King Herod is the very last person you would expect to find in a Nativity scene. After all, he did not want to worship the baby Jesus. He wanted to make sure that the baby Jesus didn’’t get a chance to replace him as king.

Herod had helped the Romans take control of Israel after many years of civil war and rebellion. As part of his reward, the Roman government even voted him an official title: “King of the Jews.” But he knew he wasn’’t all that popular with the Jews, even though he tried to do a lot of things to make his subjects admire him, such as rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem. In fact, even though he was also known as “Herod the Great,” there were always people who wanted to kill him, including members of his own family.

So Herod was not happy when the Wise Men came to see him and asked, “”Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews?”” (Matthew 2:2). Even though he had the power of Rome behind him, and although he had been king for many years, he knew this could be trouble. He sent for the chief priests and teachers of the law and asked them where Christ would be born, and they quoted Micah 5:2 for him: “”Bethlehem of Judea.””

So Herod tried to trick the Wise Men. He sent them to Bethlehem and said, ““As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”” But Herod didn’’t actually want to go to Bethlehem to worship. He wanted to eliminate his potential rival.

God had other plans, of course.

First, God sent the Wise Men back home by a different route, so that they would not have to pass through Jerusalem and come anywhere close to the nervous king. When Herod figured out that the Wise Men had been too wise for him, he had all the baby boys around Bethlehem killed (Matthew 2:15), figuring that if he murdered them all, the new “King of Jews” would probably be among them.

But Jesus was not there to be killed, because God had also told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt until Herod died. They didn’’t have to wait long: Within a couple of years, Herod was dead. In fact, according to the most famous historian of his time, he died an excruciatingly painful death, ““by God’’s judgment upon his sins.””

We can be glad he never got close to the real Nativity scene. We need to worship undisturbed.