At this point, something needs to be said about revelations that come from dreams. The teaching of the Orthodox Church with regard to dreams is, beware. We do not say that all dreams are nothing more than the attempts of the demons to deceive us. Clearly, the fact that dreams often play a role in revealing the will of God can be seen in the pages of the Bible: here in this passage, obviously; and in Jacob’s dream, just to mention one that immediately comes to mind. Here are two quotes from the Fathers that give us a good understanding of the interpretation of dreams (which I found on the website of St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Texas):
Demons often transform themselves into angels of light and take the form of martyrs, and make it appear to us during sleep that we are in communication with them. Then, when we wake up, they plunge us into unholy joy and conceit. But you can detect their deceit by this very fact. For angels reveal torments, judgments and separations; and when we wake up we find that we are trembling and sad. As soon as we begin to believe the demons in dreams, then they make sport of us when we are awake too. He who believes in dreams is completely inexperienced. But he who distrusts all dreams is a wise man. Only believe dreams that warn you of torments and judgments. But if despair afflicts you, then such dreams area also from demons.
(St John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent", Step 3: On Exile or Pilgrimage (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978))
Inasmuch as we know the true sign and image of the Cross, the devil does not dare to use it (for our deception); for on the Cross his power was destroyed, and by the Cross a fatal wound was given him. The Master Christ we cannot recognize by the flesh, which is why the devil tries to convince us by lying that it is He, so that having believed the deception as if it were truth, we might perish. And thus, when you see in a dream the image of the Cross, know that this dream is true and from God; but strive to receive an interpretation of its significance from the Saints, and do not believe your own idea. May the lord enlighten the thoughts of your mind, O brother, so that you might escape every deception of the enemy.
("Saints Barsanuphius and John: Guidance Toward Spiritual Life," trans. by Fr. Seraphim Rose, (Platina, California: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1990))
Some good rules of thumb when it comes to dreams:
• Always start by being cautious. Cross yourself as soon as you have awakened and remember what you have dreamt, asking God to protect you as you ponder the dream.
• Always check the dream against what the Church teaches and practices, and with what is found in holy Scripture to be God-pleasing, and what is praised in the lives of the saints. If what you were “told” in or through the dream contradicts any of these, it is probably a sign of an attempt to deceive and mislead you. Even if the dream is in agreement with all three of these categories, don’t automatically assume that everything is fine, and that the revelation is authentic. Rather, proceed to the next step.
• Always share the situation with your spiritual father, and take only the actions that he blesses you to undertake. (This isn’t a bad idea, even if you are pretty sure the dream was false.)
The Coming of the Magi
Almost everyone in the western world knows the Christmas carol, “We Three Kings,” which tells of the visitation of the Christ Child by the Magi. They bring gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Three gifts; three kings – makes sense, right? Well, in St. Matthew’s account, the three gifts are mentioned – but the magi are unnumbered, and who says they are kings? The text of the Greek New Testament calls them “magoi” and not “basileos” – “king.” (These words appear in the same verse, v. 1 – in reference to both Herod and our Lord, “born King of the Jews.”) The magi may have been priests of Zoroaster, living in the region of modern-day Iran; or astronomers, as “magi” can have both meanings, as well as to mean a magus – a magician, a sorcerer.
Isn’t it interesting that the first visitors that St. Matthew tells us about are not the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, who heard the angels singing in the heavens? (We’ll hear about them when we consider the Gospel according to St. Luke…) Of course, the shepherds were “locals”; and so, most likely, were Jews. The magi were certainly not either locals or Jews! This event is so important, St. Matthew may very well be saying, that even those who worship false gods are drawn to seek Him, and to offer gifts to him. They come to Herod in good faith, and out of respect – always a good position to adopt when you are in a strange land, with laws and customs that are different from your own! Their desire to find and worship the newborn Son of God – who may have been as much as two years old; for when you’re traveling by camel through the desert, it takes a while to reach Bethlehem from Persia – together with their dealings with Herod lead to another remarkable event: They are warned about Herod’s treachery through a dream given to them – to pagans – by God, and so return to their native land without returning to Herod.
There is a great deal of speculation among astronomers with respect to the star that guided the magi to find the Lord. Some think it was a nova, or a supernova, while others believe it was a comet. The Orthodox Church has a different understanding; and that understanding is a part of the service of the Proskomide. When a Divine Liturgy is to be served, there is a service, the Proskomide, that takes place before the Liturgy. The priest, and, if the church has one, the deacon say the prayers for entry into the altar, and then vest for the service. The bread and the wine that will be blessed to become the Body and Blood of Christ are prepared: the Lamb, which is placed in the center of the diskos; a piece for the Theotokos; nine pieces for the nine angelic orders; a piece for the hierarchs and other clergy; a piece for those in authority; and a piece for the departed follow, all going on either side and in front of the Lamb. Wine and water are added to the chalice; and then a particle of bread is taken out as the names of the faithful, living and departed, are read. The particles for the living go to one side before the Lamb; those for the departed, to the other side. Then the gifts are “covered.” The covers are for the diskos and the chalice; and there is a third cover, called the aer, which is placed over the diskos and chalice with their covers. He cover for the chalice sits on the rim; but the cover for the diskos needs a support to hold it above the bread. To do this, two pieces of metal, each in the shape of a “C” (with squared corners), and connected in the top center with a pin around which the arms can pivot, is placed to form a “roof” over the diskos, on which the cover can rest. This device is called the “star” – and the first thing done when it is time to cover the gifts is to hold the star in the smoke from the incense; and then, as it is placed on the diskos, the priest says, “And the star came and stood over the place where the young child was.” (This is in verse 9.)
How can a star do that? How can a comet do that? Any star in the sky, apart from the Sun, is millions of miles away from the earth. A comet is thousands of miles from the earth. Even if the place from which the magi started their journey was in a straight line from where they were to Bethlehem – which is certainly possible – how in the world could a physical light in the heavens show them the exact location of the cave that was the stable for the inn, in which the Theotokos gave birth to our Lord? It can’t be done. But if the light was an angel… Well, an angel could go before them and lead them to the precise spot where the Lord was to be found. So we let the scientists ask their questions, and form their hypotheses, because we know, in the end, they’ll never figure out how it could happen until they turn their thoughts to God…
One more tease before we move on. Last time I looked at a map, the region of Persia/Iran is to the east of the Holy Land. So if the magi came from Persia, they would have been traveling to the west. How, then, can they say, “We saw His star in the east,” and follow it? (I don’t know the answer, either. If you’ve got an idea, please share it with us!)
The Escape Into Egypt
As in the first section, a dream is important in this part of the narrative as well. Herod, who wanted to put the Child to death, so as to prevent this person “born King of the Jews” from taking his throne, has been frustrated in this because the magi did not return to tell him where the Child could be found. Instead, he gives the order to put to death every male child under the age of two years living in Bethlehem, the location which the chief priests and teachers of the law identified as the place where the coming of the Messiah had been foretold by the prophets. (Yes, I realize this is actually in the first section of the chapter; but it develops here, so…) Why two years old or less? Because that was how long it had been since the star that guided the magi has appeared to them. Notice, too, the final line of the prophecy quoted in verse 6: “…for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” You’ll recall that, in our discussion of chapter 1, we spoke of the covenant God made with David the King. The Lord said to David, “You will shepherd my people, Israel, and you will become their ruler.” (2 Sam. 5:2) The prophecy cited by Herod’s advisors was found in the book of the prophet Micah. (Mic. 5:2)
With this developing threat, God sends an angel to warn Joseph that he is to take the Child and His mother and go to Egypt, beyond the territory ruled by Herod. Joseph – who by now has had enough experience with dreams and with miracles! – obeys without question. In the tradition of the Orthodox Church (although found nowhere in the Holy Scriptures), Jesus, Mary and Joseph are also accompanied by James, the brother of the Lord, the youngest son of Joseph by his first wife. It is James who will become the first leader of the Church in Jerusalem, and who is martyred by being thrown down from the roof of the Temple, and, having survived the fall, was stoned, and finally killed by having his skull broken with a fuller’s pestle. This took place during the reign of Herod Agrippa II, the great-grandson of Herod the Great (who is the ruler we meet in this second chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel).
Herod’s troops carry out their orders, putting to death the male infants in Bethlehem. According to some, the number slain was several dozen; in the Orthodox tradition, the number was ten thousand or more. Neither figure can be supported by Holy Scripture, as no number is mentioned. Indeed, this account is not found in any of the other Gospels. In a way, the number is not what is important: it is the truth that innocent children were murdered simply to keep an old tyrant in power. The hymns of the Church for the service of remembrance for these little ones, which takes place on December 29th (on the Julian calendar; January 11th on the secular calendar), call Herod a latter-day Pharaoh, who took a similar action in order to eliminate the child born to be the Deliverer of the Jews from their slavery in Egypt. Pharaoh was unsuccessful in his attempt to kill Moses; and Herod was unsuccessful in his attempt to kill our Lord Jesus. The prophet Jeremiah had foretold the slaughter of the holy innocents. (Jer. 31:15) Rachel, the second wife of Jacob, was the mother of Benjamin; and Ramah, located in the territory allocated to the tribe of Benjamin when the Jews entered the Holy Land at the end of the Exodus, was the city where, after the Babylonians had captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, assembled those who would be taken into exile in Babylon.
The Return to Nazareth
When Herod died, Joseph was told in a dream that it was now safe for him and his family to return to the Holy Land. He is further warned in a second dream not to return to Bethlehem, as Herod’s son, Archelaus, now ruled in his father’s place; and, presumably, would pursue his father’s policy if their presence in Bethlehem became known. They go instead to Nazareth.
Two prophecies, we are told, are fulfilled by their departure from Egypt, and their settling in Nazareth. The first comes from the book of the prophet Hosea. God, speaking through the prophet, says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt have I called my son.” Most of us, when we hear a reference to “Israel,” think of the country of that name. It is the land of Israel because that is the place where the people of Israel settled. In other words, unlike what typically happens – we are called “Americans” because we live in America, or “Russians” because we were born in Russia, and so on – the people didn’t take their name from the territory; rather, they gave their name to the territory. “Israel,” as a matter of fact, is much better known to us by another name. He is Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, and the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. You will recall that, with the help of his mother, Rebekah, Jacob, Isaac’s younger son, impersonates Esau, the elder son, and so receives Isaac’s blessing, and so inherits all that had been Isaac’s. When the treachery is discovered, Rebecca sends Jacob to her people, where he lives in the house of Laban, Rebekah’s brother. Laban has two daughters, Leah, the elder, and Rachel, the younger. Jacob wants to marry Rachel, and Laban agrees, but deceives Jacob the deceiver, and he unknowingly marries Leah. He had worked for Laban for seven years in order to be married; and so he must work another seven years in order to also marry Rachel. This, by the way, is the Rachel whose weeping is in Jeremiah’s prophecy. God blesses Jacob, and he becomes wealthy. After he marries Rachel, he wants to return home; but since he must pass the place where Esau lives, Jacob divides his riches into two groups, and sends them separately, hoping that, at worst, Esau only intercepts one of them. As he is traveling through the desert, he sends his wives and eleven children across the ford at Jabbok, and so is alone in the night. During the night, he wrestles with a man who only succeeds in defeating Jacob at daybreak by touching his hip, and putting Jacob’s hip out of joint. Even then, Jacob did not release the man, and said he would not do so until the man had blessed him. When the man asks, “What is your name?” and Jacob replies, he is told, “You will no longer be called ‘Jacob,’ but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have overcome.” The man vanishes, and Jacob/Israel realizes he has looked upon God, and lived. So the “people of Israel” are the descendents of Jacob – the twelve tribes. A bit more: Jacob will have a total of 13 children; one girl, and twelve boys. Of the boys, only two have Rachel as their mother. The first is Joseph, who will become Jacob’s favorite, be given a coat of many colors, and so sold into slavery in Egypt because of the jealousy of his brothers. He will rise to prominence there, become second in power only to the Pharaoh himself, and his actions – based on his ability to interpret dreams – will be the salvation of all his family, including his father, Jacob, after they have settled in the land of Goshen, part of Egypt. After a time, when Joseph has been forgotten, the Egyptians, fearing that the Hebrews, who were becoming numerous, might be a threat, enslaved them – setting the scene for Moses and the Exodus.
Who would have thought that there was so much going on in the background behind the brief second chapter in St. Matthew’s Gospel? But we’re not done yet! Now we go back to Hosea, and the prophecy, “out of Egypt have I called my son.” Israel, the people, were loved by God, not the least of which was because of His love for Abraham, and His love for Jacob/Israel. So the descendents of Israel were called out of Egypt, set free from their slavery, and led back to the land God had promised to Abraham and his descendents. Of course, by the time of Hosea’s prophecy, this had long before been accomplished; and now God is speaking of how His people have failed to keep their covenant with Him. The people whom He delivered from slavery in Egypt still need One Who can deliver them from their slavery to sin and death; and so the prophet’s words take on an additional meaning, now that the Son of God has come. This is part of what St. Matthew wants us to know.
There is one more prophecy to mention, and that has to do with where the holy Family lives upon their return from Egypt – Nazareth. Nazareth isn’t mentioned at all in the Old Testament; and it didn’t appear to have much going for it at the time our Lord took up residence there. Consider what Nathanael says when his friend Philip tells him they have found the One foretold by Moses and the prophets, Jesus the Nazarene. Nathanael replies, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” To be called a Nazarene at that time was an insult. Likewise, the Pharisees, when confronted about whether Jesus was a prophet, reply that no prophet arises out of Galilee – and Nazareth is in Galilee. There is no direct quotation for this prophecy in the Old Testament, or elsewhere in the Bible. St. John Chrysostom teaches that, because of the carelessness of the people of God, who did not value such things, many books of the Old Testament period, in which such prophecies were recorded, were destroyed or lost. Indeed, the book of Deuteronomy was lost for a time, until a copy was found in the period after the exile into Babylon, when some of the people returned to Jerusalem, and began to rebuild the Temple. There is an account in the book of Nehemiah (one of the “historical” books of the Old Testament) of a great assembly of the people at the newly-rebuilt Temple, where Ezra the scribe reads the Law to the people, beginning at daybreak and ending at around noon. Perhaps what was read was, in part, from this book that had been lost, and then found.
You’ve probably figured out by now that there is more that can be said – but this is probably enough for today! Tune in again tomorrow, when we read and reflect on chapter three!
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