Why did the babies of Bethlehem need to die?
Matthew 2:9
>... the star, which they had seen in the east, went on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was. ^(10) When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. ^(11) After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother;
It's not clear what the star is, where it is, how high, etc. but it is clear that it has enough precision to indicate the selection of a single house. From that I think it is safe to assume this is not a normal star, up in the sky, being followed from many light years away. I think it safe to assume that it is closer to how the artistic renderings typically portray it: hovering just a few meters above the ground and easy to follow, leading the magi in a deliberate direction.
Yet Matthew 2:1-8 describes the star leading them first to Jerusalem where they naively inquire about the newly born "King of the Jews" to Herod, the actual, current, non-newborn king of the Jews. Matthew 2:1 says the magi came from the East. Jerusalem is not on the way to Bethlehem if you're coming from the west. It's about 9km north of Bethlehem.
So it seems the star was, from the start, totally capable of leading the magi directly to the house where Jesus was, without any pit-stop or delay, but instead deliberately led them out of their way, to first bumble into Jerusalem asking stupid questions, before proceeding on their way to Bethlehem. Why might that be?
Matthew 2:13-15
>^(13) Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
^(14) So ^([)^(f)^(])Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. ^(15) He ^([)^(g)^(])remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
So the grand plan was to deliberately tip off the tyrant to the birth of a potential rival, to predictably stir up his wrath and activate his assassin squads, to get Joseph to run away to Egypt, all just so that a prophesy about him being "out of Egypt" can be checked off the list?
Not one but two prophesies! I guess maybe it was worth the lives all those babies, it if it's a two-fer? Matthew 2:16-18:
>^(16) Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi. ^(17) Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
^(18) “A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more.”
Oh, and one more prophesy fulfilled in this chapter! (Matthew 2:22-23):
>Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, ^(23) and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
This chapter is really setting them up and knocking them down! Now we have an extremely convenient explanation for how he could be a Nazarene out of Egypt, born of Bethlehem. Without this story, all you would have are 3 glaringly contradictory and seemingly irreconcilable prophesies.
Is that really the reason those babies had to die? Just to neatly clean up after sloppy prophesy? Am I connecting the dots as the author intended? Am I missing/adding something? I wonder how compelling these fulfilled prophesies were, to the parents of those babies.