Printable Handout

1. Who are these magi/wisemen and what are their intentions with Jesus?

2. Why would Herod be troubled about the birth of the messiah? Shouldn’t he be happy?

3. In verse 8 Herod tells the Magi to report to him so that he may “come and worship Him.” What are Herod’s real intentions here?

4. Why is it rather thematically fitting for Jesus to go spend time in Egypt? How would this relate to the story of the nation of Israel and Jesus as the culmination of that story?

5. Why does Herod kill all the kids of 2 years of age or younger in Bethlehem? 

6. Based on Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth, what should we expect to find of the adult Jesus?

7. How can we relate this passage to our own lives and to our modern contexts?

Congrats on finishing Matthew 1 with your groups. This week you’ll be going over an entire chapter: Matthew 2. 

As per usual, your agenda should be to fellowship, then pray, then read Matthew 2, then get into the discussion and see where it takes you. It is okay to skip over or even add questions, these questions are just a guideline. As always I have provided you some answers for these questions if people seem a bit stumped.

1. Who are these magi/wisemen and what are their intentions with Jesus?

   • They are astrologers from probably Babylon or Persia

   • They intend to go and worship Jesus

2. Why would Herod be troubled about the birth of the messiah? Shouldn’t he be happy?

   • Herod is well documented as very violently defending his position of power. This messiah would have a better claim to the throne that Herod currently sat on. Thus he say this kid not as a savior, but as a threat.

3. In verse 8 Herod tells the Magi to report to him so that he may “come and worship Him.” What are Herod’s real intentions here?

   • Herod intends to kill this kid

4. Why is it rather thematically fitting for Jesus to go spend time in Egypt? How would this relate to the story of the nation of Israel and Jesus as the culmination of that story?

   • In essence the story has gone back to where it all started: Egypt. Israel was led out of Egypt by Moses, now the one greater than Moses is seemingly walking that same kind of path. Additionally Jesus’ life vaguely takes on that similar path that Israel follows throughout the Old Testament. 

     • A young Israel was led out of Egypt and into the land (Exodus through Judges) | A two year old Jesus is led out of Egypt

     • Then what is essentially Israel’s golden age begins and the people are following God earnestly despite some obvious hiccups (David and Solomon) | Jesus begins his ministry and calls the 12 to him and is just garnering a following wherever he goes

     • Things start going wrong in Israel, the people begin rebelling against God (the divided monarchy) | Jesus begins battling with the religious leaders

     • The unthinkable happens: Israel falls (the exile) | The passion narrative

     • Israel is restored (Nehemiah and Ezra) | The resurrection and the establishment of the church

5. Why does Herod kill all the kids of 2 years of age or younger in Bethlehem? 

   • From what he gathered from the religious leaders and the magi, the messiah was born in Bethlehem likely around 2 years ago. So with the magi not telling him exactly what kid it is, Herod decides to just kill the whole lot of them

6. Based on Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth, what should we expect to find of the adult Jesus?

   • We expect to see a King of the Jews, a rightful heir in stark conflict with those that have usurped His throne

7. How can we relate this passage to our own lives and to our modern contexts?

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to session 3’s teacher’s guide. For this session we will be going through Matthew 2, which is a story rather unique to Matthew’s account. As you saw with last session, Matthew doesn’t take it upon himself to record a lot of Jesus’ birth narrative. Luke is the one who records what we today would call the nativity scene with Jesus in a manger, Joseph and Mary relegated to a stable, shepherds coming and bowing down with angels heralding this new born messiah. Last session you saw Joseph have a dream and that’s about it. 

Now in this session we will read about another group who often get lumped into that nativity scene, but as you read you’ll notice that the timing is a bit off. Based on the atrocities to come it would seem Jesus is about two years old when the magi come, a group that only Matthew mentions either way. This session is about those magi, but even more so is about the roman appointed ruler over Judea: King Herod. Not to be confused with the more lax Herod Antipas who is over Galilee, King Herod is a ruthless man and we will see him commit an atrocity this chapter that we don’t even see recorded in history because it would have been one of the smaller atrocities that he would commit.

The Magi (Mt. 2:1-12)

This chapter opens up with Jesus having already been born in Bethlehem. Jesus’ birth is recorded as being just before King Herod’s death, something we see later this chapter, is usually dated about 4 BC (Turner, 46; France, 86). It seems that Jesus along with his parents are still in Bethlehem about 2 years later. While not explicitly mentioned, we can infer this because Herod gathers from the Magi when the star appeared in v. 7 and then proceeds to only kill male children two years and younger later on in v. 16. This would imply that Herod was expecting Jesus to be about 2 years old at this point.

Some magi show up in Jerusalem looking for a messiah. The term Magi most likely refers to some kind of eastern astrologer, likely from Arabia, Persia, or Babylon (Turner, 46; France, 86). This raises some rather interesting questions about the nature of these men. First is that they are likely gentiles, or non-jewish. They are specifically looking for the “King of the Jews” (Mt. 2:2 NASB), which those of use with a more judeo-christian background can easily identify as the long awaited messiah of the Jews. Yet these are not men from that kind of background. To put it into our modern equivalent, it is the same as some dude from the Netherlands coming to America and almost eager to tip their server. Tipping your server is a uniquely American thing and we wouldn’t expect non-Americans to be very aware of it, and the same is happening in this passage. Some non-Jewish people show up in Jerusalem asking about the fulfillment of centuries old prophecies. 

Thus our biggest difficulty here is how in the world did these magi understand the rising of a star to represent the coming of the messiah and how did they even know about the messiah? If they are men from Persia or Babylon, then there is a rather simple answer for how they even knew anything about a Jewish messiah. The answer would be the exile. Their cultures had encounters with people like Daniel and Esther. These encounters weren’t just minor either, both Daniel and Esther had direct ties to the kings of Babylon and Persia at their respective times. In other words, it wouldn’t be hard to assume that some of these interactions would have been written down and eventually passed down to people like the magi. In terms of the star pointing towards the messiah, it is likely some kind of understanding of Numbers 24:17 (Turner, 46; France, 86). 

These magi naturally go to Jerusalem, expecting to find a king in the capital of the region. When they don’t find him they go asking around. News of these foreigners looking around for the king of the Jews reaches King Herod and sparks some fear into him. Herod is a roman appointee and an Edomite not a Jew (France, 88). Thus if this messiah has come, a proper son of David, then his position is in danger, this Jesus has a better claim to the throne Herod currently sits upon.

Then in v.3 we also see that Jerusalem is a bit troubled as well. We would expect for them to be happy about he coming of the messiah, but it’s not what we see. Likely the reason why the city itself is troubled is because of King Herod’s typical approach to rivals. This is to say that Herod has a bit of a reputation for being rather violent when it comes to dealing with rivals and the citizens of Jerusalem fear what wrath this man would bring upon them in order to secure his throne (Turner, 47; France, 88). This is a rather justified fear considering what Herod does later in this chapter.

So Herod brings together the scribes and chief priests demanding to know where the messiah is to be born. From them he ascertains that the answer is Bethlehem. Matthew includes the prophecy for this as well, which is actually a mix of Micah 2:5 and 2 Samuel 5:2, the last line “who will shepherd my people Israel” (Mt. 2:6) being from 2 Samuel (Turner, 47; France, 88). The inclusion of this prophecy seems to fit rather well into the narrative while Matthew is also hinting at Jesus’ birth coming in line with messianic prophecies, furthering Matthew’s agenda here of putting forth Jesus’ proper claim to the be the King of the Jews.

Herod then calls in these magi in order to determine when the star appeared. Based on what happens later this is likely to try and figure out just how old this potential rival is. Thus Herod now knows how old Jesus is and roughly where to find Him. Herod then seeks to further narrow down his search by asking the magi to return to him when they have found Jesus so that Herod himself can go and “worship” Him. Now it’s clear to us that Herod has no intention of bowing down before Jesus, and it would be just as clear to anyone in Jerusalem. Now the magi, by nature of being foreigners, would not know much about Herod and his rather bloody history. So they agree and scoot off to Bethlehem.

The magi find a two year old Jesus and offer him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Now I’ve heard it put forth that these would have been largely symbolic gifts relating to his death, but the reality of these gifts are likely more in tune with connecting Jesus to the line of David. This is likely a connection to not just David, but to his son Solomon. These three gifts would have been rather common gifts to give to a king (Turner, 49; France, 89). Now what Matthew is likely alluding to here is Solomon being visited by the Queen of Sheba (Turner 49; France, 89). It’s clear elsewhere in the old testament that there was some kind of expectation of gentile rulers bringing ransom to the messiah in places like Isaiah 60:6 (Turner, 49; France, 89).

At verse 12 is where God starts shifting Herod’s plan. Once those magi return Herod knows exactly who he needs to kill. Thus God puts two major snags in Herod’s plan. First he comes to the magi in a dream warning them to not return to Herod. Thus they go home via a different route. Then God warns Joseph in a dream to go out into Egypt to avoid Herod’s wrath. 

The Flight to Egypt (Mt. 2:13-15)

The flight to Egypt might seem a bit odd considering they were still in Rome, but Herod only had jurisdiction in Judea (France, 81). Essentially they crossed state lines looking for asylum. Then when Herod eventually dies they will return from Egypt, fulfilling not necessarily a prophecy but following more of that typology from last session. Last time discussed that the sign given to Ahaz was a type that is fulfilled in Jesus. Now we see a quotation of Hosea 11:1 which is primarily talking about the nation of Israel, a nation that Jesus embodies (France, 81). God called Israel out of Egypt in the Exodus, and Matthew is connecting that story to the story of Jesus having to flee into Egypt and then returning to his people, though instead of returning to Bethlehem Jesus and his family end up in Nazareth.

The Atrocity in Bethlehem (Mt. 16-23)

Now in verse 16 we see just why even the city of Jerusalem was concerned about the birth of the messiah. Bethlehem is only about 6 miles from Jerusalem (Turner, 51), so it probably doesn’t take long for Herod to figure out that the magi will not be returning. When he does piece it together he goes with plan B. Herod, very much living up to his reputation, goes and slaughters all the male children in Bethlehem under 2 years old. To us in the modern day this would be something horrific that we would cry out against. Yet for Herod this was very par for the course. So much so that the death toll this day wouldn’t even be enough for historians to consider this a major event. I say this because we actually don’t have much in the way of historical accounts of this atrocity, but it’s not surprising because there is plenty of time spent on Herod’s other atrocities where he has even gone as far as not just killing potential rivals and their co-conspirators, and even the families of those conspirators, but Herod has even killed three of his own children (France, 91).

Matthew then appeals to a major biblical theme brought up by Jeremiah. Jeremiah speaks of the coming exile and that there was still a hope for the remnant that would return, a theme that is echoed in this story with Herod. The theme is this: that quite often grief comes before blessing (France, 92). This is a theme we see throughout scripture and truly in our  own lives as well. We see it in Joseph (not Jesus’ father but Israel’s son) where he is betrayed by his brothers and eventually gets betrayed again and locked up only to eventually find himself as second in command of Egypt. We also see this theme in the life of David. He spent many years on the run from Saul before finally becoming king of Israel. We also see this in the life of Moses who spent many years in Midian, running from a murder he committed before God reunited him with his people and brought them all out of Egypt. We also see this theme quite heavily in the New Testament. This chapter is one example, of this atrocity acting as a prelude to the wondrous arrival of the messiah. Also later on with Jesus’ death acting as a prelude to His resurrection. We also see in the lives of all the apostles. They lived lives of wandering, lives of persecution, ones in which all but one apostle was put to death for their faith. Yet it is just a prelude to what they will partake along side us today when Christ returns.

Conclusion

This chapter finished up Matthew’s prelude. Chapters one and two act much like a prologue, showing us what we should expect of this messiah. They lay the claim that this kid is the heir of David. His parents know it, the magi know it, even Herod knows it. 

Much like the opening prologue of a movie that sets up the central conflict of the story, chapter 2 in particular sets up the central conflict of Jesus’ time on Earth. We see a world that desperately needs a messiah, yet that world is going to rebel against Him. A world where some roman appointee sits on the throne of David, free to commit any kind of atrocity in the name of personal power. Jesus is going to go into conflict with the ruling authorities in Jerusalem as he grows older. And these authorities will eventually put Him to death.

Bibliography

France, R. T. Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1985.

Turner, David, and Darrell L. Bock. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 11: Matthew and Mark. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2005.