Matthew Chapter 2
Matthew Chapter 2
Mat 1:22-25 Now all this happened to fulfill what was declared by the Lord through the prophet when he said, “See, a virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name him Immanuel,” which means, “God with us.” When Joseph got up from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary as his wife. He did not have marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.
Read Matthew Chapter 2
Setting the Scene
The Nation of Israel now under the rule of client Kings of Rome and having spent 400 years without the Holy Spirit “who had withdrawn from the Nation” lived in a time of heightened expectancy. This expectancy not only resided amongst the Jews of Israel but also amongst the Jews of the Dispora “the dispersed Jews who had settled around the known world.
Daniel 9:24-27 - 70 x 7 “seventy weeks of Years” gave an indication of the time of the Messiah to Israel
What was this expectancy ? That soon the Messiah would appear, Israel’s long awaited King.
Even amongst the gentiles this event was known and so we find a time unlike any other when finally Israel would receive its long awaited deliverer
Suetonius and Tacitus, two Roman historians, mention this. Their words are very remarkable: -
Percrebuerat Oriente toto, vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis, ut eo tempore Judaea profecti rerum potirentur. Id de imperatare Romano, quantum eventu postea predictum patuit, Judaei ad se trahentes, rebellarunt.
Sueton. Vesp.
“An ancient and settled persuasion prevailed throughout the east, that the fates had decreed some to proceed from Judea, who should attain universal empire. This persuasion, which the event proved to respect the Roman emperor, the Jews applied to themselves, and therefore rebelled.”
The words of Tacitus are nearly similar: -
Pluribus persuasio inerat, antiquis sacerdotum literis contineri, eo ipso tempore fore, ut valesceret Oriens, profectique Judaea rerum potirentur. Quae ambages Vespasianum ac Titum praedixerant.
“Many were persuaded, that it was contained in the ancient books of their priests, that at that very time the east should prevail: and that some should proceed from Judea and possess the dominion. It was Vespasian and Titus that these ambiguous prophecies predicted.”
Histor. v.
That a star appeared is significant and demonstrates God’s way of working within our cultural setting for the star was considered by the gentiles to be an omen or indication of the death of birth of a great person. Even amongst gentile prophets we find this expressed and find it recorded in our sacred scriptures. See Ballams prophecy in Numbers 24:17
Num 24:14-19 And now, behold, I go to my people. Come! I will make known to you what this people shall do to your people in the latter days. And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor has said, and the man whose eyes are open has said; he has said, he who heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down but having his eyes open; I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not near. There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall strike the corners of Moab, and destroy all the sons of tumult. And Edom shall be a possession. Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies. And Israel shall do valiantly. Out of Jacob shall come He who shall have dominion and shall destroy him who remains of the city.
Matthew 2:3-5 Herod hears of this new King and is troubled and all those with him in Jerusalem
Herod had a terrible reputation and even secular history attests to the fact that he would kill anyone who even so much as appeared to be a threat to his throne. The people of Jerusalem that had found positions of authority including the priesthood would have done so mainly by corruption (Ciaphas the high priest would have purchased his position each year) and so this came as a time of great concern. The ordinary people although looking for the hope of Messiah knew full well the potential of Herod to put down any threat to his throne.
Gen 49:10 The scepter shall not leave Judah; he’ll keep a firm grip on the command staff Until the ultimate ruler comes and the nations obey him.
As we discussed in our introduction to Matthew we can expect him to constantly refer to OT prophecy for his purpose is to win the Jews for Christ and the OT is the ultimate authority for the Jews and during the time of silence of the Holy Spirit in the Prophets they regarded the Scriptures as the means of hearing the voice of God.
Herod asks the Priests and scribes to confirm from their writings the prophetic passages relating to Messiah. Yet in secret he sends the wise men to gather information. He is clearly aware that he must rid himself of this so called leader without causing the people to rise up.
Micah 5:2
Poy mahee no ποιμανει —- Greek “to tend as a shepherd”
Mic 5:2 But you, Beit-Lechem Efratah, being small among the clans of Yehudah, out of you one will come forth to me that is to be ruler in Yisra’el; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.
Mic 5:3 Therefore he will abandon them until the time that she who is in labor gives birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Yisra’el.
Mic 5:4 He shall stand, and shall shepherd in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God: and they will live, for then he will be great to the ends of the earth.
These wise men of finding Jesus present him with gifts befitting a great ruler – some identify the gifts with Gold for his Kingship, Frankincense for his Divinity and Mryh for his suffering.
We may possibly assume that they visited Jesus at the age of about 5-6 weeks allowing time for his family to present him at the temple Luke 2:22-39 (this must have occurred first as they flee to Egypt) Mary was unclean for 40 days after the birth and also needed to present an offering for her purification.
Isaiah 40:10-11”
Joseph again is spoken to in a dream and ordered to flee to Egypt, which was about 60 miles south of Bethlehem and had a thriving Jewish community
An Apocryphal work exists called “The Gospel of the Infancy” which seeks to give an account of the life of the family in Egypt but it is full of superstition and a work of fantasy.
Its is possible that Herod died just a year after the birth of Jesus and history attests that his death was of a horrible nature.
At his death our Lord is called out of Egypt once again at the command of an Angel and as Matthew takes pain to point out is in fulfillment of prophecy Hosea 11:1
Herod in an attempt to destroy this new King orders the massacre of children in the town of Bethlehem and the surrounding regions. This was not unlike Herod
Macrobins, a Heathen author, though the story is mixed and confounded with other things; who reports (p), that
“when Augustus heard, that among the children under two years of age, whom Herod king of the Jews ordered to be slain in Syria, that his son was also killed, said, it was better to be Herod’s hog than his son.” Saturn. lib. ii. c. 4. The point of this saying consists in this, that Herod, professing Judaism, his religion forbade his killing swine, or having any thing to do with their flesh; therefore his hog would have been safe, where his son lost his life.
Here again Matthew introduces to his Hebrew audience a further link to their authorative OT writings by applying Jeremiah 31:15 to this event as fulfillment of the prophetic.
Herod now dead leaves his rule to three sons, and the kingdom was at his death divided between them. To Archelaus was given Judea, Idumea, and Samaria; to Philip, Batanea and Trachonitis; to Antipas, Galilee and Perea.
Once again Joseph is spoken to in a dream and instructed to leave Egypt and return to Israel
Archeleus had a fearsome reputation like his father and had ordered the slaughter of 3000 worshippers in Jerusalem so Joseph was mindful to avoid his rule and this was confirmed in a dream. Joseph takes his family to Galilee, which came under the governorship of Herod Antipas who was mild in comparison. We see this in his treatment of John the Baptist.
And they came to live in Nazareth and once again Matthew affirms that this is to fulfill the prophets
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene — better, perhaps, “Nazarene.” The best explanation of the origin of this name appears to be that which traces it to the word netzer in Isaiah 11:1 – the small twig, sprout, or sucker, which the prophet there says, “shall come forth from the stem (or rather, ‘stump’) of Jesse, the branch which should fructify from his roots.” The little town of Nazareth, mentioned neither in the Old Testament nor in Josephus, was probably so called from its insignificance: a weak twig in contrast to a stately tree; and a special contempt seemed to rest upon it – “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) – over and above the general contempt in which all Galilee was held, from the number of Gentiles that settled in the upper territories of it, and, in the estimation of the Jews, debased it. Thus, in the providential arrangement by which our Lord was brought up at the insignificant and opprobrious town called Nazareth, there was involved, first, a local humiliation; next, an allusion to Isaiah’s prediction of His lowly, twig-like upspringing from the branchless, dried-up stump of Jesse; and yet further, a standing memorial of that humiliation which “the prophets,” in a number of the most striking predictions, had attached to the Messiah.
