Selected, Struck, and Scorned (Matthew 2:13-23)
Selected, Struck & Scorned
Matthew 2:13-23
As you know we have begun studying Matthew’s gospel,
And we have said that Matthew is writing to prove who Jesus is.
Predominantly Matthew is writing for the sake of the Jews.
He wants them to know that Jesus is their King.
• We saw Jesus’ earthly genealogy and learned that He is from the kingly line.
• We saw Jesus’ divine genealogy and saw Matthew prove His virgin birth.
• We saw Jesus’ prophetic birthplace of Bethlehem.
• We saw Jesus’ proclaimed birth as God displayed His star in the heavens.
But you and I know that the Jews were far more skeptical
Than they ever were believing.
They are routinely painted as those who refuse to believe the truth.
Isaiah 53:1 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
When Ezekiel was sent to the Jews, God told him:
Ezekiel 2:3-4 “Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day. “I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD.’”
And even Jesus said:
Matthew 13:14-15 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’”
Paul quoted the same.
Acts 28:25-26 “And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, ‘GO TO THIS PEOPLE AND SAY, “YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE;”
And so when Matthew sits down to pen his gospel,
He rightly understands he is not addressing an easy crowd.
That has been the reason for all the proofs thus far.
And this morning Matthew continues,
But in a way that may seem a little strange to us.
I hope you noticed as we read our text to get started this morning
That Matthew concludes the second chapter with 3 fulfilled prophecies.
In fact Matthew goes out of his way to include these three prophecies.
• No other gospel writer reveals Jesus living as an infant in Egypt.
• No other gospel writer reveals the Bethlehem slaying.
• No other gospel writer reveals why Joseph took his family to Nazareth.
And even in revealing these truths
Matthew doesn’t give you a whole lot of information
Beyond simply stating that it happened.
And so it becomes clear to us that Matthew’s point
Is not to give you historical data about the early years of Jesus.
(If you were looking for historical significance, you were probably confused)
Matthew wants you to see how prophetic His entire life has been,
And so he quickly runs through these events
Just so he can show you how they fulfilled prophecies.
But that isn’t all that makes this section a little difficult to handle.
The other thing that can make this section a little difficult
Is the type of prophecies that Matthew gives.
He lists three, but as you will see when we study each of them,
None of them are what we would have typically considered as a prophecy.
(You wouldn’t recognize them as predictions)
Yet, Matthew is adamantly saying that Jesus fulfilled those statements.
LET ME EXPLAIN
I know you recognized that Matthew gives three fulfilled prophecies.
I also hope you noticed the chronological order of those prophecies.
According to Matthew, Jesus’ early life sees Him:
Leaving Egypt (15)
Enduring a harsh judgment (18)
Being Excluded by the world (23)
And then we realize that this was also
The historical timeline of the nation of Israel.
Israel is seen as those who:
Left Egypt
Endured a harsh judgment
Excluded by the world
And so we realize that Matthew is revealing that Jesus’ early life carried Him down the exact same path that Israel walked.
THIS IS SIGNIFICANT
There were specific incidents and facts that a typical Jew would cling to
In order to reassure himself that he was one of God’s chosen people.
(We know because the church now clings to the same)
Here, Matthew reveals that Jesus also walked through each of those incidents, and therefore Matthew is using
The Jew’s own criteria to prove that Jesus is God’s chosen King.
Let’s work through each of these and hopefully you will see what I mean.
There are three facts about Jesus childhood
That Matthew wanted the Jews to know.
#1 GOD SELECTED HIM
Matthew 2:13-15
Now, not to spend too much time on the storyline,
But you do see what happens.
The Magi arrive and worship, but also bring danger,
Because they inform everyone of His presence.
And so now Jesus is not safe, and God has plans for Joseph.
(13) “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
We all know that God could have miraculously saved the boy.
But here God’s protection also involved human effort.
(14) “So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.”
Matthew isn’t interested about the details of the journey,
Or even where they stayed or what they did in Egypt.
Matthew is fascinated that Jesus went to Egypt and came home,
Because he saw this as an opportunity to convince the Jews.
(15) “He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”
And so there is the first.
And when we read that statement, our immediate assumption is that somewhere in the Old Testament someone must have said that God’s Messiah would come from Egypt.
Hosea 11:1-4 “When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.”
Undoubtedly if anyone read that this past week,
You probably did not read it as a promise about the Messiah.
God was merely stating how He has shown His love for Israel.
HOW DID GOD SHOW GREAT LOVE FOR ISRAEL?
He called them out of Egypt.
We call it the Exodus.
And it was the defining moment in the history of the Jews.
The Exodus proved beyond a shadow of a doubt
That God had selected Israel and that He loved them.
Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”
David said:
2 Samuel 7:23-24 “And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, before Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from nations and their gods? “For You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, O LORD, have become their God.”
Isaiah 43:3-4 “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. “Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.”
Listen to a portion of the song of Moses
Exodus 15:13-17 “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; In Your strength You have guided them to Your holy habitation. “The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. “Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. “Terror and dread fall upon them By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased. “You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.”
The point is that there was no event to the Jew like the Exodus.
• The Exodus is where God selected them.
• It was where God chose them as His own.
• It was where God called them out of Egypt.
And in Matthew’s day, the Jews still held to that fact.
They knew they were God’s
Because God had chosen them and redeemed them from the adversary.
(In fact, this is one of the ways that we know we are God’s,
Because He has chosen us and redeemed us from sin)
And now Matthew reveals that Jesus shares that same credential.
He also was called out of Egypt.
He also was delivered by God.
He was telling the Jews, that you cannot claim to be God’s people
On the basis of being called out of Egypt
Unless you will see that Jesus is also God’s Messiah
By reason of the same deliverance.
So the first proof Matthew gives is that God selected Him.
#2 THE ENEMY STRUCK HIM
Matthew 2:16-18
Here comes Matthew’s second proof,
And it follows Israel’s timeline as well.
We know that Joseph has fled to Egypt,
But obviously Herod does not know it.
He still thinks that Jesus is in Bethlehem,
And he has been waiting for the Magi to return and tell him where.
But the Magi were truly “Wise Men” and they went home another way,
And this infuriated Herod.
“When Herod saw that he had been tricked”
The word “tricked” is a word that often means mocked.
In other words Herod took their lack of compliance as a slap in the face.
“he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.”
It was a mindless event fueled with rage.
It was the working of a tyrant doing anything he could
To destroy the Christ child.
And Matthew sees that as the next step.
(17-18) “Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”
And there again, some might assume that somewhere in the Old Testament
Some prophet had said that the birth of the Christ
Would be accompanied by the slaying of Bethlehem’s babies.
But again, that is not the case.
This time Matthew is quoting from Jeremiah 31
And having studied much of Jeremiah,
You know what events Jeremiah was consumed with.
Jeremiah prophesied during the siege of Babylon and the following exile.
And in Jeremiah 31:15, Jeremiah spoke of the horrific response
Of the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the Babylonian attack.
Jeremiah 31:15 “Thus says the LORD, “A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”
Jeremiah wasn’t talking about Bethlehem’s babies and their mothers.
Jeremiah was talking about the slaughter of Jerusalem and the exile.
NOW WHAT THE REASON FOR THE EXILE?
(there were 2)
1) A punishment from God because of their idolatry.
2) Evidence that Israel had an enemy who hated them.
You see while God did punish Israel,
It was evident that the enemy God used routinely desired
To do more than God intended.
When God sent Assyria:
Isaiah 10:5-7 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets. Yet it does not so intend, Nor does it plan so in its heart, But rather it is its purpose to destroy, And to cut off many nations.”
When God sent Babylon
Isaiah 47:5-7 “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms. “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy. “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.”
And it wasn’t just the conquering nations.
Look at Edom’s response when Israel was defeated.
Obadiah 1:10-14 “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, You will be covered with shame, And you will be cut off forever. “On the day that you stood aloof, On the day that strangers carried off his wealth, And foreigners entered his gate And cast lots for Jerusalem — You too were as one of them. “Do not gloat over your brother’s day, The day of his misfortune. And do not rejoice over the sons of Judah In the day of their destruction; Yes, do not boast In the day of their distress. “Do not enter the gate of My people In the day of their disaster. Yes, you, do not gloat over their calamity In the day of their disaster. And do not loot their wealth In the day of their disaster. “Do not stand at the fork of the road To cut down their fugitives; And do not imprison their survivors In the day of their distress.”
Remember when Persia came to rule over Israel?
Esther 3:13 “Letters were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces to destroy, to kill and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, women and children, in one day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to seize their possessions as plunder.”
And if you study Daniel you learn that it didn’t stop with Persia.
Greece also tried to destroy, and Daniel even saw
That those attempts would not stop until the end of time.
We know that Germany tried.
We know that Russia tried.
The point is that God’s people have always had an enemy
Who has tried his hardest to destroy them.
And while that is not a pleasant thought,
It did work to reassure the Jews that they were God’s people.
Here Matthew says that same truth must also be applied to Jesus.
For He was also attacked by the enemy.
Just as the Jews were called out of Egypt and attacked during the Exile,
So was Jesus called out of Egypt and attacked like the Exile.
The enemy would never cease to try and strike Jesus either.
Zechariah 13:7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,” Declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.”
Just as the enemy is relentless in his pursuit of Israel,
So was he in his pursuit of Jesus.
If Israel is going to use those proofs to declare themselves God’s people,
Then they must be honest and see that Jesus is also God’s King.
God Selected Him The Enemy Struck Him
#3 THE WORLD SCORNED HIM
Matthew 2:19-23
After Herod died,
Joseph received another dream telling him he could return.
(22-23) “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
And here we find our final prophecy
And this one is even more tricky than the first.
Because again many assume that somewhere in the Old Testament
Some prophet said that God’s Messiah would be called “a Nazarene”.
But that is not the case.
In fact, the Old Testament doesn’t even contain such a statement.
SO WHY USE IT?
He is pointing out something that was also important to the Jews,
And that is not only did the Jews know they were God’s people
Because they had an enemy.
They also knew they were God’s people
Because the world treated them as outcasts.
Aside from the enemy who seeks to kill them,
The Jews also take pride in the fact that the world segregates them.
“This just proves that we are God’s people.”
(Is the same not true of the church?)
Matthew is revealing here that Jesus also shares that distinction.
“He shall be called a Nazarene.”
And in case you didn’t know, when the world calls Him “Jesus of Nazareth” that is not a term of endearment. It was a term of scorn.
Remember Nathaniel?
John 1:43-46 “The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, of the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote — Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
One commentator said:
“Nazareth was the town which housed the Roman garrison for the northern regions of Galilee. Therefore most Jews would not have any associations with that city. In fact those who lived in Nazareth were thought of as compromisers who consorted with the enemy, the Romans. Therefore to call one “A Nazarene” was to use a term of contempt.”
(Bible Knowledge Commentary, pg. 23)
And here Matthew completes the cycle
To show that Jesus is also God’s chosen Messiah.
A Jew knew he was God’s chosen because:
• God Selected him by calling him out of Egypt.
• The Enemy Struck him, by continually seeking to kill him.
• The World Scorned him, by treating him as an outcast.
And indeed those same criteria follow God’s people even to this very day.
We are those selected, yet those who are scorned.
1 Peter 1:1-2 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.”
God’s people have always been scattered,
But she is also selected, chosen of God.
And now Matthew says, if those are your criteria,
Then let me introduce to you God’s king who was also:
Selected by God
Struck by the Enemy
Scorned by the World
AND SO THE JEWS SHOULD RECOGNIZE THAT JESUS IS GOD’S KING
Now I am well aware that you are not Jewish, and I am also aware that Matthew’s argument may not be as convincing to you.
SO LET’S JUST TAKE THESE TRUTHS AT FACE VALUE FOR A MOMENT.
If Jesus isn’t God’s King, then why did Herod try so hard to kill Him?
If Jesus isn’t God’s King, why did God go to such great lengths to protect Him?
If Jesus isn’t God’s King, why does the world respond so negatively to Him?
When you get honest, it is obvious.
The world hates Him because He convicts them.
John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”
Satan wanted to kill Him because he knows Jesus will condemn him.
John 12:31-32 “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
But even more than that,
God preserved Him because He is the Savior of the world.
Acts 4:10-12 “let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead — by this name this man stands here before you in good health. “He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
JESUS IS GOD’S KING
And the call of your life is to submit to Him.
This morning we come to this table to illustrate that submission.
(If you have not submitted in your heart, this table means nothing)
This table is a living illustration of our submission to Him.
As we “Do this” in remembrance of Him.
Jesus was taking the Passover with His disciples.
The Passover was a reminder of the Exodus and God’s deliverance.
Jesus said, from now on, when you take this Passover,
Don’t remember the Exodus, remember Me.
When you eat the bread remember My body.
When you drink the wine remember My blood.
And once again draw your heart to Me in gratitude and surrender.
That is what we do this morning.
But before we partake, we always have a time of preparation.
1 Corinthians 11:27-28 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”
This time is for those who are not ready to partake.
They are not ready because their lives are not in submission to the King,
And therefore this ordinance means nothing.
This morning take this opportunity and bow your heart to the king,
Surrender your life to Him, and join us in the Lord’s Supper.
