Matthew 2:2-18
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 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.”
When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 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. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
“‘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.’”
Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 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.”
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. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 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. 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
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.”
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 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.”
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. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
“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.”
Jesus Faced Imminent Death from the Moment He Was Born
King Herod was ruling over Israel during the time Jesus was born. When King Herod was approached by the Magi, the king misunderstood how Jesus would rule as “king.” It was completely intolerable to King Herod that another king would rule over Judah. He plotted a scheme in order to locate baby Jesus to kill him. However, the Magi, who had discovered the whereabouts of Jesus, received a dream to not report back to King Herod. God also gave Joseph, Jesus’ father, a dream revelation through an angel to take baby Jesus and flee to Egypt that night. Upon realizing the Magi’s ruse, King Herod then mustered his cavalry right away in order to kill Jesus, and he ordered the slaughter of all boys under two years old in Bethlehem and its vicinity.
Fate Is Determined by What You Say
The prophecy that a ruler would come out of Bethlehem was not talking about a physical king like Herod. It meant that according to what God had promised for 4000 years, God would send a shepherd for His salvation history, a religious leader. The high priests and the scribes perceived the prophecies about Jesus incorrectly and could not testify properly, putting King Herod in the position to misunderstand the importance of Jesus’ birth. Therefore, knowing and explaining properly in detail is important so that there are no misunderstandings.
The Hope in the Messiah
Jewish religious people who believed in God eagerly awaited the fulfillment of God’s promise throughout the Old Testament. God’s promise, put simply, was that God would come and save them–that He would send the Messiah to save them. Despite many persecutions and difficulties that the Jews went through, this promise that God would send the Messiah was still a history of hope.
It was recorded in the Bible that the Messiah would come riding on a cloud, so the Jews waited for God’s divine body to come directly, and they waited for the Messiah to come riding on the clouds of heaven. However, in the scriptures (Matthew 1 & Isaiah 7:14), it mentions that the Messiah would be born as a baby through the body of a woman on the earth. And according to the promise that a virgin would conceive and give birth to a son, Jesus was conceived within Mary, his mother, and came from his mother’s womb. God came using Jesus’ body. The prophecy that Jesus would come riding on the clouds of Heaven was a parable. As the true Messiah, Jesus surely fulfilled all the prophecies in the Old Testament and grew in wisdom and knowledge on the earth.
If people perceive incorrectly about the Lord’s Second Coming, then the greatest hope Christianity has been dreaming of for 2,000 years also cannot be fulfilled. No matter how good your dream is, if you live with false hope and wrong perceptions, that hope will become a mere vision that ends in vain.
In each time period, the one who saves mankind comes from among those who are waiting for him. It happened in the Old Testament with Moses, in the New Testament with Jesus, and will happen again.
When a King of Peace Is Born
The Messiah’s birth impacts the earth. When the King of Peace is born, God blesses that nation, liberates the people, and brings them peace. Jesus came as the King of Peace, and from the time he came, the history of restoration began in Israel. If that generation had known and followed him properly as the King of Peace, then Israel would have become a nation of peace according to God’s Word. Instead, as the gospel that Jesus preached was spreading throughout the earth, Christians faced endless persecution, tribulation, and difficulties. Believers of Jesus were brutally martyred. Consequently, those obstructing nations ended up suffering misfortune depending on how they had treated the King of Peace. The same is true in every time period.
We must become people who believe in God properly and surely act on and fulfill His Will according to His promise. We must receive the King of Peace with knowledge.
