Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea under the rule of King Herod. Herod had been appointed by Rome to be king of the Jews so imagine the Wise Men showing up to worship the king of the jews and he perks up and is told “Nah not you, dude, the actual one.” Note: “wise men” can refer to anything from philosophers to magicians.

Herod was a brutal guy. Murdered his wife, several of his sons and other relatives but also restored the temple in Jerusalem and made cultural contributions throughout Rome. Mixed bag. Mostly bad, as it pertains to Jesus.

The wise men told Herod they saw [Christ’s] star and wanted to go find Him. The star was a prophecy from Numbers 24: “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near: a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel”. Herod, not being thrilled is like “Yeah go find Him. I want to……worship him too. …..To death, even”. The Bible doesn’t make mention of his twisting his evil mustache but in either case the wise men wouldn’t as they’re warned not to return to Herod by an angel in a dream.

I always wondered by they mentioned gold, frankincense and myrrh. Apparently they’re not terribly symbolic, but they’re quite valuable and since Jesus was born to a humble (read: not terribly wealthy) family on the run from persecution, it seems like that stuff would be sold for travel money.

An angel swings by Joseph in another dream and instructs him to take the family to Egypt until Herod dies because Herod is about to kill his way through the town to try to get Jesus (thought to be a usurper of the “King of the Jews” throne).

Herod finds out the wise men bailed and had no intent of telling him where Jesus was born and decides to kill all the male children in Bethlehem that were 2 years or younger, overlapping with a prophecy made by Jeremiah.

The angel comes back to Joseph in Egypt after Herod dies to let the family know they can go to Israel but due to some other conflicts, arrived in Nazareth, fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. You’ll find a lot of things take place very precisely to line up with prophecy. In this case, there wasn’t a specific claim that “everyone hates Nazareth” but more that the prophet would be hated and the town of Nazareth was hated in Jesus’s time.