‘His own arm brought salvation’ (Isa 59:16; Matthew 1-2)
Having explored different aspects of Matthew’s Gospel on Jesus’s birth, I now draw together his portrayal of the events into an overall picture.
A friend of mine once told me how saddened she was that she messed up God’s plans with her past mistakes. I suspect that there are others who worry that their failures thwart God’s purposes in their lives. As we come to Christmas, what can we learn about God’s plans and how He handles our failures? In Matthew’s account, we see first of all some aspects that go according to plan. Jesus comes as the long-awaited Messiah, who fulfils OT prophecy: He is Immanuel (Matt 1:22-23), God’s answer to those who trust in Him, a descendant of David, in the royal line of kings (Matthew 1), born in Bethlehem (Matt 2:5). Even the tragedy of the children’s massacre in Bethlehem (Matt 2:16-18) anticipates better things to come, as the exile points to future restoration (see my post here).
However, there is failure too that threatens God’s plans. In the background of the Immanuel prophecy is Israel’s unbelief when King Ahaz turned to human rather than God’s help (see my post here) and the implication is that it might happen again. Likewise, the fact that Jesus will symbolically take on the role of Israel (Matt 2:15, see post here) suggests the people’s failure to fulfil God’s mission. In contrast to the wise men who come from afar to worship Israel’s king, Israel’s religious leaders, who know the prophecies, do not recognise or seek out the child born in Bethlehem (Matt 2:1-12). In fact, Matthew hints at Jesus’s rejection by His own in the title of ‘Nazarene’ (Matt 2:23, see post here). Still, God is not taken by surprise. Matthew’s genealogy suggests a pattern already present in the OT: outsiders may overtake God’s people because they come in faith, while the chosen people can only stand if they come in trust and repentance. Thus, Matthew includes in the list three foreign women (Matt 1:3, 5 – Tamar, Rahab and Ruth),[1] who demonstrate faith and commitment to the God of Israel. The fourth woman, described as ‘the wife of Uriah’ (Matt 1:6), recalls David falling into sin despite his being God’s chosen king.
God then is not fazed by the unexpected, by our failures. He wants to involve us in His work, as He does with Joseph and Mary, as He wanted to do with Israel. He calls us to trust Him and His sovereignty is evident in all the twists and turns of human choices, obedience and disobedience. He sends His angel to Joseph to reassure him about Mary (Matt 1:20) and despite the odds, Joseph trusts God’s perspective. The wise men from a distant land come because of God’s intervention of sending a star ahead of them (Matt 2:2, 9). They are warned about Herod’s evil intentions, as is Joseph (Matt 2:12-13). The latter is then directed to return from Egypt with his family and warned against settling in Judea (Matt 2:19-22). At every turn, God guides and protects despite human evil and achieves His purposes as He wills – with or without human co-operation. As a student of mine aptly put it, God’s will is like a river: when it meets a rock or obstacle, it flows around it, it will not be halted. Whether we are among the faithful insiders like Joseph and Mary, the faithful outsiders like the wise men, we can marvel at God’s amazing wisdom in bringing His plan to completion. Even if we come as insiders who have fallen away from the Lord, David’s story teaches us that those who approach God in repentance will find grace and restoration.
[1] Tamar (Genesis 38) is not explicitly mentioned as a foreigner, but it is widely assumed that she is a Canaanite. Rahab, if she is the woman who hides Joshua’s spies (Joshua 2), is a Canaanite, and Ruth, of course, is a Moabite woman (Ruth 1:4).
