Matthew 2:1-12
The King of the Jews

From the beginning of his life there is no neutrality toward this child. You either hate him enough to want him killed, or you love him enough to travel from afar and worship at his feet with costly gifts. There is no middle ground. There is only King Herod, and those like him, who see in Jesus a threat to their own authority. And there are the wise men and those like them who lay aside their own authority as nothing in comparison to that of this one who has come as a child but is the Creator of all.

In Jesus, one has come who will divide the world in two. Nothing will matter but whether you have sought him and found him or stayed away in unbelief.

1. The Unbelief of Herod and Jerusalem
   1. The Testimony of the Wise Men
      1. They come into Jerusalem "in the days of King Herod"
         1. And immediately, with these words, a tension is introduced, a problem is discovered.
         2. After all, has not Jesus been born to be king?
         3. And not just any king, but the son of David, David's successor to sit on David's throne.
         4. And where should David's throne be but in Jerusalem?
         5. But when the child is born, there is another king in Jerusalem, a king Herod.
      2. Herod has no such genealogy as Jesus
         1. He is a convert to Judaism, but an Edomite by descent
         2. That is, he is descended from Esau, from Jacob's unbelieving brother.
         3. He comes into the midst of the Jews, the descendants of Jacob, and he rules them. How? With the authority of imperial Rome behind him.
         4. The Jews did not invite him. They do not want him. He oppresses them and serves a foreign master
         5. He is everything that Jesus is not - a foreigner, cruel, a lover of earthly goods, and a despiser of God's people.
         6. This is Herod, the king of Judah, the king of the Jews
      3. And the wise men come to him and say, "Hail, king of the Jews!"
      4. No. They say, "We're looking for the king of the Jews. Any chance you can tell us where to find him? We want to worship him."
      5. To Herod they say this. To the king of the Jews!
      6. To him they testify, without meaning any offense, you are not the true king of the Jews, oh Herod. God has raised up another, the true king, and has testified of this glorious event in the rising of a star such as we have never seen before. Your days are numbered, oh King. The true King has been born.
   2. The Unbelieving Believing Response
      1. How does Herod respond?
         1. Does he rejoice at the prospect of being replaced by the man whom God has chosen?
         2. As a convert to Judaism, he ought certainly to desire the advent of the true son of David, the real king of the Jews. Surely this is good news?!?
         3. Instead, that wicked and unbelieving man is troubled.
         4. He is an Edomite and a Roman appointee. His claim to the throne is certainly vulnerable to someone claiming the true Davidic dynasty.
         5. So rather than rejoice in Jesus as his Savior, Herod is troubled by Jesus as his replacement.
      2. But after all, Herod is only an Edomite by birth. He is suspect. Considering the way he cosies up to Rome, one cannot really expect him to have the best interests of the Jews at heart.
      3. Surely the actual Jews in Jerusalem will have a different take?
         1. Rejoice greatly oh daughter of Zion. Shout, oh daughter of Jerusalem. Behold your King comes unto you!
         2. No such joy attends the news.
         3. "All Jerusalem" is troubled with King Herod
         4. They don't want their king either! Not if it means giving up their own status and prestige.
      4. So Herod gathers them together to discuss the matter
         1. He gathers the chief priests and the scribes
         2. How's that? They HATE each other!
            1. Herod is the evil oppressor. He's the sellout. He's the figurehead puppet carrying out the orders of Rome to tax the Jews and forbid them their own government and thus rob them of their identity as a nation. The chief priests and the scribes can't stand him.
            2. And the chief priests and the scribes are the self-righteous prigs who fail to bow to political realities and see what a good job Herod is doing on their behalf. Don't they realize that if Herod did not protect them a worse king would take his place? But no, they want impossible things like the right to rule themselves according to an impractical and ancient law. Herod has no love for the chief priests and the scribes either
         3. These mortal enemies sit down at the same table?
            1. Truly it seems like an evil fulfilment of the prophecy that the wolf and the lamb shall lie down together.
            2. The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Messiah
            3. And it will not be the last time, either
               • The pharisees (on the same side as the chief priests and scribes) will later run to their enemies the Herodians (followers of Herod) to see how they may kill Jesus. Their massive differences will seem nothing to them in light of this all-consuming hatred.
               • And so the chief priests and the scribes will deliver Jesus up to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate - whom they HATE - if only that Roman governor will put Jesus to death.
      5. Herod asks where the Christ is to be born
         1. Do you see the significance of this question?
            1. Herod knows!!!
            2. He understands that the one born the King of the Jews is the Messiah whom God promised.
            3. He doesn't assume that the wise men are on a false scent, off chasing a wild goose.
            4. He assumes that this is the real thing, otherwise why ask where the Messiah is supposed to be born?
            5. Do you see?
            6. If he thinks the wise men are wrong, what good does it do to know that the REAL Messiah, whenever he comes, will be born in Bethlehem?
            7. But if Herod assumes that the wise men are going to find the REAL Messiah, then and only then his question makes sense.
         2. This is a stunning confession on Herod's part
            1. He admits that he believes the wise men are on the trail of the REAL, once and for all Messiah
            2. And he's troubled
            3. Troubled by the news that God's Messiah is about to arrive.
            4. How clear it is that this unbeliever hates God and hates the kingdom that God is about to bring in his Son.
            5. This is the heart of unbelief, you see
               • Herod has a form of belief. He believes that the Messiah is about to come.
               • And he hates that Messiah with every fiber of his being.
               • Wretched man! And yet he is no different from what you and I were, dead in trespasses and sins, whether we knew it or not. How gloriously God has redeemed us.
      6. The Chief Priests and Scribes answer with Scripture
         1. "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet…."
         2. And Matthew quotes the prophet Micah, "But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will Shepherd My people Israel."
         3. He quotes Micah 5:2, but he makes some changes. Listen to Micah 5:2: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel
         4. Now here Matthew again, "But you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will Shepherd My people Israel."
         5. Several changes are notable
            1. Micah: "Bethlehem Ephrathah," / Matthew: "Bethlehem of Judah."
               • "Ephrathah" is a way of describing the area in which Bethlehem is located.
               • And it distinguishes this Bethlehem from another Bethlehem, far to the north in Israel, in the region of Galilee.
               • "Bethlehem of Judah" also makes this distinction, and it adds something of importance
                 • It reminds us that Jesus is of the tribe of Judah, concerning which Messianic prophecies were made.
                 • Through that, it reminds us that Jesus, not Herod is the true King of the Jews (for the word "Jew" comes from the word "Judah.)
                 • And thus we're primed to remember as well that this Bethlehem is the city of David, whose son Jesus is.
            2. Micah: "Though you are least," / Matthew: "You are not least."
               • Micah saying, even though you are small in Judah, yet something big is going to come out of you.
               • But that prophecy has been fulfilled in Christ!
               • And so Matthew cannot bear ever to call Bethlehem small again.
               • So Matthew rewrites the words of Micah. Deliberately!
               • Bethlehem, you were small once, but never again shall anyone dare to say that of you. For out of you has come the ruler over all the people of God.
         6. Micah: "out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel"/ Matthew "out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd my people Israel.
            1. Matthew weaves in a second prophecy, one made concerning David. God said to David, "You will shepherd my people Israel."
            2. And oh the contrast there was between David and Saul.
               • Saul was a bully, a warrior king who led by being stern and proud.
               • But David was a shepherd king, one who fed the flock and carried the lambs in his bosom and gently cared for those that were with young
            3. So it is that Matthew contrasts Herod the false king with Jesus, the son of David, the shepherd king.
      7. The Chief Priests and the Scribes also do not believe
         1. They know from Scripture where the Messiah will be born. They can pass a test.
         2. And Bethlehem is only five miles distant from Jerusalem.
         3. Yet they do not bother to go see whether he has truly come.
         4. The gentile wise men have come from afar; these Jews will not even check next door.
         5. They believe in a sense and yet do not believe.
         6. And so it is with the unbelieving world today. They know that there is good in Jesus. They acknowledge that. But they cannot be bothered to go to even a little trouble to seek him.
         7. Oh God save us from such "belief" and give us rather the faith of the wise men.
      8. He has come to be king of the Jews, but the Jews will not receive him. He is rejected by his own people. Yet from afar come worshipers who will give him the homage he is due.
   3. The Deceitfulness of Herod
      1. So Herod sends the wise men to check out the rumor.
      2. He pretends he is interested in worshiping Jesus
         1. Then why doesn't he drop everything and go with them?
         2. The fool! The liar!
         3. He wants to know Jesus' location so he can kill him.
2. The Faith of the Wise Men
   1. They Seek Him and They Find Him
      1. It was not hard.
         1. God testified to this birth with unmistakable signs
         2. He led them all the way by a star which, miraculously, hovered over the place where Jesus was
         3. All they had to do was be interested enough to lay aside their own worldly endeavors and search him out
      2. So it is, since his death and resurrection, that even more unmistakable signs point to Christ.
      3. Come and seek him all who will; you will surely find him and rejoice
   2. They Rejoice
      1. So we see "they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy."
      2. Matthew piles it on for this joyous occasion
      3. Their hearts are in the opposite state from Herod and all Jerusalem's
         1. They are not troubled at all but greatly joyous to have come at last to this King
         2. Their hearts are filled with joy.
         3. Their own authority and place in the world mean nothing to them, only that they have come upon this child.
         4. Here are men of faith, not merely formal belief.
         5. They seek Christ out and when they find him, he is everything that they expected and hoped for.
         6. And so the rejoice in God and give him glory.
   3. They Worship
      1. They bow down before him as before a king.
      2. But more than that, they bow down before him as before the Son of God. They kneel at the cradle of the one who is "God with Us" and are content.
      3. In this, they give up all respect and honor that is due to themselves; it all belongs to Christ, to the child before them. He alone is worthy. He alone is the king.
      4. So they offer him gifts, frankincense, gold, and myrrh
         1. Just as the Queen of Sheba so long ago. She came from the east to see Solomon and brought him rich gifts like these.
         2. So they come from the east to kneel before David's greater Son.
         3. Jesus will later say, "The queen of the South (of Sheba) will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed someone greater than Solomon is here."
         4. The wise men know this. And so they have come from the ends of the earth.
      5. The ends of the earth! I say
      6. They are the firstfruits of the Gentiles coming into the kingdom
         1. The Jewish rejection of Jesus becomes riches for the Gentiles!
         2. Jesus' place should have been mobbed with believing Jews, struggling for a chance to see and worship
         3. Instead, these obscure Gentiles have front row center seats, and are recorded in Scripture, and have a place in the kingdom of this king of the Jews.
         4. Many more shall come, Jesus will later say, out of the north and south and east and west and will sit at the Abraham's table and eat with him.
         5. By faith, these who were far off have been brought near, the foreshadowing of a great harvest.
         6. Here already we see that Jesus' people will reject him (though not all of them) but he will send his message out to the Gentiles who will receive him and be part of his kingdom
         7. By the end of the book this picture will be reversed in a delightful way
            1. Not the Gentiles streaming in from the ends of the earth
            2. But the Gospel going out to the uttermost parts of the earth.
            3. This is what we see foreshadow here as these wise men kneel before Jesus and give him gifts and worship him.
      7. Let us then worship him as well
         1. He has sent his gospel far to reach us
         2. He has brought a remote people to himself
         3. He has opened our hearts to believe what Herod and the chief priests and the scribes rejected.
         4. He is our Messiah, he is our King, he is our ruler who is a shepherd over his people. Though others reject the journey as not worth the trouble, we will come kneel before him and worship him and bring him gifts and rejoice in him exceedingly with great joy.

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