Episode 17 - Matthew 2:1-12

Introduction

What’s up, guys!

This is Josh with Shepherd’s Cast and I want to welcome you to the podcast where I talk to you about the things that I find important. My content is meant to inform, educate, puzzle, or be funny. If it does something other than what I’ve just said, then Soli Deo Gloria, we will just call it providence. All of what I say is read from blog posts that I have written and can be found on my website with the link in the show notes.

So, anyway, yeah, here we go…

Episode

At this point in our series we have come upon the moments after the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have followed the faithful story of Mary, who shall be called blessed, and her husband Joseph, who faithfully followed the command of the angel to remain betrothed. We now progress from chapter one to chapter two, and, without further pause, here is the gospel according to Matthew.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: ‘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.’”Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:1–12

As tradition goes, thus ends the reading.

While it seems to us in this transition that only a short time has passed, as Mark may say, immediately, it is important to note that time has passed, equivalent to probably a few months to a few years. Scholars cannot really come to a term of agreement about when the Magi arrived to, first, inquire of Herod and then seek the King, as is typical, but they do agree that Jesus is no longer an infant. They come to this conclusion by the words that are used in the Greek. For instance, the Greek word παιδίον (paidion) in verses 9 and 11 is used, which connotes little child, or young child, and not infant. While it is not safe to make a finite assumption as to the time, it is safe to make the assumption that some time has passed.

Something else that is interesting to note is that, despite our childhood Christmas songs, there is no clear connotation as to who these Magi or, nor how many. Tradition points to three Magi, however, this cannot be confirmed. Likewise, it does not necessarily say kings - it says Magi. The best guess that can be gathered from the context is that these Magi are Gentiles of high position from a country to the East. They were given a special revelation by God to come see and worship the King of the Jews. Some scholars suggest that this special revelation they received could have even been from the sky as an assumption can be made from their name that they’re specialists in astronomy - and by the fact that they referred to a star which they noticed in the sky. Even others estimate that they could have been given information from Jews who had traveled to their area with copies of the Jewish Old Testament, referencing a passage in Numbers that spoke of a star that would come forth from Jacob. Either way, I find it incredibly interesting that quite a lot of stock has been put into the idea of “three kings” when that is from mere tradition and not from the actual Scriptures.

I believe the most likely identity for these men are Zoroastrian wise-men. Zoroastrians did pay close attention to the stars, however, this star seemed to move around in a supernatural way, almost like how the Shekenah was described in the Exodus. For further detail, Zoroastrianism was monotheistic, like Christianity, and believed that their God knew all things, was the Creator of life, and the source of all goodness. Put simply, however, it was founded in Persia by a man named Zoroaster. It is really made up of worship of a supreme god who requires good deeds as assistance in his cosmic struggle against evil. As you can tell, it sounds a bit like a syncretic combination of Judaism and other religions. This can possibly be traced back to as early as the time of Daniel, as we see in Daniel 5:11.

So, starting in verse 1, let’s break down what we are seeing. “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea…” pause here for a moment. The place of the birth of Jesus was important because, like most things, prophecy foretells of the Messiah down to some fairly specific details. We know this from instances such as in John 7:40-42 where we read “When they heard these words, some of the people said, ‘This really is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?’” The reason the Jews were looking for the Messiah to come from Bethlehem is because of a prophecy found in the prophet Micah that reads “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.” which we will also see in verse 6.

Hailing back to our first episode where we determined the intended audience of Matthew’s Gospel we can start to see the importance playing out, yet again. Matthew knew that the Jews would need to understand how Jesus, the Nazarene, could be the Messiah if He wasn’t born in Bethlehem. Matthew makes it clear to the reader that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, just as the prophet Micah foretold. Jesus, being the Ruler, coming forth eternally begotten, is the awaited for Messiah, as Matthew is taking great pains to explain.

We continue on to see the wise men from the East asking where the child was who has “been born king of the Jews.” This language is rich with Old Testament prophecy, leading the theory of the Old Testament texts being their special revelation to be at least a part of why they were there. For instance, Jeremiah 23:5 says “‘Look, days are coming,’ declares Yahweh, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he will reign as king, and he will achieve success, and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.’” Thus, the wise men knew that a king is who the Jews were waiting for, they may even have the incorrect Jewish outlook that the Messiah would come as a great conqueror of nations, either way, they knew that He was king and they were seeking after Him.

“For we saw His star when it rose and have come to worship Him.” This is yet another allusion to Old Testament prophecy, as mentioned in Numbers. “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star will go out from Jacob, and a scepter will rise from Israel; it will crush the foreheads of Moab and destroy all the children of Seth.” Numbers 24:17. Context seems to suggest that they knew this Christ to be the Star, the conquering Star that is mentioned in Revelation 22:16, the One who would reign as King and Messiah of the Jews, and they had come to worship Him.

“When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.” So, in order to feel the gravity of the situation, you should probably know a little back-story. There is a good reason that Herod is disturbed. The primary reason for this is that Herod is, firstly, not of the line of David, and, secondly, not even a descendant of Jacob. Herod is a descendant of Essau, which makes him an Edomite. Not only was he not the rightful king, but the Jews knew who he was and hated him for it. Most of them didn’t even see him as king. So when the news that the “rightful king of the Jews” had been born and was in existence somewhere, this, not only threatened his job, but if were to be that this conquering Messiah were to come into power and destroy the oppressors, what might this do to someone like Herod, who was unrighteously reigning in the place of the proper Davidic King?

The first thing Herod does after hearing this is assemble the “chief priests and scribes of the people” and inquire of them “where the Christ was to be born.” Let’s make sure to keep this connected with verse 2 where we only have mention by the Magi that they want to find the king and worship Him. Herod connects the idea of this “King of the Jews” with “the Christ.” This only helps to solidify the fact that the Jews were in search of, and awaiting, their great Deliverer.

And, now we come to the passage we already quoted, which Matthew would have wanted to communicate to his Jewish audience. The chief priests and Scribes knew precisely where the Messiah would be born as it had been foretold much earlier by Micah. However, if you take a moment to compare the end of verse 6 with Micah 5:2 you’ll notice that the end is changed to resemble something much closer to 2 Samuel 5:2. Micah seems to lead and stick with the idea of a strong, even stern leadership whereas the tie to 2 Samuel with “Shepherd” evokes an idea of tender care. It is important that we have both of these images in mind because that is exactly who Christ is - both stern and strong as well as tender and filled with care.

Something I want to make sure to point out is how this Ruler, this Governor, will be One who Shepherds the people of God, Israel. This phrase, as a whole, speaks primarily of Jesus’ role as a Mediator for His people. In His Mediatorial role we have both His oblation, which is the pouring out of His life for us in propitiation for our sins, and His High Priestly duties before the Father, appealing on our behalf to Him post resurrection. While the Jews of the time of this prophecy, and at the time of the birth of Jesus, would have most certainly understood this prophecy to be ethnically limited to the Jews, we find out later, in Romans, where the true Israel of God consists of the gathering of both Gentiles and Jewish Christians. Thus when it states that He will shepherd His people, it is safe to read yourself into the text and not be considered narcissistic.

So from this prophecy we have a multitude of allusions being made - all of which are Messianic and all of which are important; He’s coming from Bethlehem, He will shepherd His people, and He shall be the rightful King of the Jews. Herod must have at least heard of this prophecy as he was notably troubled by the fact that the true King had not only been born, but His birth had been announced by the heavens. So much so that some of the first people to recognize His coming were Gentiles who came to worship Him. Almost as if… this was a foreshadowing to the future ingrafting of the Gentiles.

“Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly…” And now is when we come to how Herod determined he was going to preserve his throne. Without alerting the chief priests, Herod, himself, summoned the wise men in secret. Still attempting to hide his ruse, he asked them to come back with word to him when the child is found so that Herod, too, may go down and worship him. His actions, here, show that he already had an idea of what he had planned to do - which was to kill the King.

Following the story we see that they, the wise men, followed the star, as it is identified to us, as it comes to rest over the house of the Child. I don’t know a ton of stars that supernaturally move around, which is why we can attribute this divine event to be some-what supernatural. It aids us in understanding how and what the wise-men really were, which gives context to the options that were explained at the beginning of this podcast.

At this point, as we mentioned earlier, the Child is with His mother in a house, meaning it had been beyond the time of His birth by span of time. We can only make vague estimations of the time, truly, but from the text we can see that they were in a house, at least, and no longer in a place designated for animals. Regardless of the time or place, they came to the Boy and His mother and fell down, worshiping Him. They also gave Him gifts from their own treasures, specifically, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These gifts can be tied back to prophecy given back in Isaiah 60 where it cites these specific gifts being given to Zion. Some commenters have tried to link the gifts to specific aspects of Jesus’ life. For instance, they suggest that the gold is a reference to His kingship and deity; they suggest that the frankincense is in reference to the fragrance of His life; and they suggested that myrrh was used as to tie to His death and sacrifice as such things were used in the embalming process. Either way, chances are these expensive objects may have been used to flee, as we will see in the next episode.

And, finally, we come to the divine warning for the wise-men not to return home the way they had come. Herod would be waiting for them in order to find out where the child was so that he could have Him killed. God, in His sovereignty, in His ordination of both the ends of the safety of His child until His time had come, and the means of which this would happen, direct the magi to take a different path on their way home. In doing so, they depart and head back to their home country.

Final Word of the Day

I want to thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. It is always a pleasure to bring the word of God to those who are seeking to know more about Him.

The final word of the day comes to us from Jonathan Edwards sermon “A Divine and Supernatural Light.” The section we are reading from is in reference to the supernatural enlightenment provided to believers by the Holy Spirit.

*Listen to my podcast for this!*

A special thanks to Jesus Wannabeez for allowing me to use their track, Ephesians 6, in my intro and outro music. You can find a link to their Spotify in the show notes.

And, as always, may the light of the holy God shine upon you.

Amen.