Matthew 2:12-23

WHAT WAS SPOKEN WAS FULFILLED

By Johnny Tatum

 

PART 2: PAYING THE WAY

 

Exposition

 

We pick up with the king-makers…

12 And having been warned by God in a dream not to go back to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way.

13 When they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and 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."

Scene One: Bethlehem where Messiah Jesus was born.

 

We must answer two questions:

  1. Why was it ordained that Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem?
  2. How was it arranged for Messiah to be born in Bethlehem of Judea?

 

Question One: Why was it ordained that Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem?

 

Reason One: Messiah was identifying Himself with human beings.

Many of us would have determined that Messiah should be born [not in Bethlehem, but] in Jerusalem. After all, He was to be the new King!

But let us think about this. Bethlehem of Judea was very insignificant. It was not a bad place, and it was not a great place; Bethlehem was just a very average place. Is that not the point?

We are not kings, nor are we nobles; we are insignificant. So the Lord God arranged for Messiah to be born in Bethlehem in humility so He could be one of us -- to identify with us.

Notice: Messiah is going to come a second time to reign as King. At that time, He will come to conquer, to triumph.

 

Comparing a Couple of Interesting Pictures:

Giving Gifts to the King

When the magi from the East came to visit Jesus in Bethlehem, they brought Him three gifts:

  1. Gold - pictured that Jesus was a King
  2. Frankincense - pictured that Jesus was God
  3. Myrrh - indicated that Jesus was a man who was going to die; it pictured His death.

And they came into the house and saw the Child with Mary His mother; and they fell down and worshipped Him. And opening their treasures they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Matthew 2:11)

 

Isaiah presents a picture of Messiah coming back to rule. At that time, visitors will come from the East and they will bring Him two gifts: (1) Gold and (2) Frankincense. No more myrrh!

All those from Sheba will come; they will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the Lord. (Isaiah 60:6 d,e)

 

Reason Two: The Bread of Life was born in Bethlehem ("House of Bread").

Jesus said to them, "I am the Bread of Life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst." (John 6:35)

How appropriate that Bethlehem, [known as] the breadbasket of Israel, was the birthplace of the Bread of Life.

 

Reason Three: The Son of David, Messiah Jesus, was born in Bethlehem, the City of David.

For a long time, Bethlehem has been called The City of David. When David was a fugitive running from King Saul and later running from his own son, he thought of Bethlehem whenever he thought of going back home. When he longed for water, he longed for water from Bethlehem.

If you asked a Jew his thoughts of Bethlehem, he would have called it The City of David. Why is this appropriate? Because Messiah Jesus was the Son of David.

 

Bethlehem was the perfect place for Messiah to be born because it was:

However, Bethlehem was:

Therefore, if any of the priests, rulers, or Israelites were interested, there He was. Thus far, of course, we have seen no interest by the nation of Israel.

 

Question Two: How Was It Arranged For Messiah To Be Born In Bethlehem of Judea?

 

We take it for granted that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. However, God really had to arrange things providentially to get this to happen.

Realize that Joseph and Mary were not from Bethlehem; they were probably from Nazareth or from somewhere north in the area of Galilee. Therefore, there was no reason whatsoever for them to go to Bethlehem, Oh let us just go down to Bethlehem.

It does not make any sense whatsoever.

However, hundreds of miles away in Rome, Caesar Augustus (the ruler of the world) just decided -- I am sure it was just a coincidence -- that it was time to tax the inhabited world. And, if you are going to tax people, first you have to take a census. So Caesar Augustus decreed that every family in the world would go to their ancestral home and register to be taxed.

 

A Question to Ask:

How Was the Ancestral Home Established?

Have you ever wondered why the ancestral homes of both Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem? If the decree was for every family to go to their ancestral home, how did they determine where that was? At what point in time would the ancestral home be established? How far back do they go? For example, did they have to locate the Garden of Eden (everybody's ancestral home)? Where did they start?

During the days of the Old Testament, one other official census was taken. King David instructed the commander of the army to register the people in all the tribes of Israel (see 2 Samuel 24:1-11). King David's numbering the people of Israel and Judah was a sin, but he did take a census. Obviously, the census taken would have included King David's family, whose ancestral home was established at Bethlehem. From that point on, all descendants of King David would have their ancestral home at Bethlehem.

How was that known? King David's lineage went back to Boaz, the first person in the ancestral lineage to own land. When Boaz redeemed property in Bethlehem (see Ruth 4:4-12), he established this city as the ancestral home = the first place in the Promised Land where the descendants owned land. (See Ruth Introduction, Part 2: A Jewel Shining Against Darkness study.)

Let Us Pause Here:

Moving Through Individuals

It does not surprise me that God can move through believers. This is especially true for a believer like Joseph who was in tune (on the correct channel) with God so he could hear what Holy Spirit was saying to him.

It also does not surprise me that God can move through unbelievers when God forces them to do things. My favorite is Balaam who kept trying to curse Israel. He would go up there and say I bless you. (See Numbers 22:1-41.) God was forcing him to do that.

It does start to surprise me when He can move through individuals who are oblivious to God and who are doing what they want to do. For example, Caesar Augustus made a decision to tax the people. Was his decision morally bad? No, it was morally neutral to tax; it was just something Caesar wanted to do. However, God was over ruling and He used the taxation process to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem so the Bread of Life could be born in the House of Bread!

 

The royal family only stayed in Bethlehem a few months. I am just speculating that Joseph would have kept his family in Bethlehem after the birth of Jesus. Why would they have moved? There was no apparent reason. But God moved directly in their lives, as we see in the next verse.

God stepped in and told Joseph…

13 Take the Child and His mother, and flee to Egypt … for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.

 

Scene Two: The royal family left Bethlehem for Egypt…

14 He arose and took the Child and His mother by night, and departed for Egypt.

Okay, we have asked the question Why Bethlehem? Now we ask Why Egypt?

 

Question: Why was it ordained that Messiah was to be taken to Egypt?

I believe the four reasons that Jesus was to be taken to Egypt are as follows:

1. The Political Situation in Egypt

Rome ruled the known world, but there were two areas that were trouble spots: (1) the East (where the king-makers were located) -- Rome was always nervous about the king-makers, and (2) the Middle East (What a shock! Things sure have not changed.) -- this area has always been full of rebellious parties.

Now Egypt was relatively isolated from all of this intrigue with the East and the West. And though Rome ruled Egypt, it was in a somewhat loose manner, and Herod certainly had no jurisdiction over Egypt.

 

2. The Culture of Egypt

During the 400 years between the Testaments (there were no more God breathed writings for 400 years), there was civil war between the Maccabees and Syria. During this time many, many Jews fled to Egypt. Where did they go? They went to a city founded by Alexander the Great called Alexandria, which became a center for Jewish scholars.

Notice: It is very possible that the Essenes of the Qumran area (where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947) went to Egypt during this time of Herod, and then later they returned to the Promised Land.

At this time there were about a million Jews living in the Alexandria area, making it a very comfortable place for the new royal family to go.

 

3. Giving Us a Picture

Picture: Throughout the Old Testament, Egypt was a picture of the world, Pharaoh was a picture of Satan, and the nation of Israel -- when it was in Egyptian bondage -- was a picture of every human being in bondage to the world's system and to Satan. The Book of Exodus was a picture of God pulling the regenerate out of the world, out of the domain of Satan.

Application: Messiah Jesus goes into Egypt and then comes back out just like the nation of Israel did. So Jesus is identifying with the nation of Israel. Who else is He identifying with? With the redeemed, because they were in the world. The redeemed were in the kingdom of darkness, and the Lord God pulled us out and transferred us to the Kingdom of light, the Kingdom of His Son.

 

Another Picture to Consider:

Financing the Trip

I will say -- so there will be NO misunderstanding -- I am speculating.

How did the royal family finance this trip? You see this was not a wealthy family. We know this because of the sacrifices that they brought: when others brought oxen and they brought a dove (see Luke 2:24). They did not have a lot of money.

So if they did not have money, then how did they finance their 200-mile [round] trip to Egypt? And then they must have stayed in Alexandria about two or three months. What money did they live on there?

Did the royal family have anything that they could have sold? Yes, they did. They had some expensive things: they had gold, frankincense, and myrrh!

 

If that was the case, then what a picture this is!

If coming out of Egypt was a picture of redemption, let us think about our own redemption. What part did we play in redeeming ourselves? What was our cost? What did we pay? Nothing. Messiah Jesus paid it all!

If my speculation is correct, who paid for this trip to Egypt and back? Jesus, the infant, did. And myrrh (a picture of His death) was involved. Now what a picture we have! The redemption for the whole family was paid for by His death.

I do not know if that is true or not…

Application: Even as an infant, He was paying everybody's way.

 

Those aforementioned reasons have probably wasted a lot of time, because the fourth reason is the most important, and it is very simple:

4. Scripture said He would.

The Scripture was going to be fulfilled; Messiah Jesus was to be taken to Egypt.

 

15 And was there [Egypt] until the death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "Out of Egypt did I call My son."

This is one of many times when Matthew makes a connection with the Old Testament that is really interesting.

Matthew quoted Hosea 11:1. God was speaking and He said I have called My son out of Egypt. Who was My son of whom Hosea, who wrote under the authority of Holy Spirit, spoke? The nation of Israel.

Matthew, who also wrote under the authority of Holy Spirit, took the same words and gave it a second application: Okay, it referred to the nation of Israel coming out of Egypt, and now it refers to Jesus as the Son of God coming out of Egypt.

The royal family went into Egypt to protect the Child from Herod. Again, I need to add something here. The primary reason the family went into Egypt was that Scripture would be fulfilled. Otherwise, God could have protected that family in Bethlehem.

The royal family most likely stayed in Egypt about two or three months.

 

Next:

Matthew 2:12-23, PART 3: EXPOSING THE ONLY ONE

 

Matthew Overview, PART 4: WHAT HAPPENED TO ISRAEL BETWEEN THE TESTAMENTS?

 

Back To: Matthew Series Page

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