The Magi and the True King in Exile

ENGAGE

Opening Illustration / Image / Question: Have you ever trusted God, done exactly what He said, and still found yourself walking straight into danger or uncertainty? You obeyed—and instead of clarity or comfort, life became harder, more complicated, or even frightening.

Why This Matters Now: Many people believe God is powerful, but struggle to believe He is actively directing events when life feels unstable. When obedience costs us something, we quietly wonder whether God is really in control or if we are on our own.

Bottom Line Introduced: Matthew 2 shows us that God sovereignly reveals, protects, and identifies His Messiah—even when the circumstances look threatening or confusing.

TENSION

The Struggle: If Jesus truly is God’s promised Messiah, why is His life immediately threatened? Why does following God send Joseph and Mary into fear, displacement, and loss instead of safety and ease?

Why This Is a Real Issue Today: People still wrestle with trusting God when obedience disrupts their plans, threatens their security, or forces them into the unknown. Faith often feels risky, and many wonder whether God’s promises really hold up when life turns dark.

What’s at Stake: If we assume God’s control only exists when life feels comfortable, we may stop trusting Him when obedience becomes costly. Worse, we may know the Scriptures yet fail to respond with faith, just like those who knew where the Messiah would be born—but never went to see Him.

Transition to the Text: Matthew doesn’t answer these questions with explanations—but with events. So let’s step into the story and see how God reveals, protects, and identifies His Messiah from the very beginning.

TRUTH

(Resolve the tension through the biblical text)

Text

Gentiles Come to Praise Jesus

Matthew 2:1–6 ESV

1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3 When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: 6 “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ”

Matthew 2:7–12 ESV

7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11 And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12 And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

Exegesis: One of the coolest things about this text is that the first people to proclaim the birth of Jesus aren’t Jews, but Gentiles. We tend to think that only Jews really cared about God, but this isn’t necessarily the case. There are many cases where Gentiles care about God, try to do His will, and are knowledgeable in some way of the scriptures. These Gentiles apparently knew prophecies about a coming king, perhaps from Daniel’s writings, perhaps the Psalms, maybe even because of LXX. What they didn’t know was where the king was at.

Herod is confused, perplexed, and scared to the point he had all the smart people come together to figure out where this king would be born, which is Bethlehem (Micah 5:2). The magi get their answer and they head to Bethlehem.

These magi continue following this star and comes to rest over the place where the child was and they worshipped Him. They fall on their hands and knees, at this child, this baby, this toddler, and worshipped Him. They also brought gifts, which are purposefully brought.

Gold. Gold is the gift of a king. It is the valuable metal used to show off wealth, status, and power. What these Magi were signifying is that this child is a king. He has authority and power, He needs a gift befitting a king. Remember when the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon, she brought many gifts, including gold.

Frankincense. Frankincense was used as an incense to burn. It was commanded by God to be used in the temple in Exodus 30:34-38 and Leviticus 16:12-13. Every day, in the morning and evening, a priest would be assigned to light the incense in the temple for the daily offerings. On the day of atonement, this incense would then be put on the altar of incense in the Most Holy Place by the high priest to protect him from the presence of the Lord.

Myrrh. Myrrh is a tree resin used as medicine for its anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. It is also a material used in traditional embalming techniques. So this was a material normally used around sick people, or deceased bodies. Why would they give this to Jesus?

Application: What these magi were telling us, rather the Jews, is who Jesus is. They gave Him gold because He is going to become king. He will have a kingdom that reigns forever, not a physical one, but a spiritual one, one that cannot be shaken or destroyed.

The frankincense points to how Jesus will become the high priest. It’s an item used by the priesthood and we know that, according to Hebrews, Jesus entered the Most Holy Place in the heavenly places for us. He will stand as a high priest forever, not just another worldly priest that will die and be replaced.

The myrrh points towards his death. It foreshadows that His body will not decay. What they imply is that this child will die one day, but His body will not be corrupted, just as we see in Psalm 16:10

Big Idea: God uses Gentile worshipers to testify that Jesus is King, Priest, and Savior.

The Lord Protects His Messiah

Matthew 2:13–18 ESV

13 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.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 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.” 16 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. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “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.”

Exegesis: Some of the greatest atrocities to happen in all of history includes the murder of children. They are innocent and helpless, and any society that condones the murder of children finds themselves in hot water. Even pagans like the Assyrians had laws against it, yet we see it multiple times throughout scriptures. We see it with Egypt in Exodus, King Ahaz of Judah, and now we are going to see it again with Herod.

The magi are warned in a dream to not return to Herod because the Lord knew that he was going to try to kill Jesus. So the magi head straight home. At the same time, the Lord warned Joseph to flee with Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

Herod caught wind of all of this and in his very logical mind, said, “Let’s kill all the children under two because that’s how long the magi travelled to get here.” This moment would be recorded as the “Massacre of the Innocents.” Unfortunately, this was also prophesied to us in Jeremiah 31:15. Herod would essentially raze the whole region around Bethlehem just trying to catch this Jesus.

Application: It is easy for us to get wrapped up in all of the bad things that are happening around. I imagine joseph and Mary felt the same way. What I read here is one of the greatest shows of faith that we can see. Mary, a virgin, is with child. Joseph is told to stay because this is the messiah. 2 years after having his son, Joseph took his whole family to Egypt. All without question, even Mary, without question, went.

Big Idea:

Faith obeys God even when the path disrupts everything familiar.

The Lord Brings His Messiah Back

Matthew 2:19–23 ESV

19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 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.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 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. 23 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.

Exegesis: The Lord always has a way to make things work. He protects His people, His plans, His ways, and, ultimately, His Son. Herod dies while the family is in Egypt and the Lord tells Joseph to come back to Israel and settle there. Now Joseph was scared of Archelaus, who was just as violent as his father, so the Lord tells Joseph to settle in Galilee.

You might be thinking why Galilee? Wouldn’t Archelaus be ruling over Galilee too? After Herod dies, his kingdom is split into 3 sections to go to his sons Herod Archelaus, Herod Antipas, and Philip the Tetrarch. The Lord was sending Joseph and his family to an area under a different ruler and a safer environment.

The Holy family would settle in Nazareth and Matthew indicates that this was to fulfill a prophecy that He would be called a Nazarene. There is no direct reference to this, but scholars believe that this is in direct reference to Isaiah 11:1. The same base word for branch is the same base word for Nazareth and Nazarene. NZR=branch

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

1 There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Big Idea: God providentially directs events to fulfill His promises, even through danger and displacement.

Application

What this shows us is how the scriptures were fulfilled. We can have a faith that our God is faithful because all of these things had come true. Matthew references events for the readers to check against. he reference scriptures for the readers to check against. He is grounding these Jewish people’s faith in the scriptures that they so believe and pointing them to the one who has fulfilled them!

Conclusion

Restate the Bottom Line:

God sovereignly reveals, protects, and identifies His Messiah.

Final Illustration / Challenge: Matthew 2 forces every person into the story. The Magi respond with worship. Herod responds with resistance. The religious leaders respond with indifference—they know the Scriptures but never move their feet. And in the middle of all of it, God is not scrambling. He is not reacting. He is steadily, purposefully carrying out His plan. The same child worshiped by Gentiles, protected from a tyrant, and identified by fulfilled prophecy is standing before us in this Gospel. The question is not whether God has revealed His Messiah—the question is how we will respond to Him. Worship, resistance, or quiet distance.

Call to Action:

If Jesus is the promised Messiah—God’s King, Priest, and Savior—then He is worthy of more than information; He demands a response. For some, that response is repentance—turning away from sin and surrendering to His rule. For others, it is obedient faith, expressed in baptism for the forgiveness of sins, trusting fully in the Christ God has revealed and protected. And for every disciple, it is renewed worship and trust, bowing before Jesus not just with words, but with a life that follows wherever God leads.