Good morning … Great is His Faithfulness …
Psalm 67.35,26
God is wonderful among his saints. Verse: Bless God in the congregations.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 2:11-18
2:10-11: TO MAKE … PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERINGS does not suggest there was imperfection in Christ before the Cross … rather He voluntarily took on human nature (All of one nature, v. 11), which can be saved and perfected only by the suffering of death … Christ is the pioneering CAPTAIN of the narrow path to God in His suffering for sin, death, descent into hell, Resurrection, and Ascension… In salvation we take on Christ’s way of sufferings… Our perfection requires a growth that is manifested in sufferings …
2:14: In the Incarnation, God did not come in appearance only; He truly assumed FLESH AND BLOOD from the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and became THE SAME as we are so that He could truly enter DEATH and bring us salvation … Christ destroyed the devil’s power by using the devil’s strongest weapon- death itself …
2:15: There is a relationship between sin and death: each one leads to the other … Sin causes death, and the FEAR OF DEATH leads one to sin and thus to BONDAGE – (Romans 5:12) … Christ sets us free from this bondage of sin and death …
2:17-18: IN ALL THINGS HE HAD TO BE MADE LIKE HIS BRETHERN – Christ was even TEMPTED – for what is not assumed is not healed, and what is united to God is saved … The Son is like us in His human nature; we do not become like Him in His divine nature … Hebrews moves without transition from Christ as sacrifice to Christ as HIGH PRIEST, for He is the Offering and Offerer … He is MERCIFUL on behalf of those He serves and FAITHFUL in His Ministry to God …
“Imagine this Jesus came to earth as BOTH fully GOD AND FULLY HUMAN … He was tempted by Satan, and He came with His Passion to die for all even His enemies … He once prayed Father please take this cup from me … He even said, Father the flesh is weak, but the Spirit is strong … Jesus was our example, and being both fully God and fully Human, He suffered and even went through temptation, there is not faith without struggle … (John 20:29): Jesus said to him, [a]“Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Gospel According to Matthew 2:13-23
2:14: Egypt is where Israel once took refuge: as Joseph of the OT once saved the Lord's people by bringing them to Egypt (Genesis 39-47), now Christ's step-father Joseph will also find safety in Egypt, and more than likely used the gifts from the magi to pay for the journey!!!
2:15: Out of Egypt I called my son refers to Israel being brought out of captivity (Hosea 11:1): in the OT, "son" can refer to the whole nation, so Yeshua (Jesus) fulfills this calling as the true Son of God by coming out of Egypt!!!
(Hosea 11:1): “When Israel was a [a]child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.
2:16: The cruelty Herod is that of the Pharaoh, who attempted the same destruction (Exodus 1:16,22)
(Exodus 1:16, 22): 6 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” 22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son who is [h]born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.”
2:17-18: Jeremiah recorded the people of Jerusalem being led away in exile (Jeremiah 38:15), on their way they passed Ramah, which was near Bethlehem, where Jacob's wife Rachel lay buried, prophecy Jeremiah saw Rachel, even from the grave, moved with compassion for the fate that had befallen her descendants: here Rachel is weeping for her children, see also (Jeremiah 38,16-17)
(Jeremiah 38:15)- Orthodox Study Bible (NKJV): Thus says the Lord: “A voice of lamentations, weeping and mourning was heard in Ramah … Rachel does not wish to cease mourning deeply over her children because they are no more” …
Jeremiah 38:16-17 – was paraphrased in my study notes come out of my Orthodox study Bible …
2:19: according to historical records Herod the Great died in 4 BC: The Date Christ's birth on which our current AD (Anno Domini, Latin for 'the year of the Lord) calendar is based off by 4 years!!!
2:22: Augustus Caesar banished Archelaus for his cruelty in AD 6, this revealed to Joseph to detour Nazareth (v. 23): This town was in Galilee and was governed by another son of Herod the Great, whose name was Herod Antipas (see, Luke 3:1)
2:23: The Prophecy here cannot be exactly identified: it had been taken as a reference to the rod (Hebrew. Neser) in Isaiah 11:1, and to Nazirite (Hebrew. Nazir) of (Judges 13:5): Matthew may also be alluding to a passage in which the Messiah was despised, since Nazareth did not have a good reputation, see (John 1:46)!!!
Judges 13:5: 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”
John 1:46: 46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
In Christ Love Jared W. Campbell
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