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Strangers from Afar

¹ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem, while Herod was King, some strangers from the East visited Jerusalem ² and asked, "Where's the little one that's meant to be the King of the Jews? We seen a bright light from way over yonder and we have come to hit a knee before him."

³ King Herod was plumb disturbed, along with all of Jerusalem, at the things the strangers said. ⁴ He gathered up every person who worked around there had a lick of sense and asked 'em where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ They all told him it was supposed to be in Bethlehem based on what a wise fellow of God had said, ⁶ "Bethlehem ain't no little place among Judah. From you will come a cowboy who will gather all of the herd together and take care of 'em."

⁷ Then Herod asked those strangers when the bright light had appeared in the sky. ⁸ He told 'em to ride for Bethlehem and find this baby they was a lookin' for and send him a message when they did. Herod wanted to come and grab a knee, with his hat in his hands, right along with them.

⁹ The strangers rode hard and followed the light until it stopped over where Jesus was layin'. ¹⁰ When they saw the bright star, they was overcome with happiness. ¹¹ When they got to the house and saw Mary holdin' Jesus, they grabbed a knee and worshiped him. Then they went to their saddlebags and brought out some sure enough nice gifts for the baby. ¹² They rode off at first light, but they didn't return to old Herod. An angel had told them to take another trail and strike a long trot back to where they'd come from.

The Getaway

¹³ After the strangers had lit out, an angel came to Joseph while he was dreamin'. "Saddle up," the angel told him, "ride hard for Egypt and hunker down there until I tell you it's safe. Herod's gonna start killin' all the kids and he's hopin' Jesus is one of 'em."

¹⁴ So Joseph took Mary and Jesus and struck a long lope for Egypt. ¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod had kicked the bucket. This fulfilled a long ago sayin' that said, "My Son's gonna come out of Egypt when I call for him."

¹⁶ When old Herod realized he'd been double-crossed by the strangers, he was spittin' nails. He gave orders to slaughter all the boys in the territory who were two years old or younger. That's the age the strangers had reckoned Jesus to be. ¹⁷ This also brought truth to a long ago foretelling by the prophet Jeremiah, ¹⁸ "There will be wailin' and weepin'. Rachel will cry for her kids and won't take to any comfortin' by anyone because they are all gone."

Headin' Home

¹⁹ When Herod was dead, an angel once again came to Joseph in a dream and ²⁰ told him, "Light out for home. Take Jesus and his momma back. The danger has passed on by."

²¹ So Joseph saddled up and they traveled back to Israel. ²² But when he found out that Archelaus had taken his father Herod's place on the throne, he became scared. Another dream had warned him, so he detoured into Galilee territory, ²³ and made permanent camp in a place called Nazareth. Once again, this made true the old saying, "He's gonna be called a Nazarene."