but never really thought about. Until now. Reading this scene was horrible. I can't imagine how it's possible for someone to be that heartless - heartless enough to kill innocent children. All because he was afraid one of those boys was going to grow up and take his throne. If I could go back in time and punch Herod in the face I would. I can't imagine what it would've been like as a mother. To be minding your own business when Roman soldiers come barging into your house and slaughter your kids before your eyes. To have your children ripped from your arms and watch the life leave their eyes. It's hard to not wonder why in the world God would let something like that happen. But then again maybe it's foreshadowing of what was to come. Of what God Himself would have to suffer as His Son suffered and died for the sins of the world.