Matthew · chapter 2 of 28
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Matthew 2 tells how wise men from the east come to Jerusalem looking for the newborn king of the Jews and worship him in Bethlehem with gold, frankincense and myrrh. King Herod, afraid, orders the young boys of Bethlehem killed, but Joseph flees to Egypt with Mary and Jesus after an angel's warning. After Herod dies, the family returns and settles in Nazareth.
After presenting Jesus as son of David and Immanuel in chapter 1, Matthew shows how the world responds to his birth. The first to worship him are foreigners, while the king in Jerusalem feels threatened. That contrast anticipates the whole Gospel, in which Jesus is rejected by many of his own people and welcomed by many from outside.
Jesus is born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod. Wise men from the east arrive in Jerusalem and ask where the king of the Jews who has been born is, because they saw his star and have come to worship him. Herod is troubled, and so is all Jerusalem. He gathers the chief priests and scribes, who answer from the prophet Micah that the Christ is to be born in Bethlehem. Herod secretly calls the wise men, learns when the star appeared and sends them to Bethlehem, asking them to report back once they find the child, supposedly so he can worship him too.
The star leads the wise men to the place where the child was. Seeing him with Mary his mother, they bow down, worship him and offer gold, frankincense and myrrh. Warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they go back to their country by another route. Then an angel of the Lord tells Joseph in a dream to take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, because Herod will search for the child to destroy him. Joseph rises by night and leaves. Matthew sees in this the fulfillment of Hosea: out of Egypt I called my son.
When Herod realizes he has been tricked, he orders the killing of all the boys in Bethlehem and its surroundings who are two years old and under. Matthew recalls Jeremiah's words about Rachel weeping for her children. After Herod dies, the angel appears to Joseph again and tells him to return to the land of Israel. Hearing that Archelaus rules Judea, Joseph is afraid to go there and, warned in a dream, withdraws to Galilee, to a town called Nazareth, so that it would be fulfilled that he would be called a Nazarene.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The wise men ask about the king of the Jews who has been born, because they saw his star and have come to worship him. Foreigners recognize Jesus as king before the leaders of his own people do.
The priests and scribes quote Micah: out of Bethlehem will come a ruler who will shepherd God's people. They knew the exact prophecy, yet none went to look for the child; knowing Scripture is not the same as responding to it.
Entering the house, the wise men see the child with Mary, bow down and worship him, and give him gold, frankincense and myrrh. Their worship is costly and sincere, and it shows that the nations come to Israel's Messiah.
An angel warns Joseph to flee to Egypt because Herod wants to kill the child, and Joseph obeys that very night. Matthew hears in the return from Egypt an echo of Hosea: Jesus relives and fulfills the story of Israel, God's son called out of Egypt.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Where the king of the Jews who had been born was, since they had seen his star and had come to worship him. — Matthew 2:1-2
Answer: In Bethlehem of Judea, according to the prophet Micah. — Matthew 2:4-6
Answer: Gold, frankincense and myrrh. — Matthew 2:11
Answer: They were warned in a dream, and they returned to their country by another route. — Matthew 2:12
Answer: To Egypt, because Herod was searching for the child in order to kill him. — Matthew 2:13-14
Answer: In Nazareth of Galilee, because Joseph was afraid to go to Judea when he heard that Archelaus was ruling there. — Matthew 2:22-23
The chapter shows three responses to Jesus: the wise men seek him and worship him with the best they have, the religious leaders know Scripture but do not move, and Herod sees him as a threat to his power. In a class or small group you can ask which of the three most resembles us today: costly worship, knowledge without action, or defending our own throne.
It is also a comfort to see that God protected his Son in the midst of violence and that he accompanies families who flee and suffer. Herod's evil is real, and Matthew does not soften it, but God's plan moves forward even through dreams, journeys and a quiet return to Nazareth.
Matthew 2 shows that the Messiah is worshiped by foreigners and hunted by a king, and that God guards him and leads him to Nazareth, fulfilling the Scriptures. Chapter 3 jumps ahead about thirty years and introduces John the Baptist, who prepares the way of the Lord in the wilderness.
Matthew calls them wise men from the east, people skilled in studying the stars and the learning of their region; the text does not say they were kings or how many they were. Tradition speaks of three because of the three gifts, but the passage only mentions the gifts. What matters is that they were Gentiles who worshiped the king of the Jews.
Matthew only says it was his star and that it led them to where the child was. Explanations such as a conjunction of planets or a supernatural sign have been proposed, but the text does not specify. What Matthew stresses is that God used that sign to bring the wise men to Jesus.
Matthew presents it as fulfilling what the prophets said, but no known prophecy uses those exact words. It has been understood in several ways: as a play on the Hebrew word for branch, or as an allusion to the contempt in which Nazareth was held, which the Messiah would bear. Either way, Matthew connects Jesus' humble origin with God's plan.