Matthew 2:1-18 People Read the Bible Sloppily, But It Was Written Precisely.
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One of the biggest problems people have in understanding the Bible is failing to notice details. The New Testament differentiates between Old Testament verses that predicted the future and verses that merely recorded history that was repeated during the New Testament time period. Today, many casual Bible readers as well as Bible scholars fail to make that differentiation.
Matthew 2 contains an example of both. Matthew quoted Micah 5:2 which was a prediction that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. He also quoted Hosea 11:1 which merely indicated there was an event in the life of Jesus which mirrored the history of Israel. Learning to make this distinction trains us to notice details in the Bible which is critical in order to accurately understand and handle the Word of God.
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The first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew started out with a genealogy of Jesus, listing His ancestors from Abraham down through His father Joseph. Then Matthew wrote about Mary being found with child, Joseph considering putting Mary away secretly, but the Lord telling Joseph to take Mary as his wife since her child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Joseph did as he was commanded and took Mary as his wife. She gave birth to a child Who was named Jesus.
Matt. 2:1 ¶ Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
Matt. 2:2 “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”
Matt. 2:3 And when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Herod was troubled because he was the king and he saw the birth of a king as a threat to him.
Matt. 2:4 And gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he was inquiring of them where the Christ was to be born.
Herod gathered the religious leaders to find out where the Christ was to be born. This tells us Herod knew of the prophesied Christ and recognized that the magi were searching for the Christ.
Matt. 2:5 And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for this is what has been written by the prophet:
Notice the religious leaders did not use the word fulfill. They simply said the prophet had written that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem.
Matt. 2:6 ‘AND YOU, BETHLEHEM, LAND OF JUDAH,
ARE BY NO MEANS LEAST AMONG THE LEADERS OF JUDAH;
FOR OUT OF YOU SHALL COME FORTH A LEADER
WHO WILL SHEPHERD MY PEOPLE ISRAEL.’”
This is a quotation from Micah 5:2. Micah lived during a time when the Israelites were an independent country, but they were rebellious against Yahweh and idolatrous. Yahweh was about to use Assyria and Babylon to punish Israel and Judah, but Micah reassured Israel that someday Yahweh would rescue them. As part of that, Micah predicted that a leader who would shepherd Israel would be born in Bethlehem.
Matt. 2:7 ¶ Then Herod secretly called the magi and carefully determined from them the time the star appeared.
Matt. 2:8 And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found Him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship Him.”
Matt. 2:9 Now after hearing the king, they went their way; and behold, the star, which they had seen in the east, was going on before them until it came and stood over the place where the Child was.
Many Bible scholars try to match the star in the east with a repeating astronomical event, such as a constellation, planet, or comet, in order to date the birth of Jesus. The problem with this approach is they assume the star announcing the birth of Jesus was a repeating astronomical event. Would the Creator of the universe use an ordinary, repeating event to announce the birth of His Son? Perhaps He used a star that had never appeared before or since.
The fact that the star told the magi exactly which house Jesus was in indicates the star was not something out in space. Rather, the star was something in the atmosphere. I don’t believe we can use the star to date the birth of Jesus.
Matt. 2:10 And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.
Matt. 2:11 And after coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Matt. 2:12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi departed for their own country by another way.
Matt. 2:13 ¶ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
Matt. 2:14 ¶ So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and departed for Egypt.
Matt. 2:15 And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”
In this verse Matthew used the word fulfilled. Many Christians erroneously believe the word fulfill indicates a time when an Old Testament prediction came true. However, sometimes this word means history repeated itself in some way.
This verse quotes Hosea 11:1. Hosea was clearly writing about the time Moses lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Therefore, Hosea 11:1 did not predict that Jesus would be called out of Egypt.
Instead, history repeated itself. Just as Jacob took his family to Egypt and then Moses led his descendants out of Egypt 400 years later, so too Joseph took Jesus to Egypt and then brought Jesus out of Egypt after the death of Herod.
Matt. 2:16 ¶ Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had carefully determined from the magi.
Since Herod killed all the boys under two years of age, it is logical to conclude the magi had told him the star had appeared in the east two years earlier. Many people then conclude that Jesus was two years old when this happened.
However, that conclusion assumes the star appeared in the east to the magi when Jesus was born. However, the star could have appeared months or years before Jesus was born so that the magi would arrive in Bethlehem close to the time Jesus was born.
Matt. 2:17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying,
Notice the word fulfilled. Matthew was not saying Jeremiah had predicted something that had just happened. Instead, he was saying the event that had just happened was similar to something that had happened in the days of Jeremiah.
Matt. 2:18 “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH,
WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING,
RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN;
AND SHE WAS REFUSING TO BE COMFORTED,
BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”
This is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:15. Jeremiah lived after the Assyrians and Babylonians had conquered the Israelites and exiled them because of their sin. Jeremiah was writing about a time in the future when the Jews would be recalled to the land of Israel. The voice in Ramah written about in Jeremiah 31:15 was a reference to the weeping over those who had been killed by the Assyrians and Babylonians.
Matthew wrote that the actions of Herod fulfilled Jeremiah 31:15 because just as the Israelites wept over their dead during the days of Jeremiah, so too the people of Bethlehem wept over their dead children.
Many modern readers of the Bible fail to notice details. However, details are very important. The Bible is very precise. Sometimes the New Testament indicates an event was predicted in the Old Testament. Sometimes the New Testament merely says an event was similar to something that was recorded in the Old Testament. Noticing the presence or absence of the word fulfill is critical in order to accurately understand the Word of God. Learning to notice this detail also trains us to notice other details of the Bible which are important in order to accurately handle the Word of God.
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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”