"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest.--_Luke
1:32._
THE Romans set up a strange king over the Jews. His name was Herod,
and he was an Edomite--that is, a descendant of Jacob's brother Esau.
He believed in the true God, and began to make the Temple much more
beautiful than it had been since it had been built up after the Jews
came back from Babylon. But he was a very wicked and cruel man, who
killed his own wife, and made everybody afraid of him; and the Jews
were very unhappy under him.
[Illustration: THE BIRTH OF JOHN.--Luke 1:62-64.]
They had one hope, and that was, that it was just about the time when
God had promised to send a Holy One into the world to save them and
set them free; and they thought He would be a great, mighty king, like
David, who would conquer Herod, and drive away the Romans, and have a
crown and throne brighter than Solomon's.
And just then an angel was sent from God to the little town of
Nazareth, where there lived a young maiden, quite a poor woman, but
most good and holy, a descendant of the great King David. The angel
told her that she was highly favored, for she was to be the mother of
the Son of the Highest, for the Holy One who was to be born of her
should be the Son of God; and when He was born, she was to call His
name JESUS, which means the Lord our Saviour, because He should save
His people from their sins; and Mary said, "Behold the handmaid of the
Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."
[Illustration: THE ANGEL ANNOUNCING THE BIRTH OF JESUS.--Luke 2:10, 11.]