I THINK we shall find in the chapter before us 1 abundant confirmation of the account already given of the Holy Ghost’s special design by Matthew. That is, we shall see proofs that there is a most careful presentation of Jesus as the true Messiah of God, and of His rejection as such by the Jews; and that God, at the same time, takes advantage of Israel’s fall to work out larger and deeper purposes.
The very first incident in the chapter illustrates it. Jesus was born. We do not meet with the same interesting facts which are given us in Luke of the very early days of our Lord’s infancy: all are passed by, save that we have Christ presented as born in Bethlehem of Judea, the worship of the Magi from the east, and the flight into Egypt. The first fact that the Holy Ghost gives us here is the affecting one that there was no heart for the Messiah in Israel. And this was proved by the most significant circumstances. “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and are come to worship (or do homage to) him.” (vss. 1, 2.) We are not told how soon this was after His birth. No doubt a considerable time had elapsed. People are often deceived as to this in looking at the scene through the notions of their infancy. We have all seen the pictures of the Babe in the manger, and “the three kings” coming in to worship Him. But the truth is, that the Lord was not just born, as such associations would convey, when the Magi arrived. For His earliest condition in this world we must consult, not Matthew, but Luke.
Some might, it is true, gather a wrong impression from the Authorized Version of verse 1: “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in the days of Herod the king.” This does not intimate that the visit followed immediately upon our Saviour’s birth, but leaves room for a time more or less considerable afterward. It simply means, that after He was born these easterns came: many months, or upwards of a year, might have intervened. What confirms this is, that the wise men had first seen the star in the east, and most probably at the time of our Lord’s birth. After seeing the star, they had of course many a preparation to make before they could set out, and then a long way to travel; and traveling in those days was a hard and tedious matter in the eastern parts of the world. Even when they arrive in Judaea, they go up first to Jerusalem to inquire there. All this supposes necessarily the lapse of no little time. Their questions are answered by the scribes. Herod, hearing of it, is troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. (vs. 3.) He gathers together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, and demands of them where the Christ should be born. (vs. 4.) They tell him in Bethlehem of Judaea; upon which he calls the wise men and sends them there. (vss. 4-8.) All this took place before the scene of their worship.
They, when they had heard the king, departed. “And lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.” (vs. 9.) We have not to imagine, according to traditional notions, that the star tracked the way before them to Jerusalem. They saw it in the east, and connected the sight with the promised Messiah; for at that time the prophecies about His speedy appearance had been spread over a considerable part of the world. Many Gentiles were expecting Him, especially in the east. And the greatest and most opposed in the west were aware of such hopes. The last man that was known in the east as a prophet, before the Gentiles were broken in the presence of Israel, was Balaam. No doubt he was a wicked man; but God took advantage of him to utter the most remarkable predictions of Israel’s coming glory. And that very prophecy had closed with a reference to the Star that should rise out of Jacob. And now, after many hundreds of years had passed away, the traces of this prophecy still lingered among the children of the east. It is unlikely, too, that Daniel’s prophecies in Babylon, especially that of the seventy weeks, &c., were unknown, considering his position and the extraordinary events of his day. We can understand that these prophecies would not only be such as the children of Israel would treasure up; but the knowledge of them might spread, especially in those lands. Much might not be clearly understood. Still, they looked for a wonderful personage to arise — a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter out of Israel.
When these strangers, then, saw the star, they set forward to His traditional capital, Jerusalem. It is clear that the star was a meteor of some kind. As it shone in the east, they put the fact of this remarkable phenomenon along with the expectations of the coming king. And this the more, because the easterns were great observers of the heavens, and were therefore more alive to any uncommon appearance. It may have recalled the prophecy of Balaam. Certain it is that they soon started for Jerusalem, where universal report among the Gentiles maintained that the great King was to reign. Having got there, God meets them, and it is remarkable how He does so. It is by His word, and His word interpreted by those who had not the smallest interest of heart in the Messiah. They were quite right in their interpretation; they knew where Messiah was to be born. The Magi probably thought that Jerusalem was to be the spot; but they were told by the scribes that Bethlehem was the predicted birthplace. Alas! the very men who could answer so pertinently, showed the not less solemn because it is a common fact, that it is possible to have a measure of clear knowledge of scripture, and at the same time to have no love for Him of whom all testifies. As to the Magi, ignorant as they were, and though they might have been in the dark as to other things, still their desire was true, and God overruled all. Through these Gentiles, indeed, He sent a testimony to Jerusalem as to the birth of the Messiah. God knew how to accomplish this and rebuke, through their testimony, those who ought, above all, to have watched for and hailed their own Messiah. If there was a queen who came from the distant parts, of the earth to see King Solomon, who was the type of Christ, and to hear his wisdom, so was it now. The Holy Ghost wrought on, and for, these pilgrims from a far country to bring them in presence of the true King. The scribes could answer the questions; but there was no care for the Messiah, and it was for Him that these wise men came. This at once detects the awful state that Jerusalem was in. The effect of the tidings that God’s King was born is, that instead of seeking the promised One, instead of being filled with joy to hear of One whom they had not sought, they were all troubled, from the king downwards. More particularly, as we learn here, the chief priests and scribes are those whose state demonstrates the utter heartlessness of the nation. They had enough religious knowledge; they had the key in their hand, but they had no heart to enter in.
“Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.” (vs. 7.) I would call your attention to that, because it confirms what was said before. It was after the diligent inquiry of the king from the wise men, that he had settled in his own mind at what time the child must have been born. When they, warned of God, had withdrawn themselves instead of returning to Herod, he sent forth the cruel command to kill the children in Bethlehem and all the coasts, “from two years old and under.” (vs. 16.) In other words, he naturally inferred that there had been a considerable lapse of time between the birth of Christ and the giving of his wicked order.
If we turn hence to the Gospel of Luke, we shall see the importance of this. We have there our Lord born, and born (just as Matthew shows) in the city of David; but we are told there the circumstances that account for this, for Bethlehem was not the place where Mary and Joseph ordinarily dwelt. It was a village to which they repaired because of the commandment of the Roman emperor, who had sent forth a decree, that all the world should be taxed or enrolled. They, being of the royal family of the Jews, go to Bethlehem, which was the city of David. Thus God brought to pass the accomplishment of the prophecy of Micah through the decree of Cesar Augustus. Nothing was farther from his thoughts than the result which his decree, in God’s providence, was to subserve — the birth of the Messiah in the very place where prophecy demanded it. It appears that the census was not carried out then, but begun, and then stopped for some time. For it is said in verse 2, “And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,” which was several years after. People, not understanding this, have concluded that there was a mistake in Luke. They knew that Cyrenius’s government of Syria was subsequent to Christ’s nativity, and too hastily inferred that our Evangelist labored under the impression that the going up of Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem took place in his time. But it is they who err, not Luke. The decree of Cæsar Augustus did not come into full operation, or effect, till then. It was just sufficiently carried out, when the order for enrollment was given, to induce the parents, Joseph and Mary, to go up to the chief city of their lineage; and this was enough. God’s object was accomplished. Joseph and Mary went there, and, while there, her days were fulfilled, and she brought forth her firstborn son, and “wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in the manger.”
There we have a scene totally different from what we had in Matthew, though this too was at Bethlehem. In all probability they paid more than one visit to the place. And let me ask, what more natural to suppose, than that the parents should, after such a miracle, revisit the birthplace of the holy and royal Babe? It was not far from Jerusalem, and we know that they went there every year to the feast of the Passover. I see no reason to doubt that the visit of the Magi took place at another visit on the part of the parents to Bethlehem.
Mark how the circumstances recorded in Matthew differ from those in Luke. In Matthew, Jerusalem is all troubled by the tidings of the Messiah’s birth, while strangers from afar come up to do homage to the King of the Jews. They had seen His star; they knew it was the promised King, and now they are come to worship Him. They are found at Jerusalem, and when they leave it, on their way to Bethlehem, they are again encouraged of God. The star which they had seen before in the east reappeared, and went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was, to their exceeding great joy (vs. 10) — plain evidence that the star had not accompanied them all the way. And we shall find it true in our own experience, that where we act without appearances, we find all that is necessary. God always takes particular care of those who are true to the light, even though it be ever so little; while nothing is more abhorrent to Him than great pretensions to light, without any heart for the true light, which is Christ.
“And they came into the house, and saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him,” not her. Their homage was to Him. “And when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” They acknowledged Him as strangers whose greatest honor was to be owned of Him.
Jerusalem is outside all this. A usurper was there; an Edomite ruled. And, as when Christ returns again to the earth, there will be a false king in Jerusalem under the influence of the Western Powers, and in conjunction with the religious head of Israel, so it was at His first coming. All was entirely opposed to the recognition of Jesus.
We may observe that, of the reputed parents, Joseph is ever made the prominent person here, as in chapter 1. The vision, given us in verse 13, was to Joseph.
In Luke we have quite another order of things. It is not so much one acknowledged as a king, though He was a king; but He is seen there in the lowliest possible condition. The persons that own Him are Jewish shepherds, who had the news made known to them from heaven. The heavenly hosts praise — their hearts delight in the purpose and ways of God, in the Saviour — for as such had He been announced to them: “To you is born this day, in David’s city, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be the sign to you: ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in the manger.” This was the very opening of our blessed Lord’s life here below, evidently taking place immediately after His birth. The incident of the homage rendered by the Magi was long subsequent. There is not the slightest ground for confounding the two occasions. Each Gospel is true to its special purpose. It is a question of His royal rights over Israel and the Gentiles in Matthew.
In Luke we have the perfect lowliness, from His very birth, of the Saviour-Son of man; the interest of heaven in the birth of the earth-despised Christ the Lord, and on earth none but the poor of the flock, who have their hearts awakened to receive this blessed One, alike the expression, and the means, and the substance of divine grace. “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,” or rather, “to all the people,” for it means the Jews. A much wider circle appears afterward, but it does not go beyond the Jews yet. The message was sent to them in the first instance — “to the Jew first,” to apply the words of St. Paul.
How beautifully these various accounts harmonize with the Gospels in which they are found! In the one, the King, born some time before, is seen in Bethlehem, but none welcome Him save strangers from the east. From Matthew, we should not be aware of the slightest recognition of the Saviour up to the time of their coming. On the contrary, when the first breath of these tidings is brought to Jerusalem, consternation was the result in all. The king, the priests, the scribes, all are in a state of ferment. There was no heart for Jesus. But God always will have a testimony. If the Jews will not have Him, the Gentiles come, and grace it is that effects this. Unbelieving Jews tell the Magi where the King should be born. They at once act upon it, and the Lord, meeting them on the way, puts them in presence of the King, to whom they present their gifts. It is the Messiah of Israel, but rejected by Israel from His very birth. Jerusalem is with the false king, and cares not to receive Him. Those who were despised as dogs, whom the Jews themselves had to instruct in the first lessons of prophecy, have the glory of being the true recognizers of the claims of the Messiah. Nothing more humbling. It is the Messiah come, and owned by the ends of the earth; but the Messiah slighted and rejected of His own nation. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Of this we have proofs from the very first in Matthew. And as it was true, so it was important that Israel should know it. Here let them learn, through the earliest of the Evangelists, that it does not arise from any want of evidence on God’s part. How did these Gentiles know? And where were the Jews that, during all this time, they had not recognized their own Messiah? It was a terrible tale, but the truth was the strangest of all things in their ears. Such is always the way of God. He does give a testimony, but man dislikes it because it is of God. To recognize the person of Christ was the difficulty. To see from scripture that their King was to be born in Bethlehem of Judah, was an easy thing; it did not test the conscience, nor put the heart to the proof. But to own that the ignored and despised One, the Child of Mary and the Heir of Joseph, was the Messiah — this was indeed hard to the flesh. To those who had seen the sign of it in the heavens; to those who had looked for it in the midst of great darkness, but who had their eye toward it, and who had no preoccupations of heart to hinder them from bowing before His glory; all was simple, and they hastened to do Him honor. Now that He was born, they rejoiced at the thought, and they came from far to have the joy of seeing Him, and offering their gifts at His feet.
“And being warned of God in a dream, that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed, behold an angel of Jehovah appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” (vss. 12, 13.) The unbelief that refused the word of God, is now allowed to show out how thoroughly it was under the power of Satan, who proves himself, as from the beginning, to be a liar first and a murderer afterward. But the purpose of Herod was revealed of God, and Joseph, in obedience to His word, takes the young child and his mother by night and departs into Egypt, “and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of Jehovah by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” (vss. 14, 15.)
A little word may be well here about this prophecy, and the application of it to our Lord. We shall have to take into account many prophecies cited in Matthew, if it please God. But the present quotation has evidently a remarkable character attached to it. It may have been said in the letter about His people, Israel was God’s son, God’s firstborn in Egypt. To them pertained the adoption. The prophet Hosea, writing seven hundred years, after their departure from Egypt, does not hesitate to apply this word to Israel; and now the same portion of Hosea is used of Christ, as that which fully came within the intent of the inspiring Spirit. How is it, that God’s having taken Israel out of the land of Egypt should be so illustrated in Christ’s history? Because Christ is the real, if sometimes latent, Object of the Holy Ghost in scripture. It matters not what may be the place of His people: they may have troubles or deliverances, but Christ must enter into all. There is no kind of temptation (save, of course, of inward evil) that He has not known; nor of blessing on God’s behalf the spring of which He has not proved. Christ goes through the history of His people; and on that principle it is that such scriptures as these are applied to Him. Christ Himself is carried into the very place that had been the furnace of Israel. There it is that He finds His refuge from the false king of Judea. What a picture! Because of the anti-king then reigning in Jerusalem, the true King must flee, and flee into Egypt. Christ was the true Israel; Israel, as yet, but the empty vine. Compare Isa. 49.
We see from this, that no miraculous power is put forth to preserve Emmanuel. It was accomplishing the prophecies — filling up the outline of desolation morally and nationally, that the Holy Ghost had sketched many a long year before. God was marking how precious to Him was every footstep of His Son. To unbelief it might seem a trifling circumstance in itself that the Lord was carried into Egypt and came out of it another day. But whatever was the place of Christ — and His place here was wherever His people were in their sorrow — He will not permit them to feel a pang without fully sharing it. He knows what it is to be carried into Egypt, and that too in a far more painful way than Israel had experienced. For the bitterest trouble of Christ was from His own people; the most murderous blow aimed at Him was by the king then sitting on the throne in their midst. Failing in this, he sends forth and slays all the male children “that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are not.” (vss. 16-18.) How clearly the Holy Ghost is here providing for the Jew the proof that they were precious in His sight; and that, if Christ entered into their sorrows, they must not wonder if His presence entail upon themselves the bitterest suffering through their rejection of Him. If Christ has the smallest connection with Israel, they become the object of Satan’s animosity. It is Herod, led on by Satan, who issued the order to slay their little ones; — but the Messiah is taken away from the scene of his rage. In Israel they have weeping and great mourning. Such were some of the troubles that Israel brought upon themselves; and this is but a little picture of what will befall them in the latter day.
“But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of Jehovah appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.” (vss. 19-21.) It is notable to find “the land of Israel” occurring here. It was not merely the country, as known among men, where poor Jews lived by the permission of their Gentile lords. How few look on it as the land “of Israel” now! But God’s thoughts are toward His people in connection with the glory of His Son. If Jesus had His earthly tie there, if Emmanuel were now born of the virgin, why should not the land be called the land of Israel? It was the divine purpose completely to expel the foot of the Gentile that was now treading it down. If the people would only bow and receive Him to take His place as their King, how blessed their lot! But would Israel receive Jehovah Jesus now returning from Egypt? There was no readiness for Him yet. One Herod passed away; another followed. Hence, when the young child was taken back into the land of Israel, and when Joseph heard “that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee. And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; so that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.” (vss. 22, 23.)
The method of citation is worthy of note here. Take note of another and most striking turn which is given to the prophets; for we must observe that it is not one particular prophet, but “the prophets.” And by that we are to gather, not that any one inspired writer said these words, but that it is the spirit of the prophets who do speak of Him. When we read in one prophet, “They shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek”; in another, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”; and again, what they would give Him for meat, and in His thirst for drink, and how He would be taunted up to the last — we can understand this application of the prophets. It was the well-understood language expressive of contempt in that day: He should, in other words, be called a Nazarene. Nazareth was the most scorned of places. Not only did the men of Judæa proper look down upon Nazareth, but the Galileans themselves despised it, though it was part of their own district. Later on we read of a guileless Israelite, who, when he heard of Jesus being there, exclaimed, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Thus, if one spot in Palestine more than another best accords with the rejection that befell the Christ, it was Nazareth. Can there be a more wonderful picture than this of One who, while He was the true King, was yet refused by His own people? Gentiles might have done Him reverence; but His own nation was not indifferent, but scornful. How little fruit was there to answer to the culture that God had bestowed upon them! Yet here was the Holy One of God who pursues His path of obedience unto death, who would not let out His glory by crushing His foes or protecting Himself. His people went down into Egypt: He goes down there also. He has to be called out of Egypt to avoid the king in the land. This was His portion. He would not screen Himself from the sorrows of His people: He would share far more than them all. When He does come forth, Israel is still unprepared for Him. His parents turn to Nazareth, Joseph having been again divinely instructed in a dream. This is the last mention that we have of him in Matthew. Luke gives us later circumstances; but Joseph wholly disappears before our Lord entered upon His ministry.
When He is called out of Egypt, He cannot go to Jerusalem, nor to Bethlehem either. He was to be despised and rejected: the prophets had said so; their words must be accomplished. Archelaus reigned in Judaea: a usurper was still there. Joseph turns aside, at the warning of God, to Nazareth. There Jesus dwelt with them; that the word of the prophets might be fulfilled, in our Lord’s proving to the full what it was to be the most despised of men. He knew it pre-eminently on the cross; but it was His all through. And this is the way that God speaks of the Messiah to Israel. He declares what their hardness of heart and unbelief would entail — even if it were to the Messiah Himself coming, according to all that God had declared, to that land and people. What a picture of man, and especially of Israel, when such must be His portion! He comes and calls, but no answer greets Him. The unbelief of man hinders the blessing of God. It was the sin of Israel that thus complicated the early history of the King. But future chapters point out that God would turn the very unbelief of Israel into the means of blessing for the despised Gentiles; and that, if the Jews rejected the counsel of God to their own perdition, the Gentiles would hear and receive better blessing in the blessed One.
Thus we have from the beginning of this wonderful book the germs of all that the end will display. We see One who is really the Messiah ready to accomplish the promises and to take the throne, but the people are in no way ready for Him.
Israel were steeped in sin — they had no heart for Him; and no wonder; full, as they were, of their own king, an Edomite; their own ceremonies, a cloak of hypocrisy; their own light, darkness Godward. All was turned to the exaltation of self. Hence Jesus is rejected from the very first. This is the story of man. The after chapters will draw out the glorious consequences which God, in His grace, causes to spring even from the rejection of His own Son. Upon that happier theme we may dwell on other occasions.