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
So, up unto this point, we have covered the genealogy of Jesus Christ, His birth, and now the visit of the wisemen. We have even covered some of the prophetic announcements that were to take place, the fulfillment of some of these prophecies, and the flight of our Lord and Savior to Egypt. As we have come to find in our previous episodes, the audience was important to define in order to understand some of the reasoning behind why Matthew included certain things. This drives the point that context contains more than simply what comes before and after a text, but also the time, location, and current events. While texts have application for our current day-and-age, it is certainly important to view these things in the time in order to accurately determine the application of the texts. Thus far we are determining that Matthew is painting a picture for his Jewish readers as to how Jesus fits the bill of the Messianic figure that has been prophesied about in the Old Testament.
Continuing on in our Chapter 2 narrative of the story we come to more explanation of Jesus’ coming out of Egypt and what takes place. Without further pause, let’s dive into the text!
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 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.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 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. 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.
Matthew 2:19-23
Upon his death, Herod’s kingdom was split up into three sections and given to his sons: Archelaus, Herod Philip II, and Herod Antipas. His son Archelaus ruled Judea, Samaria, and Idumea; Philip the second ruled the regions north of Galilee; and Antipas ruled Galilee and Perea. Most of this information can be found in Luke 3:1 where it says “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene…”
The leader of the region that Jesus and his family would have returned to would have been Archelaus. Tradition marks Archelaus as being insane, possibly from large amounts of incestuous breeding within his family. He was cruel, tyrannical, and a plotter, and Jesus’ family were not wrong for fearing the return to the area, but by the grace of God they were delivered and told not to return to the place of His birth. Tradition says that Archelaus took his place at around age 18 and ruled from 4 b.c. to a.d. 6. He is recorded in history as being so brutal and unlike his father that he was removed by Rome and replaced by a governor. The one we come to know, Pontius Pilate, was the fifth governor of Judea.
Picking back up with the travels of Jesus’ and His family we see that, instead of returning to Bethlehem, they went to northern Galilee to live in a city called Nazareth. Matthew states that this was so that “what was spoken by the prophets may be fulfilled, that He would be called a Nazarene.” There are no clear prophecies that suggest that He should be called a Nazarene - some believe that it is a play on the word branch while others believe it may be from some outside source. In explanation of the former, Nazarene is close to the word in Hebrew for Branch that we find in Isaiah 11:1 and it carries the idea of having an insignificant beginning. The other option, as suggested, would be from prophets we do not have any word from.
A more likely explanation of what Matthew says is that calling someone a “Nazarite” would be contemptuous. In the town of Nazareth was the Roman Garrison that was stationed for the Northern region of Galilee. With this being the case, and Gentiles being considered unclean and the enemy, Jews would most likely not live or even associate with anyone from the area. It was even thought that if you lived in the town of Nazareth you could be considered a consort with the enemy. We have evidence of this contemptuous thinking when Nathanael reacts to Jesus’ hometown in John 1:46: “Can anything good come from there?” With all of these things considered it would be more likely that Matthew was tying the idea of Him being a Nazarene with the prophecies that said that Jesus’ state would be lowly.
Most likely passages Matthew was referencing may include Psalm 22:6-8 which says “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!” Another possible place is in Isaiah where it says “Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: ‘Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’” or even another that says “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Isaiah 49:7 and 53:3.
Despite our not fully understanding which passages Matthew might be referencing, we do know that it must have been somewhat common knowledge to the readers who were Jews and would have expected something of the sort to be stated. We know that the Messiah will be hated, and we know that His beginnings would be humble, thus we can safely conclude with the idea that calling Him a Nazarene would paint this picture for the readers.
Application
Now, unlike what I’ve typically done while going through Matthew, I want to focus on a couple of different questions while we look at this passage. The first question we must ask is “What does God do in this passage?” As Christians, we do not simply look at these words as historical facts that tell us about the time the God-man came to earth. There is power in the Scriptures - resurrection power that upon hearing and believing will become their salvation. And one of the ways the Scriptures come to life for us is to see what God is doing or has done within the pages of said-scripture. So, what is being done in this passage?
God protected His Son from even the possibility of destruction by sending them away from Bethlehem. This all goes back to the sovereignty of God in all things.
Proverbs 16:33 says “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” Jews used to cast lots to make certain decisions. And that is because they knew that the sovereignty of God would control the lot casting. When making their decision they would know that the revelation of whatever the lot landed on would have been a divine decision since God is in control of literally all things. This is not to suggest that we should test God by putting this theory to the test, it is merely biblical truth. What I mean, is, casting a lot to determine whether or not you should jump off a cliff would be an unbiblical test and wouldn’t determine anything - if all else it would be used to determine whatever it still needs to affect the outcome God so desires.
The point of me highlighting this verse in the sovereignty of God is to express that in His divine wisdom and providence He controls all things - and at this time He controlled the dreams of Joseph in order to warn him not to return taking the path that would lead toward a currently dangerous area. The underlying tone of the entire passage is that God called His Son, the true Israel, out of Egypt, and then warned Him not to return to Bethlehem due to the tyrannical ruler that was in power. While there are other people in the story, the main factor of the entire thing is God. God heard the cries of His children in Egypt, God sent forth to bring them out, and God delivered them. Much like now. God sent His Son to Egypt, called Him forth, and brought Him to safety. Yes, the other people in the story play a part, but we must see God in the passage.
The next question I want to ask is this: How does God do the same for us? As a reiteration, we see that God sovereignly controls all things, with this particular instance being specifically that He protected His child. So the question would be, as this passage being a preface to the question, in all instances, how does God do the same for us?
This would tie us directly to the preservation of the saints - not simply their perseverance, but His preservation of them. The first passage I want to look to is John 17, the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ. In this prayer He intercedes for us to the Father. And we learn that in John 11:42 that the Father always hears the Son. Thus, if the Son of God is praying for those that believe in Him (John 17:20) does it not suggest that we are kept in the power of God and not of our own doing? From this prayer we must conclude that by the intercession of our great King we are kept by the power of God from falling away through His providence, whether it by supernatural or with the help of natural means in the world. To have faith in the true and better Adam would be to believe Him at His word, that He has prayed for His own and His own will not fall.
This ties us back to a passage in John 6 where we read: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’” We have firm confirmation in the words of our savior that we will be kept until the last day, that HE will not lose any of us.
And, finally, I want to quote one more passage about God being over our safety and preservation. Romans 8:34-39: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” It would be for absolute shame that one would try to nullify the promises of our great God through the Scriptures.
So, as we can see in the passages quoted before, how does God do the same for us? He has promised in His Scriptures through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that He will keep us, just as He kept His Son from the clutches of Herod and then Archelaus.
For my final question I wanted to ask.. how should believing this change our lives?
As someone who believes in the doctrine of Perseverance of the Saints I am greatly comforted. Because it is not by my own hand that I am being kept. And this ties back into our doctrine of justification by faith alone. My salvation rests on the perfect life of Jesus Christ that was only accounted to me as righteousness based upon the faith that was gifted to me from God. I have absolutely zero dogs in the fight of obtaining my salvation, thus, how could I ever lose it? God in heaven saw fit upon His own good pleasure to birth me from above, gifting me with faith through His unending grace and mercy so that I could be accounted righteous just as Abraham was. If my righteousness is as Martin Luther says, an alien righteousness that is outside of myself, then it is not something that I could lose.
Does that mean that I have free range to sin? Of course not! Paul deals with these objections. Just because we are justified by faith alone does not mean we are justified by a faith that is alone - as evidence, or, justification of our justification, we will produce the fruit of such things as we are sanctified and renewed in the image of God. As it says in Romans 8:28-30, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
How should our lives be changed? We will produce the works of righteousness that make our salvation evident. We will live lives that show who our Master is, who the Author of our Salvation is, and who keeps us safe in the palm of His hand. Believing God keeps us shouldn’t lead us to sin. On the contrary, believing God keeps us should drive us to loving Him and His commandments more!
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 John Owen in his book “The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.” He is dealing with the argument of a conditional salvation when he makes this great remark:
*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.