Book of Matthew – Matthew Chapter 2 Summary
September 11th, 2007Quick Chapter Summary
- ‘Wise men*‘ go looking for newborn ‘King of the Jews’ based on prophesy.
- King Herod (the actual ‘King of the Jews’) sends them to Bethlehem to find this newborn king and report back so he can ‘worship’ (kill) the baby.
- They find baby (Jesus). Give Him gifts (gold, incense, and myrrh).
- God reveals to the Wise men the plan of Herod in a dream. He also reveals to Joseph that he needs to take his family to Egypt because Herod is coming to kill Jesus.
- Wise men return home via a different route without telling Herod.
- Herod becomes furious when the Wise men don’t return. He orders all boys under the age of 2 in and around Bethlehem to be killed.
- After awhile…Herod passes on and an angel comes to Joseph and says go home.
- Joseph starts to return home but ends up in Nazareth due to being warned in a dream and the new King, Herod’s son, being such a tyrant.
Full Chapter Summary
Wise Men (Matthew 2:1-12)
Chapter 2 of Matthew starts out after Jesus birth. It opens with the Wise men traveling from the East following a star and prophesies from the Old Testament. They enter Jerusalem and begin asking to see the ‘one who has been born king of the Jews’, whom the prophets had foretold about. This eventually makes its way to King Herod (the Actual king of the Jews). He doesn’t like the sound of there being any competition for his spot, so he secretly plans to eliminate this threat. He got together all the priests to search the scriptures to find where this king was to come from. According to their research, they determined it was Bethlehem (Micah had prophesied about this centuries before: Micah 5:2).
Upon learning this information, he calls for the Wise men and tells them of what his own research has determined. He sends them Bethlehem with the task of finding the newborn baby Jesus and relaying back to him where Jesus is at so that he can in turn go and ‘worship’ Jesus as well. His true intentions are to have the baby Jesus killed because of the potential threat to his throne.
The Wise men head to Bethlehem and find Jesus and His family. They worship Him and present gifts of Gold, incense, and myrrh. As they are returning home, an angel warns them in a dream that Herod has evil intentions in wanting to know the location of baby Jesus. They decide to take a new route home that avoids any run-ins with Herod.
Herod’s Order (Matthew 2:13-18)
After awhile, Herod figures out that he’s been duped and flies into a rage. He orders that all the boys ages 2 and younger within the vicinity of Bethlehem to be killed. Matthew then references a verse from Jeremiah 31:15 that ties into this cruel act. An angel has already warned Joseph of this and he takes his family to Egypt.
Return from Egypt (Matthew 2:18-22)
More time passes on, as well as Herod, and Herod’s son takes the throne. An angel tells Joseph to leave Egypt and return to his home. Joseph begins the Journey back, but learns that Herod’s son is now king. This worries him. To confirm his worries, God sends him another dream and Joseph takes his new family to Nazareth. Being a Nazarene in those days was synonymous with being despised. Matthew ends the chapter noting this and cluing into a few old testament prophesies about Jesus being ‘despised and rejected’ (Isaiah 53:3).
Full Text Matthew Chapter 2
*=Although often referred to as the ‘Three Wise Men’, the bible doesn’t say how many there were. The fact that 3 gifts were given has been attributed to the origination of the legend of there being three.
Book of Matthew – Chapter 1 Summary
August 31st, 2007Quick Chapter Summary
The book of Matthew begins with the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus. Verse 17 notes that there were ’14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the exile of Babylon, and 14 more generations till Jesus was born. That is 42 total generations.
The rest of Matthew chapter 1 speaks of the conception of Jesus and of Joseph’s dream from God that informed him that Mary hadn’t been cheating on him, but that he was to be the father of the savior of the world.
The last verse of the chapter also states that Mary and Joseph were not together sexually until after Jesus was born.
Full Chapter Summary
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Matthew 1 Full Text
Book of Genesis – Chapter 1 Summary
July 13th, 2007Quick Chapter Sumary
Chapter 1 of Genesis is an overview of the first 7 days of creation. It lists the different things that were created on each of the days.
Day 1 – Light is created to separate day time and night time
Day 2 – The ‘firmament’ is created. Firmament is another word for sky or the heavens.
Day 3 – The waters are gathered together and land is formed. Plants, vegetation, and trees are created. Each one is designed to reproduce only seeds after it’s one ‘kind’ or type.
Day 4 – The sun, the moon, and the stars are created.
Day 5 – All animals that are sea dwelling and birds of the air are created. They are again, created to reproduce with and after their own ‘kind’.
Day 6 - All land dwelling animals are created. Lastly, God creates man in His own image from the dust of the ground. He commands man to multiple and to rule over the rest of the creation that he has made.
This is where Genesis Chapter 1 ends. The 7th day of rest is in the first 2 verses of Chapter 2.