Latest Commentaries

For the second temptation, the devil takes Jesus to the top of God’s Temple in Jerusalem and tells Him to jump. The devil argues that this will publicly proclaim Jesus’s identity as the Divine Messiah.

The devil approaches Jesus with the first of three temptations. He asks Jesus to use His divine powers to turn stones to bread after Christ had fasted forty days and nights in the wilderness. Jesus uses scripture to refute the devil.

Following His baptism by John, the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Matthew introduces the main opponents of Jesus as Messiah: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They have heard of John’s popularity and have come to be baptized by him. Instead of being warmly received by John, he gives them a startling rebuke.

Jesus arrives from Galilee in order to be baptized by John. John recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and baptizes Him. As soon as Jesus comes up from the water, God’s Spirit descends as a dove and lands on Him. A voice from Heaven announces that Jesus is the Son of God.

John confesses that he is not the Messiah. John is only a lowly forerunner of the Messiah. John shifts metaphors and warns that the Messiah is coming very soon to reap. He will gather the faithful unto Himself and He will incinerate everything that is unfit and everyone who is unworthy when He appears.

John continues his rebuke of the Pharisees and Sadducees with a stern warning.

Matthew describes John’s strange appearance and extreme diet. Many from Jerusalem and the surrounding areas were attracted to John and drawn by his warnings to repent. As they came to him they confessed their sins.

Matthew points out that John the Baptizer is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 40:3.

Matthew changes the scene from Nazareth to the Judean wilderness. He describes Jesus’s childhood to just before He begins His public ministry. Matthew introduces John the Baptizer and his main message: “Repent, because the Kingdom of Heaven is coming very soon.”

After King Herod dies, an angel informs Joseph by dream that it is safe to return to Israel. Joseph obeys, but is careful to avoid the region of Judea, because Herod’s son is in charge. In another dream God warns Joseph to go north to the region of Galilee. Joseph obeys and settles his family in the Galilean town of Nazareth. Matthew finishes this chapter by telling his readers that Jesus’s upbringing in Nazareth is the (fifth) direct fulfillment of a Messianic prophecy.

Matthew points out that the tragedy of the murdered children in Bethlehem fulfills the prophecy from Jeremiah, again confirming Jesus as the anticipated Messiah.

King Herod is furious when he realizes that the magi tricked him. He sends soldiers to kill all the males in and around

An angel commands Joseph to take his young family away from Bethlehem and to flee to Egypt, because Herod will soon try to kill Jesus. Joseph obeys and stays there until Herod dies. Matthew highlights that this action fulfills the prophecy from Hosea, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

The magi continue following the star until it leads them to Jesus. They worship Jesus and present him with three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. When the magi leave, they do not return to Herod, because God warned them by a dream to not reveal Jesus to the wicked king.

Herod intends to kill the child sought by the magi and end the threat to his rule. He treacherously summons the magi to determine precisely when the star first appeared so that he would know how old the newborn king is.

The magi’s news of a newborn king disturbs Herod and all of Jerusalem. The child is a threat to Herod’s power. He summons the scribes and priests, and asks them to let him know where the Messiah is supposed to be born.

Matthew’s narrative of Jesus, the Messiah, continues with the arrival in Jerusalem of magi from the east. Having seen “His” star in the east, they have travelled from far to worship the young King of the Jews.

Matthew connects the miraculous birth of Jesus with the prophecy from Isaiah and the theological wonder that Jesus is God. After his genealogy and the descriptions of miracles and angelic dreams, Matthew rather plainly states the incredible, historical, wondrous fact that Jesus was born.

An angel of the Lord comes to Joseph in a dream and reveals four unusual things: his betrothed has been faithful to him despite her pregnancy; the child within her was conceived by God’s Spirit; the Son she will bear is to be named ‘Jesus’; He is the Messiah, for He will save His people from their sins.