One of the early promises in Scripture of the hope of the gospel comes in Genesis 3:15 as the Lord says to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” As believers, we love this promise because it points us forward to the day when Jesus Christ would, by his death, destroy the one who holds the power of death, the devil. For this reason, this text has sometimes been referred to as the “first gospel” declaration in Scripture.
But what may be missed is that the Lord did not simply promise salvation. He promised warfare. He promised that there would be enmity between the serpent and his offspring and the woman and her offspring. This was a promise that at every turn the devil and those who follow him would be after this promised savior. And from this point forward in Scripture, we see this reality played out.
In Revelation 12, John paints this exact picture from the other end of the Bible. He pictures a woman about to give birth to a child “who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5), and right as she’s about to give birth, there is a great red dragon (later identified in that chapter as the serpent and the devil) waiting to devour this child. But right as he’s about to devour the child, this offspring of the woman who is coming to rule, the child is caught up to God and to his throne. He is given divine protection.
Now, I mention this scene of the promise of enmity between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman in Genesis 3:15 and the scene of the dragon/serpent/devil coming after the offspring of the woman who has come to rule the nations, pictured at each end of the Scripture, because what we have going on in the text we’re looking at this morning is one of the clearest episodes of this reality played out in history. Matthew 2 is a picture of this promise fulfilled, this vivid picture played out, where the serpent and the serpent’s offspring is coming after the offspring of the woman who is the rule the nations, and the child being given divine protection.
We could trace out the story between Genesis 3:15 and Revelation 12, showing this story repeating itself again and again. Sometimes the offspring of the serpent is Cain, or the Pharaoh, or Goliath, and divine provision comes in the form of the birth of Seth replacing Abel, or Pharaoh’s daughter rescuing a Hebrew baby named Moses who would deliver his people from Egypt, or a shepherd boy named David protecting the Lord’s people by slinging a rock into the giant and cutting off his head, but the general elements of the story are there in each case (and in many other texts in Scripture I don’t have time to reference specifically). But this morning, we see the prophesied story played out in history when a wicked king named Herod, understood that the one to rule the nations, Jesus, had been born, and decided to kill him. But once more, the promised offspring is protected, this time though it’s not through a stone-slinging shepherd but through a poor carpenter named Joseph, who obeyed the Lord, at every turn, continually moving the child out of harm’s way so that this chapter reads like a geographical tour of the middle east in the first century.
Within the full story of the Bible, I think that this is the continuing bit of the story that we’re supposed to see. We’re to see the dragon trying to slay the offspring of the woman, and God protecting the child who would rule the nations (and indeed now does as Jesus reigns from the right hand of God).
The story itself is simple to tell and understand. Some bit of time after Jesus was born, you have some wise men, as the text says, from the east who have seen this star that they believe is showing where the king of the Jews has been born, and they desire to worship him. And their travel leads them to Jerusalem, where word of these men and, more importantly, the birth of this king traveled to the king, Herod. Now, Herod was a paranoid man who was suspicious of anyone and everyone seeking his throne. He’d even murdered a favorite wife and a couple of sons because of his paranoia. So, when he hears one referred to by these wise men as the “king of the Jews,” when he is currently king in Judea, you can imagine what kind of rage goes off in him.
Now, here’s the interesting thing, Herod was right and wrong. He was right in that Jesus was indeed born to reign as king. As David’s promised son, that was his role. He was to reign over the Lord’s kingdom. And he was also coming to reign over Judea. But the reason he was coming to reign over Judea is because he was coming to reign over the whole earth, in accord with the promise God made about David’s son. So, in one sense, Herod was right to understand that Jesus really had come to reign, even over the land in which Herod was king.
Where Herod was wrong, however, is that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world. Jesus wasn’t born to ascend to an earthly throne in Judea or anywhere else. He was coming in order that he might first reign over the world from the Father’s right hand.
Nonetheless, Herod was paranoid, and Matthew tells us that “he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him” (v. 3). Now the reason all of Jerusalem was troubled with him is no doubt because when a paranoid murderous king is troubled, no one is safe. So, when he called for the chief priests and scribes, they no doubt came quickly. And he had one question for them. He wanted to know where the Scriptures prophesied that the Christ would be born. And they answered him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet [then they quoted Micah 5:2]: ‘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’” (vv. 5-6).
So, he then summoned the wise men to ask them when the star appeared (wanting to get a general time no of when this born king had possibly been born and how old he was – v. 16), and asked them to go to Bethlehem, find him, and bring word back to him so that he might worship Jesus as well. Only the reality is that he wanted to kill the child.
Yet, here’s where we begin to see divine protection of Jesus. After finding the child, worshiping him, and giving him gifts, they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod. Herod’s first attempt to kill the child was thwarted. Then, there is an invention of divine protection again as an angel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him to take Jesus to Egypt because Herod is about to search for the child in Bethlehem and kill him. And, as we would expect from Joseph, he obeys immediately, leaving that night and heading to Egypt, probably even financing the trip by the gifts the wise men had given.
Now, Bethlehem wasn’t far from Jerusalem, so when the wise men didn’t show back up quickly, Herod knew he’d been deceived, so he became furious and ordered that all male children in Bethlehem and in that region who were two years old and under were to be killed. But Jesus was already gone.
Finally, an angel of the Lord appeared one more time to Joseph in a dream, telling him that Jerod was dead and that he could go back to Egypt. However, Jerod realized that Archelaus, a ruthless son of Herod, was reigning over Judea, as he was once more warned in a dream, so he went to Galilee and settled in a city called Nazareth. Thus, the child was protected from Herod (the offspring of the serpent), who wanted to kill him.
That’s one major theme that we find in chapter 2 of Matthew – the divine protection of Jesus, the promised Son of David who has come to save his people and reign over the world. But you’ve no doubt noticed another as we walked through the narrative, namely, that every turn it seems fulfilled prophecy. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, went to Egypt, was a toddler during a time when Herod had many Hebrew boys killed, and settled in Nazareth, all in fulfillment of prophecy. So, what is Matthew telling us? Well, for one, he’s telling us that nothing here was happening by accident but that Jesus was being protected according to God’s providential plan.
But there’s something else Matthew tells us as well with each of these references to fulfilled prophecies. I think Matthew is also telling us about the identity and mission of Jesus. He’s telling us who Jesus is and what he came to do. After all, Jesus and his work is the main focus of Matthew’s gospel, so this that I want us to see this morning. First, we are reminded that,
Right out of the gate in this story we find out that Jesus is the fulfillment of a direct prophecy that God’s promised ruler would be born in Bethlehem. When Herod questions the wise men as to where the Christ was to be born, the answer they give uniformly we are told is Bethlehem because that’s what had been prophesied in Micah 5:2 (quoted in Matthew 2:6). And sure enough that’s where he was born.
But if this means that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy made in Micah 5:2, then it means that Jesus is the one spoken of in Micah 5:2. And if he’s the one spoken of in Micah 5:2, then it means that Jesus has come to be a ruler, or we might say, a king.
Now, I won’t belabor this point because we’ve already noted that the Christ is a king who reigns over the whole world when we looked at Matthew 1:1-17, and we have noted that Jesus claims his reign over the whole world when he says in Matthew 28:18 that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him.
This has implications for how we understand evangelism. Evangelism isn’t trying to get people to see that they can have a better life or be less lonely if only they’ll believe in Jesus. Evangelism is the declaration that God has appointed his king in Jesus, who reigns over the world, and will judge his enemies (which they happen to be right now if they’ve failed to trust in Christ). However, there is good news: the king has offered terms of peace, terms of reconciliation. He lived, died, and was raised so that you might bow the knee to him in faith and be forgiven, escaping the wrath of God that you deserve. That’s the good news. But don’t be deceived, if the good news is not obeyed, there will be eternal punishment. The gospel is at once an invitation and a command that must be obeyed.
But Matthew points us to something else about Jesus’ mission, namely,
Now, how do we see that in the text? Well, we see it in Matthew 2:15. Matthew 2:15 has served as one of the more confusing texts in Scripture because it seems that Matthew is stretching his reference to prophecy here. Jesus goes to Egypt, from which he will ultimately go to Nazareth, and Matthew tells us that this fulfills a prophecy from Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Now, first of all, the reason it gives us problems at first glance is because Hosea 11:1 doesn’t seem to be prophetic. Hosea is clearly not talking about something that is to happen in the future. In fact, he’s talking about something that happened in the past. Out of Egypt he called (i.e. something that has already taken place) his son. So, how does Matthew say that Jesus fulfills this as he goes and eventually comes out of Egypt?
Well, there are a couple of things that will help us answer this question if we understand them. The first is that while the Old Testament provides a number of direct prophecies (like Micah 5:2, which tells us the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and he was), far more often the Old Testament provides us with what we might label “indirect” prophecies. These indirect prophecies are simply repeating patterns, or types, or symbols that point us forward to a greater reality to come.
So, we see this with priests and the sacrifices of bulls, goats, and lambs in the Old Testament. The priests and the animal sacrifices are direct prophecies to be fulfilled (like saying the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem), but they do prophesy. They points us forward. Every time the priest died and needed to be replaced by another priest, it pointed us forward to look for an ultimate priest who could come and live forever, so that he could intercede for us forever, so that we could be saved forever. Every time that the blood of bulls and goats was shed for the forgiveness of sins only so that we could repeat that sacrifice again and again it pointed us forward to look for a sacrifice that could be made once for all that need not be repeated. These were types, shadows, and symbols of Christ who would come as our great high priest and offer the sacrifice of himself once for all. And the Old Testament is full of these repeating patterns of indirect prophecies that we see as types, shadows, and symbols.
Well, one of these is found in this repeating pattern of “son.” The idea of a son in the Bible is one who would resemble, reflect, and imitate one’s father. So, for example, when Luke traces Jesus’ genealogy all the way back to Adam in Luke 3, he calls Adam the “son of God” (Luke 3:38). Why? Because Adam was God’s son. He resembled and reflected God, being made in God’s image, and he should have resembled, reflected, and imitated God in how he ruled over the creation. But we know that Adam didn’t resemble, reflect, and imitate God in his wise rule over creation. He actually rebelled against God.
So, did God simply declare that he would not have a “son” in this sense? No, he actually began to raise up a people for himself from Abraham, named, Israel. And when Israel went into slavery in Egypt, the Lord sent Moses to say to Pharaoh in Exodus 4:22-23, “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me.’”
And eventually, the Lord did deliver Israel out of Egypt, bringing them into Canaan, the promised land so that they might reign over the land, resembling, reflecting, and imitating their God as his son, even as Adam was to do in the garden. But, as we know, they, like Adam, rebelled against God, and, like Adam, were driven from their land. So, did God then just say, “There’s no hope. I’ll never have a people who’ll resemble me, reflect me, and imitate me”? No. He actually promised David (as we looked at three weeks ago) in 2 Samuel 7 that someday, from David’s line, he’d raise up one of David’s descendants who would reign on the throne forever, and he noted specifically, “he will be a son to me” (2 Samuel 7:14).
This is the recurring prophetic pattern that Matthew is picking up on in Hosea 11:1. Matthew says that Jesus is the fulfillment of Hosea 11:1 not because he’s playing with language but because he’s sending this message that in Jesus, who is retracing the steps of Israel (he'll soon go into the wilderness to be tempted) is God’s true, promised son. He’s the one all of these declarations of God’s son were pointing toward.
Jesus obviously perfectly fulfills what the Old Testament looked for, God’s true Son. Jesus is a man (the God-man) who perfectly reflects God, resembles God, and imitates God. He is, after all, the God -man.
But, and this is thrilling to consider, Jesus didn’t come merely to be God’s son but, in the words of Hebrews 2:10, he came to bring “many sons to glory.” That is, Jesus came, as God’s true son so that we might be united with him by faith and become sons of God through him, because when we’re united with Christ, what is true of him because legally true of us as well. When we place our faith in Christ and are united with him, we are instantly adopted as sons of God. And one day we will be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ (as Romans 8:29 tells us) so that we will resemble, reflect, and imitate God ourselves as we reign over a new heavens and new earth alongside Jesus Christ.
That biblical truth is reflected as Matthew identifies Jesus as God’s true (prophesied) son. He’s come to gather a people (sons) for God. Third,
As all the babies two and under are being killed in Bethlehem, Matthew says that this fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. Then, in 2:18, he quotes Jeremiah 31:15, “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.”
Now, this, too, is an odd prophecy. But let’s start with what is going on in Jeremiah 31:15. As Jeremiah 31 begins, the people of Judah are being led into exile. And as they’re being led away by the Babylonians, they stop to gather up the exiles in Ramah, where Rachel (Jacob’s wife) was buried nearby. So, Jeremiah says that Rachel was weeping from her grave, if you will, because she was like a symbolic mother of Israel, now watching her children go away (being led into exile).
You can see then some parallels here in Matthew 2. Here you have children literally going away. No doubt there are mothers crying. But how does this section of Jeremiah really get fulfilled here? Well, to answer that, you need to understand that Jeremiah 31:15 is fit in a broader message of that chapter, and this one verse is really the only sorrowful verse in Jeremiah 31. In fact, in the very next verse, Jeremiah 31:16, Rachel is told to stop crying, for God is going to redeem his people, like he redeemed them out of Egypt.
Actually, he is going to redeem them in a way that is superior to their redemption from Egypt. When he redeemed them out of Egypt, the Israelites were physically free from bondage, but they were still bound in sin and still bound to face judgment for that sin, weren’t they? And indeed they did face judgment for their sin as they died in the wilderness. However, Jeremiah foretells that there is a day coming when the Lord would gather a people and make a new covenant with them, forgiving their sin and remembering their iniquity no more (Jer. 31:34).
I think what Matthew is wanting us to see is that the time of Rachel’s crying for her people being in exile, in bondage, is now fulfilled. It is coming to an end because the one who is coming to redeem them from sin, death, and judgment has come. God’s new covenant promises (the reason Rachel was told to stop crying) are here, and they are being carried out in Jesus of Nazareth who would live, die, and be raised so that we might trust in him, be forgiven of our sins, and be made sons of God. I think that’s what Matthew is telling us, namely, that Jesus has come to fulfill each of these promises, each of these prophesied realities.
But there is one more. Finally, I want us to see that,
The last prophecy that Jesus fulfills is perhaps the oddest. After Joseph protects Jesus by settling in Nazareth instead of in Judea where Herod’s ruthless son reigned, Matthew tells us that this fulfilled the prophecy that Jesus would be called a “Nazarene” (v. 23).
Now, what’s odd about this is that “Nazarene” isn’t mentioned by any prophet in the Old Testament. There’s never a phrase, “He will be called a Nazarene” that can be found anywhere. So, what is Matthew doing?
Well, first of all, I think he gives us a clue that something different is going on with this prophecy. He notes in the other references that these things were spoken by the prophet, but on this occasion he mentioned “spoken by the prophets.” That is, he’s referencing something not particular but something general spoken by the prophets. But, if “Nazarene” isn’t mentioned, what would Matthew’s readers have thought when they read this?
Well, what they would have thought when they heard “Nazarene” is someone who would be despised, rejected, and ridiculed. Nazareth was a despised place. And to be from Nazareth would be to be despised, ridiculed, and rejected. Do you remember what Nathaniel said in John 1:46 when Phillip told him that he’d found the Messiah, “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph?” He said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Now the prophets mention nothing about Nazareth or a Nazarene, but they do foretell that the Messiah would be despised, rejected, and would suffer. And that’s what happens with Jesus. He came to the very ones who should have been longing for his coming and rejoiced at his arrival, and they rejected him. At his birth, it’s not the scribes and chief priests who come to worship him but pagan wise men from the east.
And eventually, he was despised and rejected to the point that he was nailed to a tree—crucified. As Genesis 3:15 promised, the serpent bruised the heel of the offspring of the woman. But here’s the glorious news, as the Son was crucified, he was dying for the sins of anyone who would believe him so that they might be forgiven and freed from Satan’s tyranny. That is, he was crushing the head of the serpent. And as he rose from the dead, he guaranteed that all who trust in him would one day be completely free from Satan, sin, and death as well. But until that day, we follow one who was despised, rejected, and crucified. And his call to us is to deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow him. Obeying Christ may cost us everything, even our lives. But in the end, we can persevere in faith because we know that Jesus is the promised ruler, who is gathering a people for God, having redeemed us from sin and judgment, and who will one day finally and fully destroy Satan, sin, and death so that we might dwell with him forever. Let us then given thanks to Christ for his redeeming work as we now come to the table. Amen.