We continue in Matthew and discuss how the King was threatened by the arrival of a new king in the form of a baby. The Wise Men from the east could very well have been descendants of Abraham who sent several of his sons to the east away from Isaac. Now their descendants arrive looking for the King of the Jews and causing quite a stir with their questions. An angel warns Joseph and they escape to Egypt and wait for a few years before returning to settle in Nazareth.
SHOW NOTES
Matthew 2
Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and we have come to worship him.”
Luke 1 and 2 explain that Joseph had to be in his ancestor David’s hometown, Bethlehem, for a Roman census. The Eastern wisemen could have come from Babylon where there were numerous Jews. They were astrologers since they had noticed the “star.”
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
Most sources date Herod’s death in 4 BCE which means that Jesus had to be born before this date. We also do not know how long Joseph and Mary spent in Egypt.
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.”
Verse six is a literal quote from Micah 5:2 where the prophet is predicting a leader will arise from the small village of Bethlehem who will restore the fortunes of Israel after their exile in Babylon. The leadership in Israel in Jesus’ day quoted this prediction in Micah which had already been fulfilled by Zerubabbel, a descendant of king David. Zerubabbel was the first to lead a group of exiles back to Israel from Babylon (Ezra 2:64). This verse was thus repurposed to include the Messiah who was from the line of David out of Bethlehem. The leaders might have done so to give Herod an answer because they also held that no one would know where Messiah came from when he appeared (John 7:27).
7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
He had no intention of worshiping the new king. He attempted to execute him by the slaughter of the infants in Bethlehem.
Herod was a prolific builder and renovated and extended the Second Temple over 46 years. He was also paranoid about being deposed as king of Israel, so he built strategically placed fortresses where he could take refuge during a revolt. Some of these fortresses were Machaerus (South -western Jordan), Hyrcania (16 km east of Jerusalem), Masada (west of southern tip of Dead Sea), Antonio (Jerusalem), Herodium (south of Jerusalem), and Caesarea Maritima.
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
This was not a normal star or planet as it could indicate specific locations. Tradition has it that there were three wise men.This idea could have been extrapolated from the three gifts mentioned or because three was the number of completion in Hebrew culture and still is. Jokes and stories are well known for mentioning three objects or actions. The three gifts were valuable commodities and probably provided the means to travel to Egypt.
12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod. 13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
God was active through dreams during the time of Jesus’ birth and early life. Dreams play a major role in the Biblical narrative. Is God active in dreams in our time or has science removed this possibility from our society?
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
This is a quote from Hosea 11:1 where the prophet is recalling how God delivered Israel from Egypt with the Exodus. This incident is now repurposed to describe the parallel with Messiah’s time in Egypt. Matthew sees the parallel between Moses, the saviour of Israel from Egypt, and Jesus, the saviour of “Israel'' from this world. Moses came from Egypt and now Jesus also comes from Egypt.
16 Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.
Two years was overreach by Herod and is more indicative of his paranoia rather than the birth of Jesus two years earlier. Matthew records Herod’s executing baby boys to parallel Pharaoh killing the Israelite baby boys. Matthew will find many parallels between Moses and Jesus. Moses receives the law from a mountain, Sinai, and Jesus will give the new law in the Sermon on the Mountain.
17 Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A cry was heard in Ramah—weeping and great mourning.Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”
Verse 18 is a repurposing of Jeremiah 31:15-17 which was a message of hope for the Exiles in Babylon. Jeremiah’s message was that Hebrew children would once again be born in Judah after the exile. These messages of hope start in Jeremiah, chapter 29.
19 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20 “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
Herod died an agonizing death in his Jericho palace or fortress and was buried in Herodium. How long after Herod’s death it took Joseph to return to Israel is not known.
21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. 22 But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. 23 So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
A dream sends the family back to Israel but does not specify where. This is left to Joseph to decide. He went back to where he lived before, Nazareth (Luke 1:26). In Judges 13:5, 7 The Angel of the Lord refers to Samson as a Nazirite. There does not seem to be any connection between Nazarene and Nazarite other than they sound similar, not only in English but also in Greek and Hebrew.
Ian Hartley, June 2024
Comments