Matthew 2

Scripture:

Matthew 2

Observation:

vv1-12: The visit of the wise men
vv1, 2: Wise men (Magi) from the east come to King Herod looking for the "King of the Jews" because they saw his star rise. Their intent is to worship Him.
vv3, 5: Herod asks the priests and scribes where the Messiah was to be born.
vv5, 6: Scribes and priests tell him the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem in fulfillment of Micah 5:2 .
v7: Herod secretly gets the time of the star's appearance from the wise men
v8: Herod sends wise men to find the child and to let him know where the child is. His stated purpose is to worship the child
v9, 10: Wise men go. The star reappears and the wise men rejoice. The star goes before them and comes to rest over the place where Jesus is.
v11: Wise men meet Jesus and Mary. They fall down and worship and offer gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
v12: Wise men warned in a dream not to return to Herod. They go home a different way.

vv13-15: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus flee to Egypt
v13: In a dream, an angel tells Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Herod is trying to kill Jesus.
v14-15: They go to Egypt and and stay there until Herod dies. Fulfillment of Hosea 11:1

vv16-18: Herod kills all children in Bethlehem
v16: Herod realizes the Wise Men have tricked him. He becomes angry. Rather than killing only the Christ-child, he kills all of the boy younger than two years old, the length of time since the Wise Men had first seen the star
v17-18:  Fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:15

vv19-23: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus return from Egypt and go to Nazareth.
v19-20: In a dream, an angel tells Joseph it is safe to take Mary and Jesus back to Israel
v21: Joseph takes them to Israel
v22-23: Joseph learns that Herod's son, Archelaus is ruling in Judea, so he takes them to Nazareth in the region of Galilee. Fulfillment of prophecy that "He shall be called a nazarite"

Interpretation:

This chapter recounts the visit of the wise men to the infant Jesus. This visit is celebrated on the holiday Epiphany. The wise men are, apparently, court magicians or astrologers from an unspecified kingdom to the east of Palestine. Speculation about their place of origin abounds, but there is no additional information about their place of origin given in the Scriptures. The idea that the wise men were astrologers is supported by the fact that they came to seek the King of the Jews in response to a sign which appeared in the heavens.

The King Herod to whom the magi came was Herod the Great, the brutal ruler of the Roman province of Judea:

He has been described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many rabbis", "the evil genius of the Judean nation", "prepared to commit any crime in order to gratify his unbounded ambition" and "the greatest builder in Jewish history."

When Herod hears the report of the Magi, he is "troubled" because he fears that a rival to his throne has been born. In response he sets in motion a plan to eliminate this potential rival. He knew of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah (Christ), so he inquired of the religious leaders where the Scriptures predicted that the Messiah would be born. The religious leaders respond that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem, siting Micah 5:2.

Digging Deeper

As evidence that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem, the priests and scribes site this verse from Micah 5:2:

And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
    are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
    who will shepherd my people Israel.

Interestingly, if you actually look up Micah 5:2, it doesn't quite match that:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days.

As you can see, the phrasing is somewhat different, but the basic meaning is the same in the first part of the quote. However there is a significant difference in meaning in the final clause--the Shepherd-of-Israel thing doesn't match up to the from-ancient-days thing at all. If you spend much time looking up New Testament quotes of Old Testament Scriptures, you will see that this sort of thing is fairly common. Some critics have looked at differences like these and claimed that they are evidence of errors in the New Testament. While the differences are undeniably there, I would argue that they are not errors, but rather represent a number of cultural differences between the time when the New Testament was written and now.

To dig deeper into this issue, see here.

With the stated intent of worshiping the Child whom the Magi seek, Herod gathers more information about the Child from the Magi and sends them on their way, asking them to return and tell him where the Child is to be found. His real intent, however is to eliminate this rival to his throne.

When the wise men leave, the star which they had seen before reappears and guides them to the place where Jesus was to be found. It is not clear what exactly this star was. There have been many attempts to explain this star as some kind of natural phenomenon which the Magi, as astrologers, interpreted to mean that there was a King of the Jews who had been born. However, this was clearly not a normal star or planet. Stars and planets don't move around like this and they don't stop over a particular house so that you can find it. This seems to have been a unique and miraculous sign of Christ's birth.

When they meet Jesus, the Magi fall on their faces and offer him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Traditionally, gold is said to represent worldly wealth, frankincense is said to represent religious worship, and myrrh is said to represent death. So, symbolically, the Wise Men are offering Jesus all they have physically and spiritually in this world and are trusting in Him for the next.

After this, God warns both the Wise Men and Joseph in dreams that Herod is up to no good. The Magi go home by a different route so that they can avoid Herod, and Joseph takes Jesus and Mary to Egypt. Matthew says that this was done to fulfill Hosea 11:1. If you read this verse in context, it seems to be talking about the historical exodus and Israel's subsequent rebellion:

When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
The more they were called,
    the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and burning offerings to idols.

It was widely believed that the events in the life of the Messiah would parallel in some way the events in the history of Israel. The history of the people of Israel given in the Old Testament was their true history, but it was also seen as a foreshadowing of the life of the coming Messiah. Thus, this Scripture was taken to have a second, metaphorical meaning which applied to the Messiah (at least the called out of Egypt part was, not the rebelling against God part).

This parallel with the Exodus is furthered by Herod's actions when he realizes the Magi aren't coming back, he loses it. Not realizing that they have already fled, Herod has every boy born since the Magi first saw the star killed.This is strikingly parallel to Pharaoh's actions in Exodus 1, when he kills all of Israelite's the male children. Just as Moses was saved from Pharaoh's purge by the actions of his parents (Exodus 2:1-10), Jesus is saved by his parents' actions.

Some time later, Joseph receives another dream in which he is told by an angel that it is safe to go back to Israel. This is the fourth time in Matthew that we have seen God communicate via a dream. Three of those dreams have been given to Joseph, and he has always obeyed the voice of the Lord when it has come to him.

When Joseph is told that it is safe to return from Egypt, he learns that Archelaus, Herod's son is ruling in Judeah. He is afraid, so he takes Mary and Jesus to Nazareth.This seems to be in contrast with Joseph's previous bold obedience, but the Lord's hand was present, even in this. Matthew tells us that even when acting on his fears, Joseph was bringing about the fulfillment of the prophecy, "He will be called a Nazarene."

The Nazarene prophecy is a difficult to understand because this prophecy can't be found in directly the Old Testament. There is an excellent treatment of this issue in this blog post. In short, there are a couple of theories about this verse. One is that the word "Nazarene" is a reference to the nazarite vows talked about in the Old testament. The other is that "nazar" the Greek root word of Nazarene means "branch," and that this is thus a reference to Isaiah 11:1:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,

    and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

This verse speaks of the Messiah as a king restoring the line of Jesse's son, King David.

Application:

In their responses to the news of Jesus coming, we see three different heart attitudes modeled: Herod was hostile, the religious leaders were politely indifferent, and the Magi were worshipful. On the surface, these reactions seem fairly straightforward. Herod was a powerful man who felt that his power was threatened by this coming Christ, the religious leaders were just answering the question they were asked, and the Magi have just traveled who-knows-how-many miles to fine Him--of course, they're going to worship him. However, if you look at these people's background, their reactions are a little more surprising.

Herod had been raised "in the church," and he wasn't one of those kids who walk out the door of the church building, never to look back, the moment they turn 18. In the couple of centuries leading up to Jesus' coming, Jewish thought and religion was obsessed with the coming of the Messiah, so when the Magi came to him, he knew they were talking about the Messiah who was to restore the kingdom of Israel. He was actively involved in his church's building program--in fact, he was a big contributor. He had restored and greatly expanded the Temple of God in Jerusalem. One might expect someone like this to be excited about His coming. Yet Herod reacted with open hostility to the coming of the Savior. He could only see that if Jesus were to be King, Herod could not be.

The religious leaders are, perhaps, even more puzzling. These are men who have devoted their lives to studying the Scriptures. As the teachers of Israel, they have been the ones most deeply involved in Israel's Messianic obsession. They even have correct doctrine. They said the Christ was to be born in Bethlehem, which is just where Jesus was found. These men have yearned for Messiah's coming for their whole lives. Yet these men made no move to worship with the Magi. Content with their correctness, they missed the Messiah for whom they had been longing!

The Magi, meanwhile, were pagan magicians and astrologers. The Old Testament has several things to say about those who practice magic and divination, and none of them are good (Leviticus 19:31 and Deuteronomy 18:9-12 for a sampling). By rights, these men should want nothing to do with the God of Israel. Yet when they saw the miraculous sign of His coming in the heavens, these Magi rejoiced! They procured expensive gifts and left on a lengthy and dangerous journey so that they could lay them at His feet.

In this chapter, we also see the Lord guiding people in various ways. We see God leading with a miraculous sign when he leads the Magi with the star. We see Him speaking speaking directly through His Word, the Scriptures, when the scholars give the location of Jesus' birth. We see Him speaking through dreams, both to Joseph and to the Magi. Less strikingly, however, we also see God lead Joseph to take Mary and Joseph to Palestine through his natural fear. On the surface, this seems like it is just an ordinary human taking an ordinary precaution for the safety of his family, and it is, but God, in his Sovereignty, is also guiding Joseph to Nazareth for the purpose of fulfilling a prophecy about the Savior.

Notice that when God speaks to Joseph and the Magi, they obey Him and through their obedience, God blesses them. Joseph has so far been blessed to be married to Mary, to be the earthly father of the Son of God, and to keep his family safe. The Wise Men were blessed to find Jesus and worship Him. Those who did not obey the voice of the Lord, Herod and the religious leaders came to very different ends.

I believe God still speaks to us in all these ways. Some of them happen significantly less frequently than others, but He is unchanging (Hebrews 13:8) and He has plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11). He wants us to know His will. To this end, it is important for us to know the Scriptures and to study them. In reading Scripture, we give Him the opportunity to speak to us. It is also important to obey Him when He does speak. According to James 1:22-25:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Reflection:

• In this passage we saw three reactions to Jesus. How has your heart reacted to Him?
• How as your reaction to Jesus changed over time?
• How does God speak to you?
• In what ways do you usually obey Him? In what ways to you usually disobey?
• Is there something you feel He is telling you now that you don't want to do? If so, why don't you want to do it?
• Read and reflect on Jeremiah Jeremiah 29:11 and James 1:22-25