THE KING IS OPPOSSED
MATTHEW 2: 13-23
INTRODUCTION
There are lots of things that can go wrong in life, lots of ways harm
can come to us and to our family. All of us worry to varying degrees about
these various sources of danger. Criminals and sickness and storms and
the betrayal of friends and financial collapse are only a few of the things
that we are afraid will harm us. On top of these ordinary dangers, when
you become a Christian you add a whole host of enemies who want to harm
you. Satan, we’re told, is like a lion on the prowl, looking for people
to devour. Our sin seeks to overthrow us and Jesus clearly tells us in
John 15:18-20, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated
me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke
to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me,
they will persecute you also."
It may seem strange to you at first, but I believe this passage in Matthew,
recounting the way in which God protected Jesus and Mary and Joseph, has
been given to us to inspire confidence and boldness as we live life in
this dangerous world. If you belong to Jesus, then his enemies are your
enemies as well. I believe this passage tells us that God effectively
works to bring all the people who belong to Jesus safely home.
This passage is among the most difficult in the Bible to figure out.
There are two things that make it particularly difficult. First, Matthew
does not simply tell the story of God’s protection of the holy family
from the fury of Herod but He tells us that all this is somehow a fulfillment
of OT prophecies. Yet when you look at those prophecies in the OT, it
is not readily apparent how in the world these actions in Matthew 2 fulfill
the prophecies. The way Matthew understands the word "fulfill"
and the way we do are two different things and so we need to figure out
what Matthew means. The second thing that is hard about this passage is
the murder of the babies in Bethlehem. Couldn’t God have prevented this?
How can this cruel act be the fulfillment of an OT prophecy, in other
words, something that God planned? While we are going to have to work
together a little bit this morning I am persuaded this passage is full
of faith inspiring, fear defeating good news, if we’ll pay attention to
it.
God’s fingerprints are all over this story. He inspired prophets hundreds
of years before these events to utter statements that would not be fully
fulfilled until the birth of Jesus. He then directs the course of countless
human lives to be sure that Jesus and his family get to where they are
supposed to go without being harmed in any way. He does all of this so
that we as His people will know that…
MAIN POINT
God effectively works to bring all the people who belong to Jesus
safely home
I. Because Jesus is the Son whom He loves (vv. 13-15)
First, let’s make sure we notice what is happening to Jesus, Mary and
Joseph, then we’ll figure out how this fulfills Hosea 11:1, the verse
Matthew quotes. Notice that right after the Magi leave for home, taking
a different route so they won’t have to see Herod, God sends and angel
to Joseph and tells him to get up and take his family to Egypt because
Herod is going to try to kill Jesus. So, Joseph immediately obeys and
in the middle of the night puts together their few possessions and sets
off on the 175 mile journey to safety in Egypt. Why Egypt? Well, practically,
it was the closest Roman province not under the control of Herod. However,
in v. 15 Matthew says the real reason is "So that (not ‘and’) what
the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, ‘Out of Egypt
I called my Son.’"
We need to look back at Hosea 11: 1 in order to see what Matthew sees
in the flight of Jesus to Egypt. You’ll find Hosea 11: 1 on page 642 in
the Bible we placed under your chair. V. 1 is an obvious reference to
the Exodus. The Jewish nation was enslaved in Egypt and God sent Moses
and Aaron to tell the Pharaoh to "Let my people go that they may
worship me." Pharaoh ignored them and so God sent 10 plagues on Egypt
until P. let them go. They crossed the Red Sea and went to Mt. Sinai where
God made a covenant with Israel and gave them his laws and decrees. This
is what v. 1 is talking about. In Exodus 4:22-23 God said to Moses, "Then
say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son,
and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you
refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son’". So God
called the entire nation of Israel, his firstborn son.
What’s Matthews point? When God brought Israel out of Egypt, out from
under the tyrannical rule of Pharaoh, it was a picture of how he was going
to bring his true son out of Egypt, enabling him to escape from the clutches
of murderous Herod. Jesus is Israel, the people of God. Jesus takes Israel’s
place. He is the true son, whom the Father loves. And so, the people who
belong to God are no longer exclusively those who are racially connected
to Israel. The people of God are not those who obey Jewish laws but rather,
the people of God, whom he loves like he loves his son, are those who
trust in his son, who love the Son. Listen to what Jesus says in John
16:27, "the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and
have believed that I came from God." God is going to work on behalf
of His Son and on the behalf of all who love his Son.
When we lived in Champaign Jared had a good friend named Joel. His family
lived about 20 miles from Champaign and so our house became like a second
home to him. He often ate with us and stayed overnight with us and left
clothes at our house. He became like another son in many ways. Why did
Jane and I allow this and sometimes even enjoy having him around? Because
he was the friend of our son whom we love. We care for Joel and pray for
him and are interested in his life because he is Jared’s friend.
That’s how it is with God. Jesus is the Son whom he loves, not the nation
Israel, not people who try to earn his favor by keeping a bunch of rules.
Rather, God loves all those who love His Son. He effectively works to
bring all those who love his son, who belong to Him, safely home.
If you are one of those who love Jesus you can be sure that the Father
loves you just as He loves Jesus. If that is true will not God work on
your behalf to protect you and bring you safely to heaven? For a year
or so after the neighbor boy scared me I was terrified whenever there
was a thunderstorm watch or tornado watch. I would cry uncontrollably
run in the basement. I’ll never forget how my dad would come and hold
me and talk with me at those times. In particular I remember a time he
took my hand and we stood on the front porch and watched the clouds come
in and the wind blow hard. We went in when it started raining. I was still
frightened but no longer terrified because my dad was with me and would
take care of me.
Not only does he work to bring all who love Jesus safely home because
he loves his Son but also because…
II. Because Jesus is the hope of the world (vv. 16-18)
Again, let’s make sure we’ve got the events straight before we figure
out what Matthew wants us to know from these events. Herod waits for a
day or two for the Magi to report the location of the child, as he ordered
them to do. When they don’t show up, he realizes they have tricked him.
Notice the irony here, he had planned on tricking them into revealing
the location of the child so he could kill him and now they’ve tricked
him. He is furious. So he sends a group of Roman soldiers to Bethlehem,
which is only about 5 miles away and orders them to kill every male child
that is 2 years old and younger. Bethlehem is a small town and so this
would amount to no more than 20 children being killed. But can you imagine
the horror and suffering this brought to each family and to this little
town? Why didn’t God do anything to stop this? Even more disturbing, how
can this barbarous act fulfill the Scripture, somehow fit into God’s plan?
Please turn with me to Jeremiah 31: 15, (Page 560) for this is the verse
that Matthew is quoting. Matthew intends for us to not just look at this
one verse but to consider the context within which it lies. The prophet
Jeremiah told the people of Judah that God’s patience with their rebellion
was over and they were going to be destroyed. Flip back a few pages to
Jeremiah 15 and listen to God’s judgement on them. (Read 15: 1-9) God
brought the Babylonians against Jerusalem and they captured the city after
a long siege during which the people suffered greatly. Many of their people
were taken to Babylon as slaves. The Babylonians would bring their captives
to the city of Ramah, which is on the border of Israel and Judah and on
the main road to Babylon. Rachael, who was Jacobs favorite wife and the
mother of Joseph and Benjamin was buried near Ramah. Joseph’s sons were
Ephraim and Mannaseh. Ephraim was often the name used for the northern
tribes of Israel whereas Benjamin was one of the two tribes that made
up Judah. So Rachael stands as the idealized mother of the people of Israel.
She is pictured as weeping over her children who are being killed and
taken into captivity. This destruction of Israel is the result of sin,
it is God’s judgement on their sin.
Now, the first thing this tells us is that this suffering of the children
and people of Bethlehem is the result of sin. Herod’s sin to be sure.
They suffer because of Herod’s rebellion towards God. However, there is
a sense in which all suffering in this world is the result of our collective
sin. God has put a curse on this world because of our rebellion and so
all suffering is in some sense a mark of his judgement on human sin, including
the murder of these babies. I’m not saying they died for their own sins
or the sins of their parents but somehow, in God’s wisdom, their suffering
is another experience of the death that accompanies sin. It is another
reminder that this isn’t heaven and that this is not where life is to
be sought. It is another painful sign that we need a savior. We are unable
to change this world or to escape the ravages of sin on our own.
This leads to the second and most powerful point Matthew is making. Look
with me at Jeremiah 31: 16- 21. (read it) Do you see what the Lord is
saying to his people? "Don’t give up hope, I am going to bring them
back. I am going to save my wandering people." How will he do this?
Look with me at vv. 31-34. (read them) These are among the most quoted
OT verses in the New Testament. Remember when Jesus said on the night
he was betrayed, "this is the new covenant in my blood"? This
promise is what he was referring to. His death purchases and seals this
promise God has made to all those who belong to Him. He writes his laws
on their hearts and forgives their sins and doesn’t even remember them
anymore. Not because they deserve it or because they’ve cleaned up their
act but because Christ died for them. You know you are one of those people
if you find God’s law written on your heart, in other words, if God’s
commands are a delight to you and you love obeying him more than anything
else in life.
Rachael wept over the consequences of sin in her children’s lives. The
mothers of Bethlehem wept over the consequences of living in world where
sin runs rampant. The weeping of the mothers of Bethlehem is the culmination
of all the weeping the world has experienced over the ravages of sin.
But the weeping can stop now for you, because the Savior has come. The
way back to God and into the experience of his blessing is through this
baby who has fled to Egypt. There is a day coming when all weeping will
stop for those who belong to Christ. All the weeping will stop when he
comes back a second time and puts an end to sin and all who do wickedness.
Tell the story of doing the Christmas survey and meeting the young mom
who had triplets and the one died and she was now struggling with her
sadness and her anger with the other two. I don’t know what happened to
Terry. I think of her on occasion. I have a hope that she will be in heaven,
but I don’t know. What I do know is this. You’re weeping can stop now.
There is a Savior for all who face their own sin and turn from it and
turn to Him. He died so that you can have hope in the midst of the most
hopeless conditions because you will know the one who is in control of
it all.
You can be absolutely certain that God will bring safely home all
those who belong to Christ because…
- Jesus is the Son whom the Father loves
- Jesus is the hope of the world
- And…
III. Because Jesus suffered for his people (vv. 19-23)
Let’s get the facts first. After Herod dies, an angel again appears to
Joseph in a dream and tells him it’s time to go to Israel because Herod
and his murderous associates have died. He just tells him to go to Israel
but not to a particular city. Joseph returns to the place he started from,
Bethlehem, which is close to Jerusalem. However, he discovers that Herod’s
son, Archelaus, is king and so he was afraid. He had another dream in
which he was instructed to go to Nazareth. Then Matthew tells us, "So
was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, ‘He will be called a
Nazarene.’" If you’ll notice, there is a significant difference in
the way Matthew reports this quote and the way he reports the other ones.
In the other two OT quotes he says "through the prophet" or
"through Jeremiah" whereas here he says "through the prophets",
plural. In the first two quotes he has particular verses in mind but in
this "quote" there is no particular verse. There isn’t a place
in the entire OT that says anything like "He will be called a Nazarene."
What in the world is he saying?
Nazareth is a rural, out of the way town in a very backward part of Israel.
If you were to take a concordance and look up every occurrence of the
word "Nazareth" and "Nazarene" you would discover
several very interesting facts about Nazareth. In John 1, Nathaniel, when
told by Philip that he has found the Messiah and that he is from Nazareth,
says, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" What makes this
quote significant is that Nathaniel is from the same region, the region
of Galilee, but even he despises Nazareth. In the book of Acts, when Paul’s
enemies are trying to convince the Roman governor to kill Paul they scornfully
call him a "ringleader of the Nazarene sect". He’s not Jesus
from Bethlehem, David’s city, but Jesus is from Nazareth and he is, "the
Nazarene". A despised person from a despised place. D.A. Carson in
his commentary says it this way, "He is not saying that a particular
OT prophet foretold that the Messiah would live in Nazareth; he is saying
that the OT prophets foretold that the Messiah would be despised."
Look with me at Psalm 22: 6-8, page 391. Look with me at Isaiah 53 on
page 523. (read vv. 2-6) God directed Joseph to Nazareth to grow up in
a despised place among a crude people. This is in keeping with the humility
that is expressed in the coming of Christ. Though he is a king, he lived
as a peasant. Though he had every right to be worshipped, he chose seclusion
and scorn. He did all this for his people. Peter says it this way in his
letter: "When they hurled their insults at him he did not retaliate,
when he suffered he uttered no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to
him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree
that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you
have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray but now you have
returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls."
He suffered the scorn and ridicule of men so that all those who have
faith in Him will not have to endure the scorn and ridicule of God. He,
by his suffering brings us back to God, to one who is our shepherd and
overseer. One who effectively works to bring us safely home, just like
he did Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
You can be absolutely certain that God will bring safely home all
those who belong to Christ because…
- Jesus is the Son whom the Father loves
- Jesus is the hope of the world
- Jesus suffered for his people
© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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