Week 37 Matthew 2
Starting to read the NT I get a reminder of the big information gap between Malachi & Matthew.
In Matthew 2 foreign astrologers arrive in Jerusalem and ask King Herod: where is the newborn king of the Jews?
Herod had no idea. But he’d heard rumours about a mysterious hero called The Messiah that Jewish people talked about. That’s why he asked the Jewish religious specialists: where did the prophets say the Messiah would be born?’ (not where is the newborn king of the Jews?)
The religious leaders quoted Micah: a ruler of Israel will come from (Bethlehem), one whose origins are from the distant past…He will be highly honored around the world. And he will be the source of our peace.
Over the centuries Jewish people had developed Micah’s ‘Ruler’ into a man they started to call The Messiah. So Herod had heard about the mysterious – and worrisome – Messiah and knew enough to ask where The Messiah would be born. (The religious teachers didn’t correct Herod…didn’t say “oh, Micah did not say anything about a Messiah! He just said a ruler”.) In the years between Micah & Matthew Micah’s Ruler had expanded and evolved into The Messiah.
So anyway Point #1 is that during the silent years Micah’s Ruler had been transformed & enlarged & renamed. He was the NT’s Messiah.
And Point #2 is a personal reminder that I’ve missed out on several centuries of information about how that – and other changes – came to be.
Note: quotes from Matthew 2:2-3 & Micah 5:2 (NLT)