Matthew 2_1_12 The Child Worthy of Worship notes

4xVs. 2,7,9,10Star – There is much debate over what this star was, some say a comet others an angel but what we do know for certain is that it appeared, disappeared, and moved. They saw His star in the east (from the east where they are from), the star appeared at a certain time, the star went on before them until it stood over the place that Jesus was, and when they saw the star they rejoiced with great joy. There are five interesting facts that may prove this wasn’t an ordinary star.

It is offered to by the possessive pronoun “His.” I was the Messiah’s personal star not in the way that all stars belong to Him as creator; it was a unique personal star.

It appeared and disappeared on at least 2 occasions.

It moved from east to west

It moved from north to south

It literally came down and hovered over one particular spot in Bethlehem (One star coming down and hovering over one place in Bethlehem wouldhave destroyed the entire planet. (What is a star?) (A ball of burning gas just like our Sun!)

We must understand this in terms of the heavenly, or spiritual realm instead of physical. IN GREEK, THE ROOT OF THE WORD STAR MEANS “RADIANCE” or “BRILLIANCE”. THIS BRILLIANCE IS THE SHECHINAH GLORY! Just as the Shecinah Glory announced the birth of Jesus to the Shepherds, it was also used to announce the King of the Jews to the Gentile Astrologers. When the wise astrologers (magi) saw the unusual brilliance in the sky it somehow signaled to them that Messiah, King of the Jews was born.

3xVs. 2,8,11Worship/Worshiped - prŏskunĕō, pros-koo-neh = prostrate oneself in homage (do reverence to, adore):

3xVs. 8,9,11Child - an infant, or (by extens.) a half-grown boy or girl;

4xVs. 1,3,7,12Herod –

Important words

Vs. 3Troubled – And all Jerusalem with him

Vs. 4Messiah – Christos

Vs. 9Before – precede

Vs. 9Stood –

Vs. 11Treasure –

Vs. 11Presented –

Vs. 11Gold – chrusŏs, khroo-sos´ golden article, as an ornament or coin:—gold.

Vs. 11Frankincense – Incense

Vs. 11Myrrh –

Setting

Bethlehem of Judea – Place meaning house of bread, approximately 5 miles southwest of Jerusalem. The place where prophesied by Micah the Messiah would be born just as His ancestor King David. It is a humble village and many early Christians believed it was in a cave east of the village that Shepherds visited that night of Jesus’ birth. There is a second village named Bethlehem in Galilee about 7 miles Northwest of Nazareth, this is not the birth place of David or Jesus.

Is it any wonder that Jesus who was born on earth in Bethlehem, in the House of Bread, refers to Himself as ‘The Bread of Life the True Manna sent from heaven?” (John 6:35)

Jerusalem – The chosen place by Yahweh to be center of divine kingship and the humanly kingship of David and his sons. Sitting high on a plateau in the hills of Judah it is Often called “The City of David,” and “Zion.” This is the place that God showed Abraham as he went to offer his only son Isaac. This is the city which God chose to dwell in as David brought the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:17. Solomon build the great temple there at God’s instruction and Shikana of God came an inhabited the most holy place which rested on Mt. Mariah. Yahweh abandoned the city before its destruction in BC 586 and read about in Ezekiel 10.

East -

Cast

Herod – Idumean by birth, southwest of the Dead Sea. Half Jew and of Arab descent . His father Antipater was Gov. of Indumea coming to rule after the death of Alexandria, the Maccabean Queen. Herod was made king of Judea by Marc Antony and Octavius and he marched on Palestine in 39 BC and took his place as vassel king. He was hated by those in Jerusalem as half-jew and a friend of the Romans. Herod had much of the aristocracy slaughtered (45) who sided with his uncle in law Antigonus. Herod killed any threat that rose up against his rule, he drowned his Brother in Law Aristobulus whom he made high priest, imprisoned his mother in law Alexandra in chains and eventually executed her. In 29 BC he executed his first wife Mariamne. Herod executed his brother in Law Costabarus. In total Herod had 10 wives. Herod had his sons Alexander and Aristobulus strangled to death in 7 BC. 5 days before Herod’s death his executed his son Antipater. Ordered the death of all male children in Bethlehem under the age of two in hopes of killing the Messiah, which accounted for 15-20 infant deaths. Emperor Augustus once joked tat it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son. Joking that since pigs were not eaten by Jews the pig had a greater life expectancy than one of Herod’s sons. When Herod became sick he knew no one would mourn his passing, so he came up with a diabolical plan, all the illustrious men of the nation were imprisoned and ordered to be executed at the time of his (Herod) death, this would insure that some people would be crying on that day. But no one carried out the order.

Magi – Wise men from the east, mostly likely Babylon or Persia served as counselors to the king and advisors in astronomy and astrology. As the Bible tells of Daniel and his three friends were taught the ways of the wise men of Babylon, and we know from Daniel that he once saved the lives of all the wise men as he interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

King of the Jews (Messiah) (Jesus)

All Jerusalem – Herod was known for his fierce hand to put down attempts against his throne. They feared what Herod would do.

Chief Priest –

Scribes –

The Gifts

Gold – Gold was a gift fit for a king, it speaks of sovereign dominion.

Frankincense – an ingredient used in making the incense for the most holy place. (Ex. 30:34) This speaks of His sinless diety! In the Old Testament, they worshiped the Lord by burning incense—frankincense. Incense was sweet perfume, so that, when it was burned, it would go up in smoke; and it pictured a sweet perfume rising up into the nostrils of God. It was an emblem—a symbol—of worship; and the Bible tells us that frankincense was to be used in the worship of God alone.

Myrrh – points towards His sacrificial death indicating He was going to die, because Myrrh was used for embalming the dead. (John 19:39) This was not any embalming, the commoner wouldn’t have financial resources to purchase Mryyh for it was very expensive, but His embalming was one similar to and befitting only a King.

Exegesis Body

The Child Born Worthy of Worship

The When.

The Birth of Jesus was a super miraculous event, We find the Birth narrative of Jesus in Gospels of Luke and Matthew, However the actual Birth of Jesus is described only in Luke, the KJV translates the Greek word γεννάω (gĕnnaō,) {ghen-nah´-o;} “was born.” When Jesus was born, However many of your more current translations (NASB, CSB, ESV, NIV, & NKJV) translates the word as the opening of the periscope, “After Jesus was born. This narrative must be seen as taking place after the event of Jesus’ actual birth. But we also come to this conclusion by the context of the passage, in verse 7, after Herod inquired of the priest and scribes as to where Messiah was to be born he inquired of the visitors from the east, “exactly when did you see the star appear? (CSB)” This denotes a time span from when the star appeared and their arrival. So we must not combine the two narratives of Matthew and Luke to make one narrative.

Luke tells of the humble birth of Jesus, the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in the manger because their were no room for them in the inn. Many current day pictures and nativity scenes show a barn like stable as the birth place of Jesus, but in ancient day Bethlehem the scene would have been a cave on the outskirts of town. Luke describes the Shepherds tending their flocks in the field and the Shikanah proclaiming to them the Birth of the Christ. Now note in Luke the setting is a Bethlehem livestock cave but in Matthew 2:11 the setting has moved to a house, this again denotes a span of time which passed from the birth of Jesus to visit of those from the east. However the context of the denotes another piece of evidence making it clear that this is not the same day as Jesus’s birth. When the visitors from the east did not return to Jerusalem, Herod had the male children of Bethlehem two years and younger slaughtered. Remember he asked the wise men “when did the star appear.”

So, when was Jesus born, History does not record the greatest birth in the history of earth but we know a time span of at least a few months to two years had passed. This can be gleaned from Luke 2:21 , we know that Joseph had not yet fled Herod because on the 8th day Jesus was circumcised and named as was commanded under the Law. Then, in Luke 2:22 we see another event which took place, the presentation of Jesus in the temple. Luke’s narrative states, Then it was time for the purification offering. This took place when Jesus was 40 days old. According to the Law (Lev. 12:1-8) a mother who gave birth to a girl was reckoned ceremonially unclean for 80 days but a women who gives birth to a boy is reckoned ceremonially unclean for 40 days. The mother needed to undergo a purification ritual, “after the days of her purification” (Lev. 12:6) she was to bring to the priest at the door of the temple (this would have been the east gate) an offering. They brought 2 turtle doves, the offering for the impoverished. Then Jesus was presented to the Lord as prescribed by Law as the consecration of the first born male to the Lord (Ex. 13:1-2, 11-16). During this time Mary and Joseph would have ”redeemed” their son by paying 5 shekels to the Temple Priest (Num. 18:15-16). On this fortieth day and what a glorious day it was for Israel, Jesus was presented in the Temple, the Glory of God had returned after nearly 600 years (Ezek 10). On this fortieth day Jesus has two interesting encounters which we will deal with later.

So, 4o days has passed and Jesus is still in Bethlehem, now we must account for the time span of the visitors travel. Once again this must be viewed in the context of when the star appeared which must have been the night of Jesus’ birth. The question now turns to where did the wise men travel from. All the Scritures tells us is from the east, however, from the east is a term used in the Scriptures to denote the area from which Abraham had left to come to Cana. This area is Mesopotamia, which would have been recognized as either Persia or Babylon. Perhaps the context of Daniel helps us to understand not only who these visitors were but where they were from, Daniel at one time was the “president” of the Magi and he saved the life of all the Magi while in Babylon, so I will say this group of visitors were from Babylon.

Babylon is between 300-400 miles as the crow flies to Jerusalem, much of the journey would have been on foot while supplies and perhaps the Magi themselves may have rode a camel. But they would have moved only as fast as those who were on foot. Plus one must take in consideration the route, perhaps it wasn’t a straight line, the best passage into Jerusalem is depicted in the invasions of Jerusalem which they traveled nearly to Damascus which was 400 miles then cut south and enter in through the meggedo valley. (Damascus is over 150 miles to Jerusalem). This trip could have taken months, plus we do not know hoe much time it took to gather supplies and pack, did they stopped alog the way for more than a few days, we don’t know. SO we can put this narrative several months to two years after the birth of Jesus.

Plus, note in Matthew Jesus is refered to a the baby but when the Magi came into the house the saw and worshiped the Child.

The Why.

The visitors came to worship He who is born King of the Jews. In Luke’s Gospel we see the worship of Jesus as the Shepherds came then glorified and praised God. These shepherds were not “first-class citizens” due to their tending sheep and Rabbinic Law would testify to the uncleanliness due to the sheep they shepherd. However, these worshippers were still more than likely Jewish. What a beautiful scene to see the first worship was by poor Jewish farm boys not the rich and affluent. The second record of worship was the priest Simeon who had been eagerly awaiting the birth of Messiah as the Holy Spirit had revealed to him. In worship the priest says, Lord now I can die in peace as I have seen your salvation. Interestingly enough there is play on words here, he had seen the Lord’s salvation, this would have been very likely spoken in Hebrew, which the Hebrew word for salvation is yeshuah and the Hebrew name for Jesus is Yeshua. The ‘h’ at the end of yeshuah is silent and the two would be pronounced the same way. “I have seen your salvation is the same as saying I have seen your Jesus!” Here the priestly Jew worships Jesus. But there is still another!

Shortly after Simeon worshpped Jesus, the prophetes Anna worshipped Jesus, the widowed women who was well advanced in age and who had been a widow for 84 years, she worships Jesus by praising God then tells everyone who is waiting expectantly for Messiah.

Enter now the wise men, they were Gentile, we see the first worshippers were Jew now we see a picture of Gentile inclusion as these Babylonian Magi have come to worship the King of the Jews. This raises questions, did they know to what extent this King was and how did they know the King was born. We really don’t know, but some say since they were astrologist (one who uses the study of the stars to predict the future) and astronomers (one who studied the celestial objects, stars and planets etc..) they saw a unique alignment of the stars in a certain area which gave them the sign and the news that the king was born in Jerusalem. Some messianic circles point to the prophecy of Balaam the Moabite Prophet, who was paid by the King of Moab to curse the Israelites but could only bless them. This is found in Numbers 24:17.

I see him but not now; behold him, but not nigh: There shall come forth a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite through the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons Sheth.

Note: Star and scepter (symbol of kingship)***

The truth is this came by divine revelation of God (Shekana Golry)

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