Matthew 2

Matthew 2:10

Mat. 2:10. “When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.” The wise men that sought Christ traveled through a vast howling wilderness, full of pits and drought and serpents, hideous rocks and mountains, even the desert of Arabia, before they had this ‘joy’ of seeing that star; and soon after they inquired of the priests, the star arose - which well represents what commonly is before persons have that joy which arises from the discovery of the Person represented by this star, even Christ, “the bright and morning star.” Revelation 22:16, compared with Revelation 2:28.

Mat. 2:11

Matthew 2:11

Mat. 2:11. “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.’ Gifts proper to be offered to a King and a God: gold, such as was wont to be given to kings; frankincense and myrrh, the chief ingredients of the incense that was offered to God in the Temple. This was a specimen or earnest of the fulfillment of that prophecy, Isaiah 60:6, “The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord.” [By these ‘gifts,’ too,] the charge of their journey into Egypt was provided for. See Matthew 2:13.

Mat. 2:16

Matthew 2:16

Mat. 2:16. “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.” Herod’s slaying all the young children: this was a just punishment of the people of Bethlehem for their treatment of the blessed Virgin and her young child, by inhumanly refusing to entertain her in their houses when her travail came upon her, thereby exposing the life of her child: and not only refusing to entertain the Virgin in travail, but suffering her afterwards to remain in the stable with her child. For this treatment of this Divine infant and His mother, God, by a terrible judgment, destroys their infants, and dreadfully afflicts their mothers. They were inhuman and cruel to the blessed Virgin and her young child, and they were justly punished with the effects of dreadful inhumanity and cruelty executed on their young children.

Mat. 3:2