Matthew 02 - The wise men and Jesus

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

REVELATION 12:1
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

A dramatic vision. The woman is Israel. The Old Testament, like the sun, was God's light and righteousness to her and the Law was like the moon that reflected the sunlight.  The Law revealed the way that God was thinking. The Jews could stand on the Law because one day Messiah would come and magnify the Law. Jesus would then fulfill the Law in a deeper spiritual way. The stars were the twelve men who gave the twelve tribes of Israel their names. Twelve is the number of worship. God called the Jews out of the heathen nations in order to worship Him.

REVELATION 12:2   And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Childbirth is difficult.

When God was going to bring Messiah's Life to Israel, the Devil replied by wanting to bring death. Faith and unbelief would be the endless struggle between God and Satan.

God had been silent for over 400 years since the last prophet Malachi.

Israel was in a spiritual drought.

Israel had been conquered by Alexander the Great and the Greeks. Greek culture, called Hellenism, had become a big threat to the Jewish way of life.

REVELATION 12:3   And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

The dragon is Satan.

The cruelest and strongest empire that Satan had built up was the pagan Roman empire.

Rome became famous as the city of the seven hills, once they built a wall around the seven hills. To be a city you needed to have a wall around your buildings for protection.

The centre of the empire was the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus on the Capitoline hill in Rome.

The pagan Roman empire collapsed to the barbarians in AD 476. Out of its ruins grew the Roman Catholic church whose headquarters is still the Lateran palace and basilica (big church) on the Caelian hill.

These original seven hills are the seven heads of the beast.

The Pope rose to power but absorbed the dictatorship spirit of the Roman emperors and in the Dark Ages he absorbed the Christian-killing spirit of the Roman emperor Nero.

The seven crowns represent Julius Caesar who destroyed the Roman republic and five members of his family who became emperor, ending with the cruel and vicious Nero. The seventh man was Galba, a general who usurped the position of emperor thanks to the support of his army.

Pagan Rome had its human dictatorship as well as having the Pontiff of the Babylonian pagan mysteries, and the trinity gods from Egypt which undermined the Roman Catholic church. The church today still admits that Trinity is a mystery. The 25 December celebration of the sun god's birth, entered the Roman Catholic church as Christ's mass or Christmas. This became the celebration of the birth of the Son of God. Nowhere in the Bible were we asked to celebrate Christmas. These were the start of error in the church when the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 adopted the unscriptural word Trinity.

The ten horns are the ten military dictators who will rise at the end time and give their military power to the final Pope. (Remember Galba). This will enable him to rule the world during the Tribulation. This will be how error in the church ends.

REVELATION 12:4   And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Stars are symbolic of Heaven-born people. God sees people in three groups.  Jews, Gentiles, and Samaritans who are partly Jew and partly Gentile. The "tail" is a symbol of the "tale" or story told by Satan. So Satan used pagan Rome to enable the Jews (one of the three groups) to crucify Christ and thus be blotted out of the Book of Life. Thus the Jews at Calvary were dragged out of their heavenly salvation.

Rome conquered Israel in 63 BC and was thus ready to destroy Jesus when He was born.

Rome's first agent would be their puppet king Herod, the Idumean.

When that attempt failed, they would then use the Roman governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate to kill Jesus.

Look what God said to Abram.

GENESIS 15:5   And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

So the Jewish nation produced the Messiah, Jesus.

REVELATION 12:5   And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

The nation of Israel began with Abraham about 2400 years before Christ. So when Jesus died at the age of 33, His age was like that of a child in comparison to the age of the Jewish nation. Jesus Himself will rule the heathen survivors of Armageddon that go into the Millennium, or 1000 years of peace, with a rod of iron.

So Matthew Chapter 2 starts with the murderous plot of the so-called king of the Jews, Herod, who wanted to kill the real King of the Jews, Jesus. Herod was an Idumean, not a Jew. Thus he was an outsider.

The final Pope will also be an outsider, not a Roman Catholic cardinal.  He will somehow talk his way into the position of being Pope.

DANIEL 11:21   And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

He will not be voted in by the Council of Cardinals in their usual manner.

MATTHEW 2:1   Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

The Jews were spiritually shriveled up and dried out.

Complacently they worshiped God according to their own man-made beliefs. They were unaware that they had drifted far from God and His Scriptures.

ISAIAH 53:2   For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground.

Their desire for God had evaporated. Political hatred of the Romans and a great love of money had replaced their zeal for the Word of God.

They had a false king. Herod came from Idumea, which is just south of Judaea, and thus was not a Jew. The Maccabee family seized political power by throwing out their Greek conquerors. Eventually, an independent Jewish nation formed around the year  110 BC. In approximately 125 BC the Jews, rejoicing in their military strength,  conquered Idumea, which was not part of the Promised Land, and forcibly converted them to the Jewish faith.

Going beyond their God-given limits of the Promised Land where Judaea was the southern border, resulting in the Jews suffering under their cruelest king, Herod. In 63 BC Rome conquered Israel and then in 37 BC the Roman Senate made Herod king of the Jews.

The Jews had religious leaders like Pharisees, Sadducees, and Rabbis who were not mentioned in the Law of Moses. Thus they had man-made religious systems that would do them much harm. Their religious leaders would make them reject their Messiah Jesus and get the Romans to kill Him. Then in AD 70, the Romans would destroy the Jews.

That is how Satan works. He fools you into working for him, and then he destroys you.

Modern churches reject Jesus, Who is the Word of God, by claiming that the King James Version of the Bible is flawed with mistakes, contradictions, myths, and wrong translations.

But there is no difference between the way Jesus thinks and what is written in the Bible. Because His Word is simply the expression of the way that He thinks. There is no real difference between who a person is and the way that they think. So what you say about the KJV Bible is what you think about Jesus.

By claiming that the KJV is flawed, the church rejects Jesus as their Head. Pastors now claim to be the head of each church. They tell the church where the faults in the Bible are. Basically, the pastors are correcting the Word of Jesus. This is completely wrong. So at the First Coming of Jesus, God had to look outside of Israel to find wise men who could worship the young Child. These men were wise, not because they were learned, but because they were searching for Jesus. The amount that we search for Jesus in the Bible, reflects our true wisdom. Wise men seek Him.

It takes spiritual wisdom to realize that the King James Version of the Bible is our Absolute.

MATTHEW 2:2   Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

Jesus was born King of the Jews.

That made Him the genuine King of the Jews.

Herod was terrified by this news as he knew that he was a fake king. He was not a Jew and he was not descended from a king. He was simply a puppet of the Romans. They gave him the artificial title “king” as long as he remained in subjection to Rome and kept the Jews in subjection to Rome.

Just like the modern Protestant pastors keep their churches in subjection to the Roman Catholic doctrines of Trinity, Christmas, and one man being the head of a church.

The Jews were too spiritually dried up to understand the signs of the times.

But the Bible had spoken of Messiah as a Star Who would rule with a King’s sceptre from Israel.

NUMBERS 24:17   … there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel…

The star that guided the wise men every night for two years was not a natural star nor a coming together of planets (which is called a conjunction).

The star was formed by the Holy Spirit which was able to guide the wise men to Christ.

In the same way the Holy Spirit guides people towards Christ today if they are wise enough to seek for Jesus in the pages of the Bible.

The wise men had one motive during their dangerous journey. To worship Jesus.

Christians should not be trying to make a name for themselves or for their church. They should be seeking Jesus in order to make Him the only focus of their worship.

God will not share His glory with another. As Emmanuel, Jesus was God with us in the flesh. The fullness of the Godhead dwelled in Him bodily.

ISAIAH 42:8   I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another,

MATTHEW 1:23   Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

It took great wisdom on the part of these men to see that the Child, Jesus, was actually Almighty God dwelling in a human Body.

Wise men could see that. People who are fooled by denominational preachers cannot see that.

So today Christians are either described as wise virgins or foolish virgins.

A woman is symbolic of a church.

A virgin is a clean woman, symbolizing saved Christians.

Some understand Scripture if they are wise enough.

Others have been dumbed down until they are fooled into thinking that it is alright not to understand a lot of Bible verses.

The Jews in Jerusalem thought it was fine if they did not know anything about where Messiah was.

MATTHEW 2:3   When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

The times were dangerous. Robbers haunted the hills on either side of the roads.

That is why Jesus preached the parable of the Good Samaritan who helped the Jew who was robbed and wounded while travelling.

Some historians claim that you needed a group of at least  150 armed men if you wanted to travel without being attacked by robbers. So this big band of armed men, plus all their servants, made a noticeable impact when they reached Jerusalem.

The Jews were so far from God, by being so subject to the Romans, that they were troubled rather than excited about the news of their new King.

They prospered in their man-made religion. The last thing that they needed was any change in their comfortable and complacent religious beliefs.

MATTHEW 2:4   And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

Herod now demanded that the Jewish religious leaders must find out where the Messiah was to be born. It never struck any of the Jewish religious leaders that they were so far estranged from God that God had bypassed them and spoken to eastern men from far away.

So at the Second Coming of Jesus all our church leaders will also be far removed from the Bible as they follow their man-made denominational (unscriptural word) and church ideas. Church leaders specialize in unscriptural words and terms like Trinity, 25 December, God the Son, One God in three Persons, Jesus is in the Godhead, First Person of the Godhead, Second Person of the Godhead, Third Person of the Godhead, a seven year Tribulation, and so forth. No Bible verse says that the pastor is in charge of a church. No Bible verse says that the tithes belongs to the pastor.

So, in the shadows of the Second Coming of Jesus, we have built up man-made unscriptural church systems just like the Jews had 2000 years ago at the first Coming of Jesus.

We need a star to guide us to the truth of Scripture.

We need a prophet to restore us back to the beliefs of the first church age.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

At the moment we have 45000 different kinds of denominations and churches as well as over 100 different versions of the English Bible. So any people seeking truth in the churches simply finds themselves in a spiritual swamp.

MATTHEW 2:5   And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet,

The Jewish religious leaders knew Messiah would be born in Bethlehem but were so spiritually blind that none of them knew that He had been born.

If they knew that He would be born in Bethlehem, then why were they not in Bethlehem themselves? The answer was obvious. The big money was to be made by the religious system in the big city of Jerusalem.

That is also the focus of modern day churches with their emphasis on a prosperity gospel.

The church seeks a profit. The Bride seeks a prophet.

MATTHEW 2:6   And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

From the nobodies will come the Somebody.

The Temple was the megachurch of the Jews. But all the crowds and money that poured into that “megachurch” knew nothing about the Messiah Who had arrived.

When Jesus was born two years previously all the religious “big boys” were bypassed once again and the great revelation was only made known to some unwashed shepherds.  They were out at night to help with the new lambs that were being born. Only unwashed shepherds would feel at home in a stinking stable. They ran to that stable and got there all sweaty and smelly. The only swaddling cloth that could be found in a stable was an old sweat-stained sack that was wrapped around an ox yoke to stop the wood rubbing the ox’s neck raw.

Jesus was wrapped in that sweaty rag. Unknown shepherds welcomed Him into their sweaty arms.

"Earn your living by the sweat of your face" was the curse of Adam’s sin. There was also a mention of thorns.

So Jesus came to redeem us from Adam’s sin.

Thus He was wrapped in a sweaty sack at the start and finished with a crown of thorns.

That is what we learn from the Gospel of Luke.

Luke presents Jesus as the Ideal Man.

Born in poverty, raised in obscurity, and endlessly persecuted by the religious leaders. Yet a friend of sinners, the sick, and the rejects including a condemned thief who died painfully without hope until in his dying moments he looked despairingly at Jesus. There the thief found, to his own amazed shock, a welcome. What Man could be more ideal than Jesus in a world of hopeless sinners who desperately need a break.

But Matthew has a different revelation of Jesus as the great King.

Kings are not born in stinking stables. So Matthew bypasses his birth and tells of the Holy Ghost that guided the wise men every night for two years by appearing before them as a Star.

MATTHEW 2:7   Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

Herod knew the star announced the birth of Jesus. So he enquired diligently how long they had followed the star. He wanted to kill Jesus but thus had to kill all the baby boys that were of the same age as Jesus. So he needed to know how old Jesus was. If He was two, then Herod would have to kill all the boys who were two years old or less. That would minimize the awful death toll.

Herod knew that this would be a very unpopular command. So he did not want to kill too many babies.

MATTHEW 2:8   And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

Notice the falseness of the false king. Herod wanted to kill Jesus, not worship Him.

Herod, a sinner, also knew that all the Jewish religious leaders did not have the faintest clue on how to find Messiah. Nor did the religious leaders have any interest in finding Messiah, because none of them set out for Bethlehem.  Similarly, the church leaders today cannot find the revelation of the Bible mysteries to guide the true church (or Bride) to Christ. They muddle people's brains up with their fuzzy Trinity idea.

They say Jesus is co-equal with the Father.

But Jesus said His Father, the indwelling supernatural Spirit, as greater than Himself, as He was a Man of flesh and bone. Your spirit controls your body and is thus greater than your body.
JOHN 14:28   ... for my Father is greater than I.

MATTHEW 2:9   When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

The Holy Spirit always leads one to the Word of God.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: …

:14   He shall glorify me:

Jerusalem was the headquarters.

While they were in the headquarters of the Jewish religion, they lost sight of the guiding star. Megachurches and church groups have no understanding of the deeper mysteries of Scripture.

Once a person gets involved with them they end up knowing nothing of the seven church ages nor of the need for the last church age to go back to the beliefs of the first church age.

A seed is only harvested at the end of the seventh church age when it is identical to the seed that was planted in the first church age.

Only when they got away from the religious headquarters were they able to see their guiding star again. Churches obscure the truth with their unscriptural traditions.

By believing in a Trinity God of three Persons, they have no name for God. You cannot find one name for three People. The Trinity God has no name.

This sad fact is obscured behind their well-known quote:  In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

But they cannot tell us what this name is.

MATTHEW 2:10   When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

A star is a guide or a messenger. John the Baptist was the star that guided the Jews away from their Temple and synagogues (the churches of that day) to Jesus, at His first Coming.

That is why John preached in the wilderness, far away from the Temple and synagogues with their unscriptural doctrines and their lust for money.

The only time Jesus got really cross was when He whipped the money-makers out of the Temple.

Imagine if Jesus came into one of our modern churches!

No wonder Revelation Chapter 3 says that He stands outside the end-time church door.

So today we need a star or prophet-messenger like John the Baptist to guide us to find Jesus hidden away in the mysteries of the Bible.

So that we can see Jesus as the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. Then we could begin to understand original sin and explain why Eve was punished for being pregnant.

Eve had conceived.

GENESIS 3:16  Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception

Here God says “greatly multiply” but at the creation of Adam, God had only said “multiply”.

So what had changed?

GENESIS 1:28   And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,

We need to understand why "multiply" before the Fall became "greatly multiply" after the Fall.

Church leaders do not understand, just like the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem did not understand what was written in the Scriptures.

MATTHEW 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.

This is more fitting for a King.

Not born in a smelly stable, but rather found in a house.

Notice, Jesus was not a Baby, but a young Child.

Mary was there but there is no mention of Joseph.

Joseph was not the father of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit was the father of Jesus.

Whoever places the seed of life in a woman’s womb is the father of that child.

MATTHEW 1:20   But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Thus the Holy Ghost is God the Father.

As a matter of interest, “God the Father” is never mentioned in the Old Testament.

“God the Son” and “God the Holy Ghost” are never mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

The Jewish religious leaders could not recognize that God had come down to dwell in a Baby Who had grown into a young two-year-old Child.

But these men from far away were wise enough to realize that.

They worshiped Jesus.

If Jesus was not God in the Flesh, then they made a mistake.

If they were mistaken then they were not wise men.

But they were wise. They worshiped Jesus and that proved that Jesus is God.

ISAIAH 9:6    For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Today church leaders cannot believe that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus.

So they make the unscriptural statement that Jesus is in the Godhead as the second Person. This contradicts:

COLOSSIANS 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

"Second Person of the Godhead" is an unscriptural statement.

MATTHEW 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.

The gifts they gave to Jesus told Him Who they thought He was.

Gold. This represents God. They thought He was Emmanuel, God with us.

Frankincense.  This is resin from a tree. It burns with a beautiful perfume. Burning meat sacrifices created a stench. Adding frankincense to the flames turned the stench of burning meat into a lovely perfume that made the sacrifice acceptable.

Myrrh. This is a strong spice that was used to embalm the dead.

So what were the wise men saying to Jesus?

You are the Spirit of God living in a human Body. Thus You are God in the flesh.

Sin has to be atoned for by death.

But the Spirit of God cannot die.

So Jesus has come down to earth to perform an acceptable sacrifice for God.

He has come to die.

Death is the separation of the Spirit from the Body.

Then the Spirit, after leaving His Body, can carry our sins down to hell and dump them on the Devil.

That is the only way that mankind can be freed from sin.

MATTHEW 2:12   And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

They came to Jesus one way and something changed. They went home by a different way.

The proof of your repentance is that when you have truly accepted Jesus into your heart, then you will walk a different walk and live a different life. People will see the difference or change in your life.

If there is no real difference in your life, then you never met Jesus. You are just fooling yourself.

However you lived before meeting Jesus, you will live a different kind of life after meeting Jesus.

MATTHEW 2:13   And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When God brings life, the Devil reacts with death.

MATTHEW 2:14   When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt:

Another night-time journey. Dark and dangerous.

MATTHEW 2:15   And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

This reminds us of the first exodus.

Moses brought the Jews out of Egypt. But there was a price to pay. Pharaoh tried to kill all the Jewish boy children.

Jesus was leading the second exodus.

The church was coming out of the Jews. Once again death hit the children as Herod got them killed.

Today we are in the third exodus.

The Scriptural Bride (the wise virgins) coming out of the unscriptural churches. Once again children are being killed. Worldwide there are 40 to 50 million abortions every year.

We are the children at the end-time who should be restored to the Bible beliefs of the apostolic fathers. But churches condemn the King James Version of the Bible (KJV) as flawed and thus they have no Absolute. Message pastors promote brother Branham to being infallible and the Absolute, so message people also cannot prove their beliefs from the KJV of the Bible. Thus the children die spiritually as they become unscriptural.

REVELATION 18:4   And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

The inner conviction of the Holy Spirit. Telling us to get out of the churches.

Jesus, the Word, stands outside the church door knocking.

If you want to find Him as the revealed Word, you will have to go out of the church.

MATTHEW 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 enquired of the wise men.

Why two years and younger?

That is how long the wise men travelled as they followed the star.

The star only came out at night. So they had to travel slowly at night time. A long and dangerous journey. Christianity is not for sissies.

If you want to find and follow Jesus, it is a tough path.

MATTHEW 2:17   Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,

Jeremy is Greek for the Hebrew Jeremiah.

MATTHEW 2:18   In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Rama (Greek) or Ramah (Hebrew) means "height".

"Height" means getting closer to God. But that comes at a price. Weeping and mourning.

The closer you get to God, the more of a target you are for the Devil.

Jewish babies were killed.

Mothers could not be comforted.

Rachel means "ewe", a mother sheep that gives birth to a lamb.

Jesus, the sinless and innocent Lamb of God had to die. It was for such a time that He was born. The gifts of the wise men made that clear.

The other children would only be innocent while they were babies. So they too had to die as innocent lambs. That was the time that they were born for.

The end-time children have to be turned and restored back to the apostolic fathers in the third exodus.

Millions of unborn children will die every year due to abortions.

When God moves to revive the early church life, Satan moves in for the kill.

But all this was according to God’s plan, previously revealed to the prophet Jeremiah.

MATTHEW 2:19   But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,

Herod was keen to kill, but failed to kill Jesus. Eventually, he died a disgusting death as parts of his body rotted. So all his attempts to destroy truth failed.

All the Arabs in the world cannot stop the Jews from going back to the Promised Land and meeting Messiah there during the Tribulation.

However dangerous and chaotic world events get, everything that is written in Scripture will still come to pass.

MATTHEW 2:20   Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life.

:21   And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.

:22   But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee:

A bad king in Judaea made Joseph go to Nazareth.

Thus God even uses the bad guys to direct His people to where He wants them to be.

Good and evil are both under God’s control.

But only the good get a reward.

Christians are not better than unbelievers. They are just better off because they know God’s grace.

Sinners also have to play their part in order to mold and direct the believers.

Be thankful that God showed you His grace and feel sorry for the sinners who harass and persecute you. They have to act out their role. But their end will be harsh.

MATTHEW 2:23   And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

The final conclusion of an inspired but dangerous time: whatever is prophesied in Scripture will come to pass despite all the opposition and dangers.