Reflection Notes on Matthew 2
Continuing on with my Bible reading reflections, I will be writing my notes and reflections on the second chapter of the book of Matthew. Off the bat, I already have some questions and observations.
In verse 2, it says that they saw the star of Jesus. For them to know that this star was because of the birth of jesus, I think it was a combination of knowing what the prophesies said about this but I also believe this star must have been massive. Not even just massive, but so bright you wouldn't be able to miss it. The second thing I observed was the wise men came to Jerusalem first. Jerusalem at the time was a powerful city. It was a religious center too. When the wise men came asking for Jesus, I struggle to believe that not a single person could show them the way to Bethlehem. If it was such a religious center at the time, at least one person would know to show the wise men the way. Maybe people genuinely did not know and were dumbfounded to find out there would be a new King when they already had a king in Herod. Also, another thought that came to my mind was that maybe someone knew where to direct the wise men but were scared of retribution and instead of sending them the correct way, they instead maybe sent word to King Herod that "look o some people are saying a new King has been born".
In verse 3, we see that herod was troubled, and rightfully so. If I was a king, I too would be troubled. However, in verse 3 it also says that all of Jerusalem was troubled with him. As I said previously, Jerusalem at the time was a powerful city, thriving and growing. So imagine, you are a citizen in this country, and you are doing well, everything working and business is booming. And then you hear another king is coming, who was just recently born. You start to ask yourself many questions like will a baby rule us, this man that is meant to be king one day, is he going to be a good king? What I am trying to say is that I understand how the people of Jerusalem could be troubled. Another thing I observed was that Herod took note of when the star had appeared. From the firstimpressions, we are not exactly sure why but we can see that he used that information to order the killing of the young boys. Anger caused him to kill many young children. Anger can be very dangerous, as it caused harm that was very great.
My last reflection is that God speaks a lot through dreams, as seen in the chapters (to the wise men and to Joseph).