A Study of Matthew: A Harsh Grace
A Study of Matthew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.”
And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt
and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
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.
Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“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.”
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,
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.”
And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.
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.
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.
We are in the third week of our study of the book of Matthew. For anyone who missed the first two studies, Matthew was an apostle of Jesus who was writing to his fellow Jews. This writing was a defense of Jesus’ claim as Messiah, the special anointed one sent by God to restore Israel and bring peace and order to the world. by the time Jesus was born, hundreds of men over the last couple centuries had risen up and claimed to be the Messiah. Even during Jesus’ time, others were still claiming to be Messiah. So when Matthew was writing this book, he went back to the Old Testament, which had hundreds of prophecies concerning the Messiah. As Matthew wrote the story of Jesus’ life, he did it in a way that showed how Jesus fulfilled every prophecy about the Messiah.
The first way that Matthew proved Jesus was Messiah was by listing Jesus’ genealogy. The Messiah was prophesied to be a Jew from the tribe of Judah and a descendant of King David. It is also interesting that Matthew threw in the names of some women who were famous for being outsiders and some of them having scandalous reputations. These names were hints that God’s redemptive plan was not just for proper Jews, but for everyone.
Last week we looked at the second narrative Matthew wrote about, Jesus’ miraculous birth from a virgin, as prophesied in Isaiah. We also noted how Matthew chose to include the story of the wise men, who were non-Jews from another land and religion, but who somehow understood God’s plan better than those who were supposed to be God’s chosen people.
This week, we continue with the rest of Matthew chapter 2. Herod, who became king of Israel through a deal with Caesar, is upset because the wise men had shown up at his castle looking for the new King of the Jews whose arrival was foretold to them when a new star appeared in the sky. Herod had tried to trick them into finding the baby for him so that he could kill this rival for his throne. But after the wise men found Jesus, God spoke to them in a dream to find another way home.
So, when Herod realizes that the wise men were not coming back, he goes into a fury and decides to have his soldier kill every male child in Bethlehem and the surrounding area aged two and under. Now, there are people in the world who look at this story and are like, “This can’t be true. This is your typical evil villain story.” But history records that Herod was paranoid that others were trying to depose him as king. It is documented that he had several of his sons killed because he thought they might be after his throne.
But, as we read in verse 13, Joseph had already been warned by God to move the family to Egypt. And notice how Matthew demonstrates not only God’s miraculous protection of Jesus, but also how all this once again fulfills prophecy about the Messiah.
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Hosea’s word was doing two things. It spoke historically of how God brought his children out of Egypt. It also foretold how God’s own son would someday come out of Egypt to deliver Israel again.
Do any of you like mysteries? I love a good mystery. A GOOD mystery is one that keeps you guessing all the way to the end, BUT when the detective gives the solution, you realize that all the clues were there, but you missed them because they seemed unimportant.
The original readers of Matthew were Jews who had been made to study the Old Testament writings their whole lives. So when Matthew shares that Joseph and the family escaped to Egypt just before Herod killed all the baby boys, the audience would have been thinking, “I remember hearing about that awful incident 30-40 years ago, when Herod went crazy and butchered those babies. Jesus and his family made it out just in time!”
But when they read the passage from Hosea, their minds must have been blown. Oh my goodness! That passage from Hosea—it was a clue pointing to Jesus! And then they read how even Herod’s villainy was foretold:
“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.”
Prophecy after prophecy is being fulfilled, and Jesus isn’t even a teenager at this point.
Eventually, Herod dies, and Joseph gets another angelic message saying they can return to Israel from Egypt, just as Hosea foretold.
Isn’t it amazing how Matthew is able to line up all these events in Jesus’ life with passages from the Old Testament?
But as we’re reading about all these prophecies, it’s easy to say, “Wait. If all of this is part of God’s plan, why did he plan the death of all those babies?” It makes God sound cruel, like he arranged for those little boys to be murdered.
And we are faced with the same questions every day. How can a good God bring so much suffering into the world? If God is so good, why do I face these struggles?
It’s a hard question, trying to reconcile how God is supposed to be in control of everything and at the same time seeing so much suffering. About one-third of the Psalms are expressions of grief because of hardship and oppression. Many times, David asks God why. The entire book of Job wrestles with why a good man would suffer so much affliction. When Job finally gets around to asking God why, what kind of answer does he get? Not the one he was looking for. God basically tells Job that there is no explanation that a human mind can comprehend. But I think we can understand this much: God doesn’t cause evil. I think we get that. But why does God even ALLOW evil to happen? Is he too weak to stop it? Or is he too cruel to care? Actually, part of the answer to the question of why we suffer is based on the fact that God loves us. He loves us enough to give us free will. It’s our messed up human nature that causes so many problems in the world.
We have to remember that, when the wise men showed up at Herod’s doorstep and revealed the existence of the Messiah to him, Herod had the opportunity to rejoice. “We’ve been waiting all this time! He’s finally come, and everything will be better!” Instead, Herod was thinking in his heart, “If some kid thinks that a star in the sky entitles him to MY throne, he’s got another think coming!”
God doesn’t make people evil. It’s their own choices. But because he exists outside of time, God can see exactly how everything plays out. He could see exactly when the people and situations in Israel would be right to send Jesus. And while he knew exactly how each person would respond—including all the evil that would try to destroy Jesus—it still grieved his heart.
Did God know that Herod would kill all those baby boys? Yes. Did he do anything to stop it? It doesn’t seem so. Did he know that his own son would suffer a cruel death at the hands of the leaders of his own people? Yes. Did he send his own son into the world anyway? Yes.
Because Jesus suffering and death were the only way that the rest of us could be redeemed. And therein lies another part of that answer to why. Sometimes, the suffering is necessary to bring about something better. But what results from suffering depends on us. It’s a choice between better and bitter. We can let the suffering poison us and make us bitter, blaming God and rejecting him. Or we can keep trusting that God sees a bigger picture than we do.
When the apostle Paul was writing to the Corinthians, he described the suffering that Christians were experiencing for their faith.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
But he also said, just a few sentences later,
For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Paul has been referring to the beatings and horrific deaths Christians were experiencing at the hands of Romans as well as Jewish leaders. And he calls them light and momentary affliction.
Paul ascribes value to the persecution, in that it is preparing the believers, helping them to look past the present to the eternal.
It all comes down to a choice. Are you going to trust God with your circumstances, no matter how bad they are? Will you continue to trust God, even if your circumstance continue to be bad?
I know what I want my response to be.
O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
God, all around me, it looks bad. And everything I see and hear tells me that I can’t trust you. In spite of it all, I choose to trust you. However long it takes, even if that means the rest of my life on earth, I know you will see me through.
And when I see those who may be the source of my suffering, help me remember that you want to save them too. It’s by your grace that they are still around, so that they may have the opportunity to repent and come to you. Help me set aside my desire for retribution and embrace your desire for reconciliation and restoration. Help me, from my heart, to live out your instruction to love my enemies, do good to those who hate me, bless those who curse me, and pray for those who abuse me.
And most of all, no matter how bad things seem around me, help me to remember that you are good, and that you really do love me.