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April 30, 2023
Matthew 2:13-23
Author
Matthew, the Apostle of Jesus (also called Levi), was a tax collector for Rome. It would seem then that Matthew would have been a good writer,1 and he would have keep accurate, detailed records, which severed him well as he wrote his account of the gospel.
According to tradition and evidence, Matthew witnessed about Jesus in Palestine for several years after Jesus’ ascension. He also visited Persia, Ethiopia, Syria, and Greece.2
Audience
Matthew’s Jewish audience would have related to Matthew the best, as it has a focus on making the connection between the promises to the Jews and their fulfillment in Christ (Blomberg, Matthew p 21). Matthew also contains the greatest number of citations to the Old Testament (cf. Blomberg, Matthew p 21).
On the other side of the coin. Matthew includes features that prove Jesus’ expansion of ministry aimed directly at the Gentiles. Only Matthew includes the Gentile Magi who came and worshiped. In the Great Commission, the Disciples are commanded to make disciples of every race on the planet (Blomberg, Matthew p 26).
READ
The Title of the Sermon is “God’s Divine Plan: Jesus’ Rescue and Herod’s Demise”
OUTLINE
1 Herod’s vengeance.
2 God’s protection.
13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
- An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. >>
- This is the second dream recorded in Matthew regarding the family.
- The order of the words “the Child and His mother” is unusual; it would be common to mention the parents before the children but we don’t see that here. This unusual order places Jesus as the center of our attention in the text. (Constable).
- Notice also “the child” not “your son” or “your child” (Blomberg, p 66). Matthew the Apostle, who had extreme access to Jesus, to His family, and other eyewitness was careful to note what the angel said–and it stood out as worded. Jesus was the unique one of God born God. Very God of very God.
- The Flight to Egypt.
- Here we see the will of God and the evil will of a man colliding. God could have taken Herod out, demoted him, made him busy with other things like an devastating earthquake, any one of a million things. But He didn’t God has several types of wills and we see things were allowed to run there course. Of course God knew about this ahead of time, as the Spirit wrote the Bible.
- The flight into Egypt was natural. The Jews had often taken refuge there throughout times of conflict when various politicians enacted threatening policies, tyranny, or persecution made life intolerable. The result of this over the centuries was that every city in Egypt had its colony of Jews according to scholars; Barclay wrote that in the “city of Alexandria there were actually more than a million Jews, and certain districts of the city were entirely handed over to them.” (Barclay; cf. Blomberg, p 66)
- Also, Egypt’s border was about 75 miles from Bethlehem, and more importantly, Herod had no authority there. Furthermore, along with the large Jewish population, there was a substitute temple for Jewish worship [199, France, p 79].
- So the King and His family stayed there for some time. It would seem year or two at the most.
- Matthew cited Hosea 11:1, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. >>
- Matthew knew Hosea 11:1 was a fulfillment even though the rest of the context doesn’t fit. This speaks to how the Apostles viewed the Old Testament regarding Messiah. >>
- Really, as we look back with the revelation of the New Testament, we see Jesus’ hand and ministry throughout the pages of the Old Testament. We remember before Abraham was He was.
- Looking back we see hundreds upon hundreds of fulfilled prophecy regard the person of Christ.
- So of course, the Apostle Matthew, who walked with God Almighty, the Great I Am, sees what we call types (similar patterns) of God’s activities in history. These are not coincidental. Just as God brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt to enact his original covenant with the Jews, so God brought Messiah out of Egypt as he was about to initiate His new covenant (Blomberg, p 67).
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
- Herod, believed the prophecy and set himself up against God anyway! Going on a murderous bender again hoping to secure his throne for himself and sons.
- How haughty does one have to be to think he can take God on?
- “A voice was heard in Ramah” … Ramah
- "Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” = Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, the youngest of the 12 original sons that formed the nation of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin was associated with Judah from 722 B.C. onward. Bethlehem is about 7 miles south of Jerusalem in Judah. Hence the prophecy.
- Here also, we see the physical conflict between an evil king and the Righteous King. Matthew recorded that Herod sent his, literally in the Greek, “apostles” with swords to kill the most vulnerable of humans. Later the Righteous King would send His Apostles to bring the message of life to everyone (“aposteilas” in the Greek) (Bradley, p 11).
- We also see another type regarding Jesus’ infancy. “Moses had also been the target of the ruler of his day, who sought to destroy him and all the other male Hebrew babies by ordering them killed (Exod. 1:15-22).”
- Matthew will carefully point his readers to these types and analogies between the events of Israel’s history and the events in Jesus’ life.[212].3
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.
- Unfortunately, the the 6th century monk who calculated the reset of the calendar based on Jesus birth got his dates wrong (see Biblestudytools.com).
- Jesus most likely was born between 6-5 B.C.
- We know this because we know that Herod died in 4 B.C.[202, Hoehner, p. 13].
- Herods death was recorded in great detail by Josephus. He said Harod died an extremely agonizing, grotesque death caused in part by parasitic worms (Antiquities of …, 17:6:5).
- Interestingly, Ehud Netzer, the Israeli archaeologist credited with discovering the tomb of the Herod at Herodium in 2007, died the day he discovered the tomb after searching for it for 30 years after a failing he was leaning on gave way.4
- After Herod’s death, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph again for the third time.
- Jesus’ family settled in Galilee due to Herod’s kingdom being split up into three parts and given to three of his sons. The Romans and Herod had mutual respect for each other but be must have known that Rome was not in the mood for another single kingship over the nation of Israel. He therefore left Judaea —with it Jerusalem— to Archelaus; Galilee to Herod Antipas; and the the northeast region and beyond the Jordan to Philip. (Barclay)
- Archelaus ruling from Jerusalem was a bad king; he started his rule with the executions of three thousand of the most influential people in the country. Almost certainly Joseph and Mary heard of this barbarianism and deemed it unsafe to return to Bethlehem or anywhere in Judea for that matter. Herod Antipas ruling in Galalee was a much better ruler, so the first family settled there. (Barclay)
- Nazareth > Nazarene is considered to be a play on words. COMMENT
- Nazarenes were despised and rejected by many, and according to Fruchtenbaum and Lenski the term was used to reproach and to shame (John 1:46). The prophets did teach that the Messiah would be a despised and rejected individual (e.g. Isa 53:3) and this is summarized by the term, Nazarene."[240, Fruchtenbaum, p. 845. Cf. Lenski, p. 88]
- Nazareth was about 70 miles north of Bethlehem, and archaeological evidence suggests it had a population of about 500 at the beginning of the first century A.D. [233, France, The Gospel …, p. 91].
- Galilee was strategically located in the north of Israel. Three of the four nations’ highways intersected in the region,5 making it a great location for the Roman garrison that was also located there [234, The Nelson …, pp. 1579 f]. Hence, there was a steady stream of commerce and people flowing in and out of the country through the area.
APPLICATION
- Read the Old Testament passage cross references’ contexts.
- Turn to Jeremiah 31:15 Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” 16 Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. 17 There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.
- The women that lost their children are rejoicing now.
- These families are no longer bothered by the Herods of the world. Those that would aline themselves against the very God who created them.
- They were to hope in their future. See it in verse 17.
- Those babies shall live in peace one day in the same land their livers were cut short in.
- God is going to correct all that man is messing up.
- Let us too have this hope.
Notes
1 Cf. Goodspeed, Edgar Johnson. Matthew: Apostle and Evangelist. Philadelphia & Toronto: John C. Winston Co., 1959, pp 101, 108, 117. A reference from from Constable.
2 Constable. Constable referenced Werner G. Marx, “Money Matters in Matthew,” Bibliotheca Sacra 136:542 (April-June 1979):148-57. Edited for clarity.
3 From Constable: Tracy L. Howard, “The Use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15: An Alternative Solution,” Bibliotheca Sacra 143:572 (October-December 1986):325. This article evaluated several other proposed solutions to this difficult citation. See also G. K. Beale, “The Use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15: One More Time,” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 55:4 (December 2012):697-715.
4 “Israeli archaeologist dies after fall at King Herod dig.”
29 October 2010, BBC, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-11655704.
5 There highways were know by various names. The Coastal Highway (also known as the Way of the Sea) along the coast, Road of the Patriarchs along the mountainous ridge line through Israel, and the Rift Valley Road that ran from the Dead Sea to the Sea of Galilee. Sourced from Satellite Bible Atlas’ YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/DH4PC9BBkLE?t=84).
Works Cited
Scripture quotations [unless otherwise noted] are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Click here to access the works cited web-page for this document, save those marked as “Notes” or “Other Works Cited”–if any. Most of these cited works correspond to the verses they are outlined with. In the case of general background information and references, one will find cited material with the Bible books the citations are associated with. ¶ Furthermore, there may be numbered notes that are URL linked; these are usually retained numbered notes from Thomas Constable’s, “Dr. Constable’s Expository (Bible Study) Notes.” These links are preserved “as is” at the time of this work’s formation and sometimes include other citation information from Constable.
Other Works Cited
Blomberg, Craig L. Matthew. New American Commentary, vol. 22, ed. David S. Dockery, et al., Broadman Press, 1992. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/matthew0000blom)
________. Preaching the Parables: From Responsible Interpretation to Powerful Proclamation. Baker Academic, 2004. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/preachingparable0000blom/page/82/mode/2up)
Bradley, Marshell C. Matthew: Poet, Historian, Dialectician. Studies in Biblical Literature, ed. Hemchand Gossai, vol. 103, Peter Lang, 2007.
Evans, Craig A. The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Matthew-Luke. Victor, 2003. Sourced from archive.org.
(https://archive.org/details/bibleknowledgeba00crai/mode/2up)
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