The birth of Jesus Part III

“Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof…” Matthew 2:16.

Herod had intended to deceive the wise men. He told them to return to him to bring him to the child that he may worship, while all the while secretly planning the demise of the child. Now, it turns out, the trickster has been tricked, and he became exceedingly angry. This, you can be sure, is how the ego works. It is always ready to deceive another, but cannot tolerate being deceived itself. It is not only the matter that the plot failed, although that was painful enough, but the ego had been outeggoed, outsmarted, that is. That is worse than having the plan fail, for it informs the ego that it is not master of its own destiny, it cannot control everything and everyone. That is what really stokes the raging fires of the egos anger, someone played the game better than he did. This is the basic nature of humanity. The ego cannot fail to be at war because it is at war with itself. As long as mankind is at war with himself, there will always be wars, rumors of wars, trickery, and deceit. The game of one-upmanship is more powerful, and more important to the ego than life itself. The ego cares not. It’s soul desire is to be top dog, king of the hill, to be, in other words, Herod, or Caesar. Even when a person reaches the top, they cannot stay there, and all most certainly know this, yet no one will give up the game. So we go to war, with our friends we play minor little psychological games, with those further away we play other types of games, all the way up to the level of nations, in which our games involve assault rifles, tanks, bombs and bombers, and even nuclear weapons. We never quit, we never give up, we always have to be top dog, and where does it get us?