WHEN Herod learned that the wise men had dared to leave the land without first coming back to tell him of the child, he was furious and in his rage he sent and had all the young boys in Bethlehem, from two years old and under, slain. Evidently he assumed that such an age would cover the period from the time the wise men first saw the star until he found they had left the land. This terrible act of Herod was also the sad fulfillment of another prophecy in Jeremiah, “Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”
After the death of Herod Joseph was told by the angel to go into the land of Israel (he did not say Judea nor Galilee, but he uses the name given to His people of old). Accordingly Joseph went back to the land of Israel, but when he heard that Herod’s son reigned in the land, he was afraid to go into Judea, so he turned aside into the land of Galilee, to the city of Nazareth. Here a scripture had to be fulfilled, though it is unlikely that Joseph knew of it. Jesus was to be called a Nazarene. Galilee was despised by the Jews, and Nazareth was a despised city (even by the Galileans themselves) in a despised place.
In chapter 3 we have John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea. The priests and the temple might be in Jerusalem but it only shows what God thought of that whole system of things. His servant was apart from it all and his preaching was with power. “Repent ye,” says John, “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” John was as a herald going before the coming of a most wonderful Person and the Spirit of God gives his mission as that foretold by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” It was not man’s way, but “the way of the Lord,” and there was need for self-judgment. “Make His paths straight.” They needed to repent and prepare their hearts to receive their Messiah; repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus go together.
John’s preaching was not a complete fulfillment of that prophecy spoken by Isaiah, chapter 40:3, because there it goes further and refers to the Lord’s coming in judgment. But here he was coming simply as a man, Jesus, who would show grace to His people before He manifested His judgments.
The term “kingdom of heaven” (or “of the heavens") was something entirely new. The coming of the Messiah called for this change. Men would be called on to own the rule of the heavens, and we shall see as we go on in this book that this period covers the whole time between His first coming and His coming again. The old order was based on the giving of the law through Moses at Mount Sinai, and as it was given it demanded their obedience. But their blessings connected with the kingdom of heaven as proclaimed now, called for repentance and faith in the coming One. But as it is now, so it was then. The vast majority of the people did not see the necessity of repentance. It was no longer a question of claiming Abraham as their father. Perhaps we have had Christian parents, but we cannot claim their faith as our shelter from judgment to come. Each one must know Christ as his own personal Saviour in order to be saved.
ML-01/21/1962