Week 2 - Matthew 3-4 - Kingdom of Heaven

The ancients did not have a highlighter.  

Some used repetition, to highlight somethings importance:

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3

Some used repetitive conjugation:

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36

Matthew used the word “behold” (idou).  

In this section (Matthew 3-4), Matthew wants us to note two things:

1. That identification of Jesus as the Son of God was attested to by not only John’s vision of Heaven and but also by God’s voice coming from heaven to earth (Matthew 3:16-17).  This is notable because two testimonies were required to give evidence (Deuteronomy 19:15).
2. That the angels ministered to Jesus only after His temptation was complete (Matthew 4:11).  This is notable, because Jesus did not have their support (Hebrews 1:13-14) during the testing.  He did not use either His divine nature nor their support to withstand Satan’s temptations.  He was tempted as we are (Hebrews 4:14-16) and unlike Adam, Satan, and David, who all succumbed to the same temptations, Jesus withstood it.

In this way, Matthew declares to us that Jesus is fully God and fully man.

After His baptism and temptation, Jesus begins to preach the message of John.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus heralded the same message as John (Matthew 3:1-2) and it is the same message, that He later instructs His disciples to herald (Matthew 10:7).  

We are not being asked to cleanup up our act before it arrives.  That is never requested or nor required (Romans 5:7-8).  

The word “at hand” (engizō) is used in perfect tense, just like when the hour of His betrayal and His betrayer (Matthew 26:45-47) arrived, while he was still speaking.

Any sense of “not yet” is limited only to our own acceptance of that kingdom’s authority.  

 

Week 1 - Matthew 1-2 - King of the Jews

Herod, had been made “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate and early in his reign had rebuilt the second temple and enlarged the Temple Mount.  

Now late in his reign and fearing its end, Herod issued the order to commit what is called the Massacre of the Innocents.

This was not outside of his character.  Herod, over his lifetime, executed three of his sons (Antipater, Alexander, and Aristobulus).  Josephus even records that Herod, when concerned over the potential lack of mourners at his own death, ordered that upon his death, those present at the hippodrome (race track) would be surrounded and killed so that there would be mourning throughout the land. This was not carried out.

This was also not without historic reference.  A late pagan Roman author Macrobius (~400 AD) records in his book Saturnalia (II:IV, verse 11) that “When it was heard that, as part of the slaughter of boys up to two years old, Herod, king of the Jews, had ordered his own son to be killed, he [the Emperor Augustus] remarked, 'It is better to be Herod's pig than his son'”.  

Herod, being Jewish would not eat a pig, but being evil would kill his own son.  This may have been a popular and oft repeated taunt, because when said in Greek pig (choiros) and son (yhios) sound similar.  

That son, Antipater, was not killed as part of the Massacre of the Innocents.  Antipater was an adult and was executed just 5 days before Herod’s own death on the charge of attempting to murder Herod (See Josephus’ Antiquities Book XVII. Chapters 7 and 8).  

So Macrobius conflated the two events, but they appear to have occurred at the same time.  Josephus records Herod received permission from Caesar to execute Antipater on the same night as a lunar eclipse – the waxing moon of which was necessary for Mary and Joseph to travel at night.

Herod’s final act was to change his will so as to split up the kingdom and prevent any of his remaining sons from receiving the title of “the King of the Jews”.  

One cannot thwart God’s plan.