HEROD soon realised that the magi were not coming back, and inferred that they, at any rate, believed they had found a legitimate claimant to his throne.
Knowing that the star had been visible for two years, Herod had every male child in Bethlehem under that age murdered.* He had Zechariah, father of John the Baptist and the husband of Mary’s aunt Elizabeth, killed in the Temple itself, when he would not reveal where his infant son was hidden. Simeon, the respected prophet who died in peace after holding Jesus in his arms and publicly declaring he was Israel’s long-awaited King, was refused a proper burial; but Mary and Joseph smuggled Jesus to safety in Egypt.
As for the magi, they had set out from the east believing that the stars were far-off gods who controlled events on earth. They arrived home having found God lying in a Bethlehem manger, while the jubilant and obedient heavens declared the glory of their infant Maker.*
This is quite in character. Herod issued instructions (which were ignored) to murder dozens of people when he himself died, just so that Jerusalem would appear to be in mourning for him.
See Psalm 19:1-6. At Mattins on Christmas Day we sing:
“THY Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shone upon the world with the light of knowledge: for thereby they who adored the stars through a star were taught to worship thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know thee the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory to thee!”For the Sun of Righteousness, see Malachi 4:2, and for the Dayspring, Luke 1:78.