Year 2, Week 29, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 29, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Matthew 2-3.

Today’s reading continues the Book of Matthew. The opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel account orients us to the years leading up to the start of Jesus’ public ministry. Only Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts supply us with this historical information. Matthew 2 records some key events in Jesus’ toddler years, including visitors from the east: “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” (Matthew 2:2); but also an escape to Egypt: “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” (Matthew 2:13). Even in the early years of Jesus’ life, some wish to worship Him, while others want to kill Him. These patterns will continue throughout Jesus’ life. Matthew 3  jumps about thirty years after Jesus’ family moved to Nazareth and highlights John the Baptist’s ministry of preparing the way for Jesus: “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” (Matthew 3:1-3). Today’s reading ends with Jesus’ baptism, which invokes the Father’s declaration: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was how Matthew links all the historical events in Jesus’ life as fulfillments of Old Testament promises and prophecies: “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” (Matthew 2:6). Men from the east approach King Herod, whose residence was in Jerusalem, requesting to see the newly born “King of the Jews.” Herod had not recently had a son, and as the King over the Jews, he was threatened by such matters: “When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). As Herod sought counsel from various Jewish leaders and teachers, it was determined that Israel’s Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, a town about 5 miles away from Jerusalem. Ironically, (and tragically), there is no indication that any of the Jewish religious leaders and teachers, who knew where to find Jesus, bothered to go check things out. But the men from the east went: “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” (Matthew 3:11). A hopeful reality is previewed: the nations come to see Jesus: “And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising” (Isaiah 60:3). But an ominous reality is also previewed: the Jews do not come to see Jesus: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (John 1:11).

Matthew also links the need of Jesus’ family to flee to Egypt with the Old Testament: “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15b). Just as an angel of the Lord explained Mary’s pregnancy to Joseph, so now Joseph was told to leave Bethlehem. Matthew links Jesus’ departure from Egypt to an Old Testament statement about Israel: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (Hosea 11:1). By associating the nation of Israel’s exodus from Egypt to Jesus’ journey to Egypt, Matthew was presenting Jesus as something of a new Israel. Just as Israel was God’s first born son (see Exodus 4:22), so Jesus is God’s only begotten Son. Just as God delivered Israel, His son, out of Egypt, so now His true Son would be delivered.

Herod had requested that the men from the east report back to him after they had seen Jesus, but they wisely did not: “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way” (Matthew 2:12). Herod had evil intentions: “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” (Matthew 2:16). Such horror was foretold by Jeremiah: “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” (Matthew 2:18). The heartache felt earlier in Jeremiah’s time would be relieved. But the weeping expressed in Jeremiah 31 is linked to bright hope: “There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country…Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:17,31). Just as God restored Israel after the exile, so He would do a new restoration after sorrow. 

Even when Jesus’ family departs from Egypt after Herod is no longer a threat, the move to the town of Nazareth is linked to the Old Testament: “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 2:23). However, deciphering which Old Testament passages that Matthew’s statement is linked to presents a challenge. It seems best to see the connection between the word for Nazareth and the word for branch or root. From this perspective, the link is probably between the despised reputation of the town of Nazareth (see John 1:46), and the reality of the scorn that the root of Jessie would face: “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:2-3a).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe