Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matthew 2:7-8)
We know now that Herod did not want to worship the baby Jesus, but to have Him killed. But they were warned by God not to return to Herod:
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route. (Matthew 2:12)
In the Old Testament, King Jeroboam also tried to convince a man sent by God:
The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.” (1 Kings 13:7)
This King, also, was bent on only evil. Other verses in 1 Kings say he was the most evil king they had ever had up to that point. But this man was told by God not to eat or drink, but to get out of town.
So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. (1 Kings 13:10)
And this man took another road, he did not take the same road into Bethel as he did out, just as the wise men hundreds of years later left Bethlehem by a different road.
Another parallel – a shadow – from Old to New. The Word of God never runs dry!
#LoveMatters