Coming of the King: Week 2

Matthew 2: The Dark Christmas

• 2:1 Herod hears the News from the East prophesied in Daniel 11:44.
• 2:6 Micah 5
• 2:15 "Out of Egypt have I called my son" - Hosea 11 is referring to Israel. But Israel is a type of Christ, so much so that Jewish Rabbis apply Messianic prophecies to the Jews.
• 2:18 A Voice Weeping in Ramah over the difficult birth of Benjamin. [Genesis 35:16] 600 years later, the tribe of Benjamin is nearly extinguished. [Judges 20] God speaks to her 1200 years later as if she is present, comforting her and promising that her work will be rewarded. [Jeremiah 31:16] Rachael was buried (1 Samuel 10:2) near Ramah (1 Samuel 7:17), where she died giving birth.
• 2:22 Archelaeus is the cause of the Sceptre departing from Judah - [Genesis 49:10] Herod Archelaeus causes too much bloodshed in his heavy handed rule (Wars of the Jews 2:8), so Rome banishes him to Gaul and makes Judeah a Roman province, appointing Caponius Procurator (around 7 A.D.), to have the "Supreme Power" over the Jews. The Jews went into mourning saying:

  "Woe unto us for the scepter has departed from Judah and the Messiah has not come!" (Babylonian Talmud, chapter 4, folio 37).

• 2:23 "He shall be called a Nazarene" - A shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. [Isaiah 11] נֵ֖צֶר (netzer) means "branch", and the town of Nazareth is essentially "Branchville". A prophetic pun. The "stump of Jesse" is itself prophetic of the Curse of Jeconiah, and netzer refers to the shoots that come up near a stump. Jesus grows up near, not in Judah, and He is not descended from Solomon, but from Nathan.