CMP Review 2026-05-10

“Out of Egypt have I called My Son,” cried the prophet Hosea. His words pointed to the Exodus past and the Messiah to come. But it was not the only parallel between the childhood of Jesus and the nation of Israel:

“Just as Pharaoh had attempted to kill Moses along with all the other Israelite boys, so Herod attempted to kill Jesus along with all the young boys in Bethlehem when he realized that the Magi had not returned to give him information identifying the Christ child,” writes Tokunboh Adeyemo.

In Charlotte Mason’s poetic reflection on the Holy Innocents, she notes that secular history does not record Herod’s slaughter. But the act was certainly in keeping with the tyrant’s characater; Adeyemo explains that “The murder of thirty to forty children is only one of many outrages in his murderous reign.”

But the death of each individual child mattered to someone. In fact, the weeping has echoed from countless centuries past in the voice of another prophet, Jeremiah.

Too small for history, but not too small God. “He trusted teenagers with his son,” writes Adeyemo. “He did not shield his son from the ravages of political life. But in all these things his will was fulfilled. God may well be working out his purposes even in the seemingly insignificant acts of our lives.”

Read Mason’s poem of tragedy and hope, or listen to the recitation by @antonella.f.greco here.

@artmiddlekauff

🖼️: The Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Quentin Massys