Few things seem more out of place than the appalling account of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2:16). Why would a loving God permit a tyrant’s massacre of children to stain the beauty and poignancy of the Christmas story?

Matthew recounts in stark simplicity: “[Herod] sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16). The subsequent “explanation” does little to satisfy our longing for justice: “Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah” (Matthew 2:17). The wail of ancient, anguished poetry echoes eerily in our souls: “Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead” (Matthew 2:18).

That lament evokes a larger question. Humanity is violated by such acts, and something in us yearns to say: Hey, God, You’re God, for heaven’s sake! Why did You let this happen? It wasn’t fair to permit an evil despot to snatch the baby boys from Bethlehem’s mothers while Your Son escaped to Egypt.

But God’s Son didn’t escape. He came to die. Decades after His birth, this Innocent—“the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)—was Himself slaughtered. The apostle Paul declares that God “did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all” (Romans 8:32).

There’s no satisfying explanation for atrocities. We will, however, find satisfaction and fulfillment in this: “God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).

Meanwhile, we find solace in the fact that Jesus loves children infinitely more than the enemy hates them. The innocents await justice. We can trust the Just One to see to it.

NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Ephesians 6:10-20