Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday we read Luke's account of the birth of Jesus, and today we get more information

from Matthew's account.

Jesus is born in a village called Bethlehem, in a kingdom called Judea.

At the time he's born, all of Judea is under Roman rule and occupation.

Imagine a large and powerful country takes over the country where you live, station

soldiers in every major city is involved with every level of your government and makes

you pay taxes to support that occupying army.

That's what's happening here.

Rome is in charge of things, and they put again in here the great in charge of Judea.

Herod is a great builder, making port cities and aqueducts and even renovating this second

temple complex so that it's much bigger and more magnificent.

For a while he's even the president of the Olympics, but in his later years he becomes

jealous and paranoid.

For instance, he spends six years building a massive fortress in the middle of the desert

in case enemies attack and never spends a single night there.

He kills his sons so they won't take over his throne and he even kills his favorite

wife then mummifies her in honey when he later regrets it.

He is driven by fear, which prompts him to try to control everything around him, which

is where we find ourselves today.

We're at Herod's palace and some foreign wise men show up on his doorstep and say, hey,

we're here to see the new king.

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