16 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. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “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.”
The Return to Nazareth
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 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.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 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. 23 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: 16-23 ESV
Matthew 2: 16-23
When he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men - Ah, the hypocrisy, since it was his intent to use them to locate the Messiah. He knew enough to ask the scribes and the Pharisees, where would Messiah be born, and then he was calculative in trying to ascertain from the Wise Men, what time the star had appeared. He also lied and said, "bring me word, that I too may go and worship Him", which was not said in spirit or in truth, for he only wanted to kill Him. He is like the lion that has taken over a pride, and now goes through and snuffs out all of the cubs that were not from his own loins. How base men become, how much like animals we are in our endeavors, how arrogant, that you think this to be the Messiah, the One spoken of by the prophets, God's choice, and so you kill all the males in Bethlehem 2 years old and under, because you will somehow thwart the plans of the Creator of the Universe. He has not met such an opponent as you, oh mighty Herod.
…14I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly, and will fill My people with My goodness,” declares the LORD. 15This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” 16This is what the LORD says: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come, declares the LORD. Then your children will return from the land of the enemy.… Jeremiah 31: 14-16
Rachel weeping for her children - Rachel was the favorite wife of Jacob, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, Joseph the favored son, from whom came two of the tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. Ephraim was one of the larger tribes, and it's name often stood for the northern kingdom, for northern Israel when those 10 tribes were separated from Judah and Benjamin in the south. Rachel is symbolic as a mother of Israel, seeing her children taken away into Assyria, seeing them as captives in Egypt, now seeing them targeted by an Edomite king, who is called the "king of the Jews", placed their by the Roman empire. He wants his lineage to continue, and though he is old and frail, he wants his reign to be without interruption from some new comer. My legacy, my legacy! The Jews have been here before, remember Moses being hid in the bull rushes, this brings us back to the images of Egypt yet again. Satan was always after the seed of the woman, and the more that was revealed about it, the more he hunted for the seed, tried to destroy the people God had chosen, end the line. Remember Athaliah, her murderous act brought the Davidic line down to one boy, oddly enough. Apostasy and the devil will always join hands against God's people. They will always hate God's voice, and see the most immediate and quick access to be His messengers. It will be this way to the end.
…5And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6 I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her. 7“Why are you so amazed?” said the angel. “I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns.… Revelation 17: 5-7
10When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah. 11 But Jehoshabeath daughter of King Jehoram took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the sons of the king who were being murdered, and she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Because Jehoshabeath, the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest, was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she could not kill him. 12And Joash remained hidden with them in the house of God for six years while Athaliah ruled the land.… 2 Chronicles 22: 10-12
Warren Wiersbe notes that "In order to understand this fulfillment, we must review Jewish history. The first mention of Bethlehem in Scripture is in connection with the death of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel (Gen. 35:16–20). Rachel died giving birth to a son whom she named Benoni, “son of my sorrow.” Jacob renamed his son Benjamin, “son of my right hand.” Both of these names relate to Jesus Christ, for He was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3), and He is now the Son of God’s right hand (Acts 5:31; Heb. 1:3). Jacob put up a pillar to mark Rachel’s grave which is near Bethlehem. Jeremiah’s prophecy was given about 600 years before Christ was born. It grew out of the captivity of Jerusalem. Some of the captives were taken to Ramah in Benjamin, near Jerusalem; and this reminded Jeremiah of Jacob’s sorrow when Rachel died. However, now it was Rachel who was weeping. She represented the mothers of Israel weeping as they saw their sons going into captivity. It was as though Rachel said, “I gave my life to bear a son, and now his descendants are no more.” Jacob saw Bethlehem as a place of death, but the birth of Jesus made it a place of life! Because of His coming, there would be spiritual deliverance for Israel and, in the future, the establishment of David’s throne and kingdom. Israel, “the son of my sorrow,” would one day become “the son of My right hand.” Jeremiah gave a promise to the nation that they would be restored to their land again (Jer. 31:16–17), and this promise was fulfilled. But he gave an even greater promise that the nation would be regathered in the future, and the kingdom established (Jer. 31:27ff). This promise shall also be fulfilled. Very few people today think of Bethlehem as a burial place; they think of it as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. And because He died for us and rose again, we have a bright future before us. We shall live forever with Him in that glorious city where death is no more and where tears never fall. (BEC) - Precept Austin
For those who sought the child's life are dead - Out of Egypt have I called My Son, so they were not to remain there forever, and now Herod is dead, but it uses also a plural here. Remember that, as the old timers say, "it to shall pass", so I pray first that my enemies become my brothers, if not that then that I stand before them well, in honor of the One Who took much more abuse, was much more sorely hated than myself. Either my enemies will die or I will become absent from this place and present in the peace of my Lord.
18Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied. 19Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” 20So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.… Exodus 4: 18-20
That He would be called a Nazarene - Now this is interesting, for no where in Scripture can I find a prophecy about the Messiah being called a Nazarene. Yet, Matthew, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, includes this. Here is how one writer approaches this:
While not everyone agrees with the following interpretation Barbieri notes that "Isaiah said the Messiah would be “from [Jesse’s] roots” like “a Branch” (Isa. 11:1). “Branch” is the Hebrew word neṣer, which has consonants like those in the word “Nazarene” and which carry the idea of having an insignificant beginning. (BKC)
Now, I am not trying to be rude, it certainly has elements, but the verse itself is vague. What it does have in common here though, with the Branch, is that Jesus was referred to as a sucker branch, like those my mom would have us pull off in the garden. It was unwanted. But I think there is something else interesting here, and that J Mac, in his usual, careful, literal fashion, handles this the best. Look at the phrase before "He would be called a Nazarene", it says, "so that what was spoken", get that, not recorded, not written, but "spoken by the prophets", an oral tradition, and remember, Matthew was written for a Jewish audience.
Some people want to connect it up with Isaiah 11:1 where it talks about Christ being a branch netser, which is Hebrew, and they say netser and Nazareth - it’s a bad connection. IT really doesn’t make it for me. It’s not good etymology. Besides, you’ve still got to deal with the prophets, plural, not just Isaiah 11:1. It seems so obscure to me that it would never be a connection.
Now Matthew says “the prophets.” You say, “Well, how do you explain this?” Very simple. It’s very simple to explain. The prophets said this. It just never got written in the Old Testament until now and it finally got written by Matthew. “Well,” you say, “But he says the Old Testament prophets said it. Did they say some things that didn’t get written down?” I hope this doesn’t shake you up too much. Yes. By the way, there are plenty of things that were said very significantly that weren’t written down in the Old Testament.
For example, Jude verse 14, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,’ ” Enoch said that. Want to know something? He didn’t say it in the Old Testament. It isn’t there. How do you know he said it? Because Jude said he said it. How did Jude know? Because Jude was what? Inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. - J Mac
Other examples of this, like references to Noah being a preacher of righteousness, or Lot, we have no record of their sermons, but refences about such preaching in the NT, and historical references that tells us Enoch walked with God, Noah feared God, and even that Lot was not well received, but we don't know much about what they said. We can see that Noah built a very big ark where there wasn't the water to float it, and so we can imagine that his, as was John the Baptist's, a message of repentance and coming judgement.
…5if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight; 6if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly; 7and if He rescued Lot, a righteous man distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless… 2 Peter 2: 5-7
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. Genesis 19: 9-14
Now why would Jesus need to be called a Nazarene? Well, the Scriptures do testify, that He would be despised and rejected of men. There would be no beauty, or majesty, that we should desire Him, and being from Nazareth fits well with this, not being born in a palace, but in a manger, being rejected by Herod even as an infant, hunted. Nazareth was the ghetto, the wrong turn, not a place of higher learning, in fact, most of His disciples were probably fishermen, not super literate, and definitely not traveling in the circles of the elite. This is what is said of Nazareth, and words come from thoughts:
…45Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” 46“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. 47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.”… John 1: 45-47
40On hearing these words, some of the people said, “This is truly the Prophet.” 41Others declared, “This is the Christ.” But still others asked, “How can the Christ come from Galilee? 42Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”… John 7: 40-42
Spurgeon on Nazarene - He meant that the prophets have described the Messiah as one that would be despised and rejected of men. They spoke of him as a great prince and conqueror when they described his second coming, but they set forth his first coming when they spoke of him as a root out of a dry ground without form or comeliness, who when he should be seen would have no beauty that men should desire him. The prophets said that he would be called by a despicable title, and it was so, for his countrymen called him a Nazarene.....Certainly he has long been called a ‘Nazarene,’ both by Jews and violent unbelievers. Spitting on the ground in disgust, many a time has his fierce adversary hissed out the name ‘Nazarene,’ as if it were the climax of contempt.....There is always some city or village or another whose inhabitants seem to be the butt of every joke and the object of scorn. The people of such places are thought to be low, uncultured, not-very-smart. That is the kind of place Nazareth was. - Precept Austin
…4Jesus, knowing all that was coming upon Him, stepped forward and asked them, “Whom are you seeking?” 5“Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. Jesus said, “I am He.” And Judas His betrayer was standing there with them. 6When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground.…
…7So He asked them again, “Whom are you seeking?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. 8“I told you that I am He,” Jesus replied. “So if you are looking for Me, let these men go.” 9This was to fulfill the word He had spoken: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me.”… John 18: 4-9
Most of Jesus's followers were from Galilee, and it apparently had it's own regional accent attached to all it's other stigmas. People knew if you were from Galilee, but it wasn't deemed a great calling card. It wasn't considered putting your best foot forward; it was held against you.
…7Astounded and amazed, they asked, “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it then that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,… Acts 2: 7-9
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