Betrayal (背逆) and Role Assignment (配役)                 Jan.18’ 2026

Matthew 2:13–18                                                                 Pastor. Song Soo Park

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."

 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more."

When Jesus was born, the Magi from the East came to worship Him. Sadly, as soon as they arrived in Jerusalem, they made a serious mistake—one that should never have been made. Let us look at Matthew 2:1–2: “After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’”

The Magi followed the Messiah’s star all the way from a distant land and arrived correctly in Jerusalem. However, they did not know the exact place where the Messiah had been born. So they began asking people around: “Does anyone know where the King who will save the world—the Messiah—has been born?” But there was someone who should never have heard this news. Who was it? Yes, it was King Herod, who was ruling Israel at the time.

What was the historical situation of the people of Israel then? They had lost their nation to Babylon and lived in exile for seventy years. After that came Persian rule, then Greek rule, and now Roman rule. For about five hundred years, Israel had been ruled by governors appointed by foreign empires or by kings who secured power through bribery and political maneuvering. Herod was one of them.

For reference, Herod was not a legitimate Jew; he was an Edomite. Yet he became king of Israel because his father, Antipater, had secured favor with Roman emperors through bribes and flattery.

When Pompey was in power, Antipater aligned with him; when Caesar rose, he aligned with Caesar. In this way, he maintained power, and his son Herod did the same—constantly shifting allegiance among Roman emperors until he finally became king of Israel.

Moreover, although Herod was made king by the Roman emperor, he lacked Jewish legitimacy. In order to win the trust of the Jewish people, he undertook a massive expansion of the Jerusalem Temple. John 2:20 tells us: “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple.”For forty-six years, Herod carried out a grand and magnificent renovation of the Temple.

Thus, although Herod was an outsider from Edom, he successfully secured his throne by currying favor with both the Roman emperor and the Jewish people.

Then suddenly, the Magi arrived announcing that the King who would save Israel—the Messiah—had been born. Herod felt threatened. He feared losing the throne he had gained by any means necessary. So what did Herod do? He committed a horrific act that no human being should ever commit.

Matthew 2:16 says: “When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” Based on the Magi’s information, Herod ordered the slaughter of all male children under two years old in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. Scholars differ, but it is estimated that more than a hundred children were murdered by Herod at that time.

What do you think people thought when they witnessed that massacre?
What must the parents have thought, having lost their innocent children simply to protect a ruler’s power?

• “Why does God not strike Herod down?”

• “Why does God stand by while two-year-old innocent children are brutally murdered?”

• “If God had intervened and judged Herod then, others would not have died unjustly. Why is God silent?”

They must have poured out resentment and anger toward a God they could not understand.

Verse 18 tells us that the parents “refused to be comforted.” How unjust it must have felt. How unbearable the grief must have been, to refuse comfort altogether. Even Matthew, the disciple who wrote this Gospel, may have struggled with the same questions as he recorded this event. According to scholars, Matthew was likely around the same age as Jesus at the time.

Fortunately, he was born and raised not near Bethlehem in the south but in the northern region of Galilee, near Capernaum, and thus escaped that danger.

Yet as history continues, we cannot deny that crimes like Herod’s—threatening, killing, and destroying others for personal ambition and power—continue to occur. There is no reason, no justification.
Some are killed simply because they were born in Bethlehem, or because they were only two years old.

Because of someone’s greed, because of someone’s cruelty, because of someone’s lies, because of someone’s anger and wounded pride, the world continues to produce an endless cycle of sin.

We are living inside that reality. Meanwhile, those who create such evil often live comfortably, as if nothing is wrong.

Therefore, those who believe in God beat their chests and cry out in anguish when they see such things. Psalm 94:3–7 says: “How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance.

They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. They say, ‘The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice.’”

Psalm 94 was written by David as he cried out to God after witnessing Saul murder those who had helped him, simply to preserve his kingship. That horrific event is recorded in 1 Samuel 22:17–19. This is not just Saul’s story. It is Herod’s story, the story of Roman emperors, and the continuing story of evil people who stop at nothing to satisfy their desires and protect their power. Psalm 94 is the cry of faith from those who suffer unjustly in such a world.

Some even say in despair, “If God had struck down Saul… If God had struck down Herod, those children would not have died.” Others go so far as to ask, “Why did Jesus have to be born there at all? If He had been born in the wilderness or in the mountains, those children would not have died.”

To all who groan and cry out because of such evil, God gave an answer through Matthew, writing the Gospel under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Let us look at Matthew 2:15, 17–18, and 23.

Matthew 2:15: “And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”

Matthew 2:17–18: “Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’”

Matthew 2:23: “And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.
So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.”

In today’s passage, Matthew quotes three different Old Testament prophecies—from Hosea, Jeremiah, and Isaiah.

What is the common conclusion of all these prophecies? “So was fulfilled.” This means that God’s plan will be accomplished no matter the circumstances, no matter the unexpected events, and no matter how worldly powers attempt to oppose it. Even when rulers like Herod kill in an attempt to stop God’s plan, God is neither silent nor indifferent. God’s timetable of salvation and judgment proceeds with absolute precision.

What shows us how detailed and exact God’s plan of salvation and judgment is? It is the scroll in the right hand of God in Revelation 5. “I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides…” “Written on both sides.” God’s plan is not summarized in a single sentence like, “Believers go to heaven, unbelievers go to hell.” The apostle John saw that the plan of salvation and judgment was written in full detail, inside and out.  And this plan was not written on something as small as an A4 or letter-sized page.

In the Old Testament, Ezekiel and Zechariah also saw this scroll. Zechariah even tells us its size: Zechariah 5:1–2: “I looked again, and there before me was a flying scroll. He asked me, ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.’” Twenty cubits is about 10 meters, and ten cubits is about 5 meters.

That is a scroll approximately 10 meters by 5 meters—about 533 square feet—written on both sides with God’s detailed plan for salvation and judgment. God carries out that plan without the slightest error.

So how should we live within this perfectly unfolding plan of salvation and judgment? Among the three prophecies Matthew records:

1. Matthew 2:15 (Hosea 11): “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
   The original subject of this prophecy was the people of Israel.

2. Matthew 2:17 (Jeremiah 31): the prophecy of a woman weeping for her children originally referred to mothers who lost their children during the Babylonian invasion.

These prophecies remain the same, but the people who embody them change with each generation.

3. Matthew 2:23 refers to the Messiah growing up in Nazareth—a lowly place, as implied in Isaiah 11 and echoed in John 1:46, where Nathanael asks, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

God’s plan of salvation and judgment is not focused on a single individual.
All people—those who live according to God’s Word and those who reject it—become participants in that Word.

Some become instruments of righteousness. Others become instruments of evil. God did not originally assign anyone the role of evil. God desires that all people become instruments of righteousness, used for salvation, just as Jesus was.

But when people do not live with hearts, minds, and lives worthy of being used for salvation, they take upon themselves the roles of judgment, destruction, and evil written in Scripture. God did not assign them those roles from the beginning.

That is why, in Matthew 26:23–24, during the Last Supper, Jesus says about Judas Iscariot:

“The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.
The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.” This betrayal had already been prophesied in Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.”

Yet the original subject of Psalm 41:9 was not Judas. It referred to Ahithophel, David’s trusted counselor, who betrayed him and sided with Absalom. Scripture says Ahithophel’s counsel was regarded as if it were the word of God (2 Samuel 16:23). When Ahithophel’s plans failed, he took his own life (2 Samuel 17:23).

He became the first subject of that prophecy. But when Ahithophel died, the prophecy did not disappear. Another took on that role—Judas Iscariot.

Like Ahithophel, Judas betrayed the one closest to him, and when things did not go as he wished, he met the same end

 (Matthew 27:5). God did not force Judas into that role. He allowed Satan to influence his heart, and he willingly 

accepted that role himself (John 13:2). That is why Jesus lamented: “Woe to that man… It would be better for him

if he had not been born.”  God’s plan of salvation and judgment is unfolding with absolute precision.

Some are used for salvation; others are used in judgment. Those used for salvation are people who live according to 

God’s Word. Those used in  judgment are not cast by God—they cast themselves into those roles through sin.

The title of today’s sermon is “Betrayal (背逆) and Role Assignment (配役).” The first term means betraying grace. The 

second means the role one is assigned—or assumes. In other words, those who betray God’s grace and reject His 

Word end up assuming certain roles in God’s unfolding plan. Within God’s perfectly unfolding plan of salvation and 

judgment, what role are you playing right now?