Matthew 2
Summary
This reading is about the Birth and the celebration of Christ, The threats to His life and the great escape that spared His life that followed. His birth had been foretold years before it came to pass and when it did, it was one that was never to be forgotten in a hurry. He was announced by the angels in a revelation to the men from the east who were told to follow the star in order to locate where He was born. Then when it seem like the entire world should celebrate He who has come to save the people from their sins, the Herod threatened to put an end to His life because he himself feels threatened by the Royalty and the exemplary respect that He commanded. He reasoned that not one man had come all the way from the east to worship him and there is a child somewhere in Israel who had such great honour and for this, he secretly sort to manipulate the men from the east in order to abort the destiny of Jesus in the early stage. The short sighted Herod thought that if the child should grow then he might have issues keeping the monarchy of Israel to himself and might be battled for it later in the future. He didn’t know that Christ wasn’t just for Israel alone but for the world. What a terrible ordeal a new baby should go through in His first time in the world, someone somewhere was already thinking of how to take His life, the very precious life that was meant to save the world. The main problem was, Herod knew who Jesus is; THE CHRIST, in fact, his teachers and priests and chiefs knew that the Messiah had been born, the very person that the scriptures had referred to that He will be the One to take away the burden of the world an d destroy the yokes of the devil in their lives yet He, Herod still seek to destroy Him and this shows how short sighted and greedy the world can be. Jesus didn’t have the best place to be born. Jesus’ life began with turmoil but today we still celebrate Him because in spite of his beginning and God preserved him and he fulfilled his destiny.
LIFE APPLICATION
We must understand that for the fact that our lives did not begin perfectly does not mean that we will not rise and shine in life. We may not have the best education, the best family and the best things to begin with; but whichever way we are living now is God will intervene in your behalf. While the beginning of every man is important, his end is more important. This is the confidence that we as Christians must have in Him. God has perfectly planned our lives and we will live life to the fullest. We may have had family members who didn’t like us from birth, neighbours who called us bad luck from childhood, friends we trusted but betrayed us, loved ones who don’t believe in us and people who molested us and caused us to have low self esteem, but God will turn our scar into star in order that we may live life to the fullest in God.
Personal Declaration
I declare that my end is better than my beginning, because I walk with God. My life gets better as I continually walk with God in Jesus’ name.
Matthew 2 Reading – The Magi Visit the Messiah
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi[a]from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’[b]”7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The Escape to Egypt
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[c]
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”[d]The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Footnotes:
- Matthew 2:1 Traditionally wise men
- Matthew 2:6 Micah 5:2,4
- Matthew 2:15 Hosea 11:1
- Matthew 2:18 Jer. 31:15
All scriptural passages are taken from the NIV version of the bible.
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