Children of Bethlehem - Herod's Daughter

CHILDREN OF BETHLEHEM

HEROD’S DAUGHTER

By Robert Allen

“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi^[a] from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.”  Matthew 2:1-3

A monolog for a teen-age girl.

            Can I tell you a secret?  You have to promise not to tell anyone else.  Promise?  Especially my father.  Don’t ever tell my father.

            That’s the secret.  I am afraid of my father.  Scared of my own father.

            You would be afraid too if you knew what I know.  In fact, there are a lot of people who are scared of him, especially in the city of Bethlehem.  I may be risking my own life by telling you this, but I just have to tell someone.

            So, will you keep a secret?  Promise?

            Have you ever noticed how adults will talk about private matters when children are around and just assume that we are not listening?  It’s almost as if they even forget we exist.  It happens here at the palace all of the time.  That’s right.  I live in the palace.  Herod’s palace.  My father is King Herod, the king of the Jews.

            Anyway, that’s what happened to me.  Father was telling some of his guards about a visit he had received earlier that day.  These three astrologers from some country east of here made an appointment to see him.  They told him that another king had been born, another king of the Jews.  They were here in Jerusalem looking for him since this was the capital city.  But he wasn’t here.   So father called in some of the scribes, men who know all about the holy books.  They said the king would be born in Bethlehem-Judah.  Father shared that information with the men from the east and sent them to Bethlehem with instructions to come back and tell him where the king was when they found him so he could go and worship him too. 

“I was real smooth,” he told the guards.  “They never had any suspicion as to why I really wanted to know where he was.  But they never came back.”

I could tell father was really mad when he said that.  People in this country don’t just disobey a direct order from the king.  They know better than that.  I could tell you stories.  My half brothers were swimming one day and some of the palace guards held them under water until they drowned.  Everyone knew that the king had ordered it, but no one ever did anything about it.  See why I’m afraid of him?  No one ever knows what he might do next.  No one is safe, even those of us in his family.

What father said next sent a chill up my spine, mostly because he said it just as casually as if he were ordering dinner from the palace chef.

“Go to Bethlehem,” he told the guards.  “Kill every baby in the entire town two years old or younger.  The wise men said they had seen the star two years ago and have been traveling since then.  So that should take care of any upstart king from Bethlehem.”

Just like that!  Kill all the babies two years old and younger.  Babies!  What has a baby ever done to my father?  See why I have to tell someone?  Someone needs to let all those mothers in Bethlehem know what is going to happen.  Someone needs to warn them.  I can’t do it.  I can’t possibly leave the palace without someone knowing about it.  I’ve put my life at risk and probably yours too just by telling this to you.

Someone needs to warn them.  Tell them to go down into Egypt or something.  Anything to get away from my father.  Please!  Don’t tell anyone else what I have said.  But warn the mothers of  Bethlehem.  Otherwise the wailing will be heard all the way into Jerusalem.

All those babies.  All those babies.