Five-Star Monday Mornings

January 12, 2026


Happy Monday! Our lives as Christians go better when we understand something important about those who are opposed to God's will and work.


⭐️  Perspective — Psalm 2

1Why do the nations rage? 

Why do the peoples grumble in vain? 

2The kings of the earth take a stand, 

and the rulers join together 

against the Lord

and against his Anointed One. 

3“Let us tear off their chains 

and throw off their ropes from us.” 

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4The one who is seated in heaven laughs. 

The Lord scoffs at them. 

5Then he speaks to them in his anger, 

and in his wrath he terrifies them. 

6“I have installed my King on Zion, my holy mountain.” (Psalm 2:1–6, EHV) 

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⭐️  Pearl — Matthew 2:7,8,16

7Then Herod secretly summoned the Wise Men and found out from them exactly when the star had appeared. 8He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. When you find him, report to me, so that I may also go and worship him.” …

16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Wise Men, he was furious. He issued orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under. This was in keeping with the exact time he had learned from the Wise Men. (Matthew 2:7,8,16, EHV) 


You may have heard the story of the Wise Men sometime in the last few weeks. When you heard this part of the account, maybe you focused on the threat to Jesus and the horror of what was done in Bethlehem, but did you catch how ridiculous and scoff-worthy Herod’s thinking was?

Consider: 

  • Herod heard about the newborn king of the Jews from wise men who had been led from far away by a star that appeared because God said it should
  • That birth had been foretold by prophets the Lord had inspired over centuries in the past
  • The place to search had been identified by consulting God’sWord
  • This coming, purpose, and identity of this new king, the Messiah, was something the Lord had made a very big deal out of 
  • This was the same Lord who created the world, parted the Red Sea, established Israel in the land of Canaan, destroyed armies, etc.

As evil as he was, and as much as he wanted to kill any rivals for his throne, Herod was not ignorant or dumb, so how does this thinking make sense? “Hmm. The All-Powerful and All-Knowing Lord has arranged all of human history to bring about this boy’s birthand has even arranged the stars to announce it, but all I have to do is send some soldiers and I can foil his plan and get my way. He’ll never see it coming! There’s nothing he can do!”


It doesn’t make sense at all. And that’s a lesson to remember.


We make a mistake when we expect evil to be rational and evil people to always think and act rationally. They don’t and won’t.


Evil is absolutely out of line with and opposed to God’s will and design for life and for the world. And since that will and design is the underlying basis for everything real and reasonable, evil will always be irrational. Certainly, love your enemies, but don’t waste your time or energy trying to apply logic to villainy or looking for truth in corruption.

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⭐️  Point in Time — "Evil Empire"

On March 8, 1983, US President Ronald Reagan delivered his famous “Evil Empire” speech. He recast the competition between the free world and the Soviet bloc as a moral contest, instead of a conflict of ideas fought on the basis of reason. By identifying the USSR as the “focus of evil in the modern world”, Reagan effectively communicated what he saw as the real stakes of the Cold War and also altered expectations for how that war would be fought.

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⭐️  Pith

“We need to laugh at the irrationality of evil, for in doing so we deny evil's power over us, diminish its influence in the world, and tarnish the allure it has for some people.” ― Dean Koontz, Life Expectancy

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⭐️  Prayer

Dear Lord, in my life this week I will deal with or learn about people who do things for good reasons and people who do things for only evil reasons. Help me to understand and recognize the difference and to respond to each the right way. Especially keep me from ever answering others’ evil with evil of my own. I ask this in the name of Jesus, our good and perfect Savior. Amen.


Bonus! ⭐️ Point to Ponder

Where — in your life or the world — have you been looking for rationality from people and not found it? Does recognizing the irrationality of evil make clearer how to deal with the situation?