Daily Devotional

To understand what was happening in Bethlehem, we need to look at another passage of Scripture. Revelation 12 gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the spiritual realities surrounding Christ’s birth. John sees a vision: a woman clothed with the sun, pregnant and crying out in labor pains. Then a great red dragon appears with seven heads and ten horns. And here is the key: the dragon crouches beside her, poised to devour the child at the instant of its birth.

Do you see what is happening? Herod was not just a paranoid king; he was a pawn of a much larger chess match. Behind Herod’s rage was Satan’s war. The ancient enemy was using a human puppet to try to destroy the Seed of the woman before He could accomplish His mission.

This battle did not begin in Bethlehem. It started in Eden. Most of us think of the serpent in Genesis 3 as just a snake, but the biblical writers understood something deeper. The Hebrew word for serpent, ‘Nakesh,’ can mean serpent as a simple noun, but it also means ‘the shining one’ or a divine being. This was no mere animal; this was a rebel from heaven, a malcontent from within the angels who arrogantly sought to usurp God’s plan for humanity.

In Genesis 3:15, God told the serpent, ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.’ From that moment on, the divine rebel has been waging war against the Seed of the woman. Cain killed Abel. Pharaoh slaughtered Hebrew babies. Haman plotted genocide against the Jews. And now Herod sent soldiers to Bethlehem. Same war, different battlefield. Same enemy, different puppet.