Section IV

Jesus is at his birth glorified by divine signs as the messiah, or king of the Jews, and as god’s son

(Mat 2:1-23)

The circumstances under which Jesus was born, were so ordered by God as necessarily to form and connect themselves into a wondrous wreath of divine signs, designating Him as the Son of God, the Saviour of the world. These circumstances form an apology of Christ, in fact, which presents in symbolically significant outlines all the requisite essential proofs of His uniqueness (and so of apologetio recognition).

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. This circumstance was necessary to exhibit full proof of His descent from David-of His legitimate title, according to the Old Testament, to the Messianic dignity. It was not His birth in Bethlehem, but the fact that He was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, which made Him the Messiah. Yet His birth there was one of the conditions, without which He could not have appeared as legitimately invested with the dignity of Messiah. For Micah had prophesied (Mic 5:2) that the Messiah would come forth out of Bethlehem. He has as His first credentials the theocratic historical qualifications. The angel of the Lord announced Him, naming Him by name; a mother, descended from David, conceived Him in faith and brought Him forth; His foster-father, the legitimate heir of the royal throne of David, adopted Him; and that theocratic sign was also fulfilled, that He should be born in Bethlehem. He has thus the historical qualities of the Messiah. As the heavenly, wonderful, and new in His appearing was declared by His birth of the Virgin, as it was mediated by the relatively virgin births, so His coming forth out of Bethlehem completes the proof of His historical descent

The wise men from the East, Gentile magi from a distant land, came to worship Him as the King of the Jews, because, as they said, they had seen His star. The noblest minds of all times in all the ends of the earth are drawn to Him by a miraculous attraction. All the elect discover their star which leads them to Bethlehem.

The star which was made to the magi a sign of the birth of Christ, was without doubt the brilliant, principal star of the constellation in which it appeared. To us it is a symbol of nature in its eternal relation to Christ. The stars in the depth of the heavens, the star-like flowers of the field, and the star-like pupil of the human eye, all prognosticate that a star of the stars in the spiritual world must be born, in which all the lights of nature and of heaven shall be transformed from the darkness of nature into the light of the one all-embracing and actuating Spirit. The wise men came to see the star from their being driven by a deep impulse to devote themselves to the study of astronomy.¹ Even studies and sciences in their development all follow the golden thread which conducts them into relation with the appearing of the Logos, for He is the centre of the logical (Logischen) in all things.

When the magi appeared in Jerusalem with the question, ‘Where is He that is born King of the Jews?’ king Herod was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. The thought of the birth of the Holy One rebukes the great and powerful of the earth; it shakes and excites the court, the city, and the masses. As soon as Christ appears, the wicked instantly feel the spirit of antipathy; they fear Him from afar, and forthwith hate Him. The powerful persist in their wickedness, headed by hoary tyrants or youthful genialities: they set in motion the masses of sluggish sinners, and the coteries of comfortable citizens; they settle the time and give the impulse for showing enmity to our Lord. This is a true token of the honour of Christ: the wicked are His enemies.

Herod assembles the chief priests and scribes, and demands of them where Christ should be born. Following Micah, they answer him correctly, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea.’ True, it does not occur to them to go to Bethlehem themselves, along with the Gentile seekers, yet by their learning they must show them the way to the right place. True, they are very unbelieving in their heart, yet that they are orthodox believers in their system renders a great service to the children of longing, as the lifeless finger-post by the wayside is of service to the living traveller. Even dead orthodoxy, the ordinances and symbols of benumbed communities, and cold ministers of the Church, must still testify of Christ. All their stark staring towards the holy, all their stiff finger-pointing, is profitable to, the children of the truth, whether these come from heterodoxy or heathenism, or even from astrology, to inquire after the individual centre of the world’s history, of the human race, and of life.

The scribes, in giving their decision, appealed to Mic 5:2, ‘And thou, Bethlehem, land of Judah, art not the least among the chief towns of Judah (not too small to be a chief place in Judah); for out of thee shall come the Prince who shall feed My people Israel.’² Thus Micah has given a very definite historical characteristic of the life of Christ. And so have all the prophets traced the most expressive outlines of His form, sometimes more ideal, sometimes more historical, but always ideal features having historical reference, or historical features having ideal significations. The visions of the prophets have their fulfilment in Him.

Thus God bears testimony to His Anointed through the ordinary operation of His providence in the ordinary relations of life, through the calm course of history and of nature, through the spiritual bent of good men and the conscience of wicked men, through the investigations of science, the dogmas of theology, and the word of Scripture. But He equally bears testimony to Him by extraordinary displays of providential power in the extraordinary relations of life, in the moving incidents and struggles recorded in history. God’s providence protects the Holy Child—protects the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, in the Church, and in all hearts, by the most manifold displays of wisdom and power, and thereby gives the strongest attestation of His holy life.

Herod sends the wise men to Bethlehem to inquire about the child, and to bring him word, and then he will come and worship Him also. In order to put the child to death, he seeks by skilful hypocrisy to overreach the devout magi, whom he regards as fanatics. The wise men hear him, depart without replying, and, again guided by the star, find the child. And now the cunning of the gloomy prince threatens to gain the victory over the devout feelings of the magi. But their deeply presentient mind, their capacity for receiving a revelation from the Lord, who warns them in a dream, prevents them from returning again to Herod. By a like capacity, Joseph also is made aware of the future. He receives warning from the angel of the Lord to flee to Egypt with the young child and His mother. Thus there is continual contest in the world between the wicked and the righteous regarding the life of Christ; and the always new, yet similar decision of this conflict, is one of the greatest testimonies which God gives to Christianity. The craftiness of unbelievers often seems to outbalance the simplicity of the saints; it appears as if they would succeed in making use of believers themselves to give a deadly blow to the life of Christ. But equally often does the great and eternal Master reverse the case; the adversaries are always worsted in the end; they are employed to point the way to God’s people, to further their cause, their knowledge, and their zeal. And all this comes to pass because pious minds are endowed with a presentient sagacity, which under the influence of the Spirit of God unfolds itself into a glance of divine penetration, and then happily shows the stupidity which always latently underlies the craftiness of the wicked.³ Thus danger threatens the life of Christ in many ways, but in as many it is wonderfully turned into benefit and blessing. The ordering of Providence, which always gives Christ’s servants the victory over the wicked, bears testimony to Christ.

The men of longing shall assuredly be guided to their goal and perfected in the view of the life of Christ. This is shown by the way in which the magi continued to be guided. When the voice of Herod ceased to sound in their ears, the star again faithfully led them to their goal.⁴ Notwithstanding the eastern heathen presentations they had been accustomed to, the lowliness of Christ’s appearance hinders them not from worshipping in Him the new-born Prince of salvation. They enter into spiritual fellowship with Joseph and Mary. They do homage to the child by offering Him as gifts the noblest products of their native land, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And now they can return home with the peace of God. We should consider well the divine element in the steady guidance of all the receptive to Christ, in order to perceive therein a fresh testimony to the truth of the salvation which is in Christ. This beautiful triumph of the Holy Child over the devout speaks still more strongly than His judicial triumph over the wicked: the providence of God is revealed with equal power in both.

At the angel’s bidding, Joseph flees by night to Egypt with the young child and His mother. Herod long waits in vain for the return of the magi. Their non-appearance enrages him; and he now takes means, probably through secretly hired banditti,⁵ to slay the children in Bethlehem under two years old. This is the commencement of the historical sufferings of Christ. Only through flight to Egypt can the young child be rescued; His parents must suffer with Him, and the blood of many an innocent child flows on His account. But this suffering too contains a very special testimony to His preciousness. He, as the true King of Israel, immediately experiences the deadly hate of the spurious, although outwardly legitimate, temporal prince in Israel. The old might of the old world, the old mind of the old Adam, and the spirits of the olden time, fight against Him to the death, because He is the New Man, the Founder of a new world, the Prince of the new kingdom of heaven. And if as child He here suffers less than His fellows, it is because He is spared for the heaviest sufferings. He escapes the lesser suffering in order to die on the cross. But the elect suffer with Him. Weak women, women in child-birth, mothers, follow with heroic courage Mary’s path of suffering. With Christ, the innocent suffer and die; and notwithstanding its tragic character, the martyrdom of the innocent children is interwoven with a wondrous power of attraction into His destiny. Let us look at the suffering Christ, and in conjunction with Him the band of fellow-sufferers, in order to feel the full historic force of His sufferings, and how He is glorified by His sufferings and by His fellow-sufferers.

But in this rescue of Christ’s life the ministration of the spirits of heaven is brought specially under consideration. The angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream, and warns him to flee; he appears to him again, and bids him return to his native land, and once more⁶ directs him to settle in Galilee. Thus the angels must continually serve the cause of Christ and further His course through the world. There are heavenly revelations whose delicacy, spirit-like nature, secrecy, and silent power of most profoundly influencing the mind and life of the elect, far surpass the faith and feeling of many men (even of many of the orthodox). But those who are faithful in the service of Christ are endowed with a sense for receiving them. From his faithfulness and loving care, what a ready ear has Joseph in the service of the child and His mother! Thus testify in all the world the dreams and thoughts by night, the silent footsteps, the bold and speedy journeys of devout faithfulness and faithful devoutness, as they are always directed to guarding the life of Christ for His hidden and infinitely rich glory. Finally, the life of Christ had other specially significant features. He came out of Egypt to Canaan as God once had called the people of Israel out of Egypt⁷ In order to be secure from the enmity of Archelaus, who was Herod’s successor, He grew up in the poverty of Nazareth—in a despised place, like so many prophets of the Lord before and since.

Matthew has noted these two features, and others besides, in order to show how wonderfully the types and prophecies of the Old Testament were fulfilled in the life of Jesus. As in the birth of Christ from a virgin he saw a saying of Isaiah’s, and in His being born at Bethlehem a word of Micah’s fulfilled, so in the flight of the holy family to Egypt he found confirmation of the word of the prophet Hosea: ‘Out of Egypt have I called My Son.’ In the slaughter of the innocent children he found a fulfilment of that word of Jeremiah: ‘In Kama was a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning; Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. Finally, in the fact that Nazareth became Christ’s home, he saw the realization of a collective expression of all the prophets, that Jesus, having grown up in a lowly and despised condition, should be called a Nazarene.⁸

He saw the word of Hosea fulfilled, because from the days of old the spirit of Christ had been the very substance which made Israel as a people the son of God. He saw the word of Jeremiah concerning the wailing Rachel now realized in the highest sense, because it appeared that the children of Israel were not, when the Idumean on the throne of David sent and slew the innocent children in Bethlehem in order among them to kill the Messiah, when His destruction seemed to be certain (or to have already overtaken Him).⁹ He saw, finally, in the fact that the Messiah would have to be called a Nazarene, a fulfilment of those sayings of the prophets which had foretold the contempt, and especially the misjudging in respect to His descent, which He would be brought to experience.

He evidently wrote the history of the birth of Christ with the higher theocratic Israelite consciousness, which formed so definite a contrast to that of the Pharisees. He saw the true King of Israel, not in Herod, but in the Son of Mary; the true divines, not in the dead priests and scribes of Judea, but in the devout star-interpreters from the heathen world; the true residence of Christ, not in Jerusalem, but at Nazareth; the true glorification of the Messiah, not in human pomp, but in His sufferings, in the wondrous protection vouchsafed to Him, and the divine signs which glorified His entrance into the world and His childhood.

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Notes

1) If it is objected, that the astrology which these men devoted themselves to is a superstitious pursuit, the objection overlooks the distinction between that vigorous and noble form of astrology which gave rise to astronomy, and the astrology of the present day, which is to be considered as the dead husk of astronomy.

2) The mysterious contrast of the lowliness and loftiness of Bethlehem, once omitted in the list of the chief places of Judah, and then signifying the whole land of Judah, pretypifies a similar contrast in the life of Jesus.

3) It is well known that the antagonistic critics do not wish that any one should assume such want of presentiment (stupidity) in Christ's adversaries, or hold that at bottom the devil himself is stupid.

4) Were it a mere geographical or topographical pointing out of the way that was meant, Jerusalem would not have been the first place in which the magi would have had to inquire. See above, vol. i. p. 306.

5) Not through regular officials. See above, vol. i. 310.

6) On the return of Joseph's dream, see above, vol. i. p. 311.

7) So also, He partly made science and worldly conquerors issue from the mysterious land of Egypt.

8) See above, vol. i. p. 316-7.

9) See Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfüllung, ii. 66; as also the excellent observations on the weeping of Rachel (62), and at the same time the remarks made regarding the position of Rama (60).