THE LOST TRUTH ABOUT JESUS

 As it turns out, King Herod did not seek Jesus to worship Him as is written (Mat 2:7, but to destroy Him (Mat 2:13). Herod truly believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, or it would not have been that imperative to have Him dead.

Of course, Herod saw Jesus as a threat to the Herodian throne because He was of the family of King David, but he also understood that Jesus was God.

Wise men believed that Jesus was who He was, and perhaps Herod was wise as well. Herod, according to Josephus, although not a Jew had bought favor from the Jews by making Judaea great again. Likewise with his sponsor, Marc Antony dead, he turned to Octavian as the legitimate Caesar, and as a result, expanded his little country into a much larger kingdom.

Herod was not an idiot. He was pragmatic and did what he had to do to live his fantasy. Jesus, whether king or LORD would not be a part of that plan! Herod believed in Jesus, or he would have been satisfied with having him imprisoned or rendered powerless. By Roman Law, Herod had to will that Jesus be king for Caesar to approve of it.

Herod feared that Jesus just might be THE High Priest and King, on the order of John Hyrcanus II who could depose him. Hyrcanus was still their model king in their theocracy.

Now consider, the threat that Herod was: 

¹⁴ When he (Joseph) arose (from his dream), he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son (Hos 11:1).” (Mat 2:14-15) 

Jesus had to be called out of Egypt for the Jews to accept Him. If Jesus had not been called out of Egypt Hosea, the Hebrew prophet, would have been a false prophet. True prophets are right all the time, not just men with a good record of accuracy. God arranged for Jesus to come out of Egypt.

The importance of the birth of Jesus was that He was, and still is, God in the flesh of a man. Joseph’s supposed son, Jesus, at that time after remaining silent for 400 years, spoke to Joseph in the same manner He spoke to Hosea long before: 

The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. (Hos 1:1) 

Jesus — the Word of God (John 1:1-14) — spoke to the Judean and Israelite kings in those days, and now the Word in the flesh of an infant spoke to the rightful heir to the throne of David — Joseph the “son of David.” The little man was the majestic God of ancient days, and the Word spoke to Joseph in the same manner as He spoke to the Davidian kings.

Jesus did not learn the Law of Moses and scripture from Joseph while in Egypt but the infant imparted divine wisdom into Joseph! The Son taught His “father” the ways of God. He taught Joseph the Ways of the Lord by divine inspiration.

Jesus was unteachable because even as a child, He knew it all already, having experienced all things since the Edenic Covenant. He supplied the coat of skins for the Garment of Adam to keep him safe (Gen 3:21) and the “Little Man” warned Joseph to go to Egypt for safety.

That Jesus came out of Egypt was a fulfilling of the Law. Moses came out of Egypt and the Word wrote the Law on Tablets of Stone, out of Egypt on Sinai. To fulfill the Law, Jesus also must have come out of Egypt. Later, as an adult, Jesus would explain that: 

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Mat 5:17) 

Jesus did not come to destroy by undermining Moses but to supplement and complement him. Jesus is the same Word that wrote on the tablets of stone that Moses carried and the same Word that would write the Law of Love on the hearts of men… “Love is the fulfillment of the law,” as Paul said it (Heb 14:14).

Jesus had to come out of Egypt to walk the same way as Moses walked. Moses walked the Way for forty years, wandering in the wilderness, but Jesus walked the straight Way, perhaps in only forty days because it was revealed shortly that Herod was dead when the edict of the slaughter was issued in his will.

Joseph followed his son wherever he went. Joseph did not go the way that he would go, but the Way the Word told him to go. Joseph, as always, followed the Voice of Jesus whether in the Spirit or in the Flesh of God.

So, what happened to Joseph? He was mentioned last when he and Mary thought that Jesus was lost when Jesus was twelve years of age, “So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously” (Luke 2:47).

The purpose of Joseph, it seems, was to protect and nourish Jesus until He was of age and could be king by his own right. Since Joseph never appeared at important events during the ministry of Jesus, it is safe to say that Joseph died and Jesus was the sole heir to the Judaean Kingdom and it would be Jesus that the protagonists would seek to kill, not the prime heir, Joseph, who had paid taxes on the House of David (Luke 2:4).

During the ministry of Jesus, Joseph, like Lazarus, would be safe from harm in “Abraham’s Bosom” (Luke 16). Jesus, because Joseph was dead would be the legitimate heir to the throne of David. The people asked, “Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?” (Mat 13:55).

Jesus may have been a “carpenter,” or He may not have been! A carpenter is thought to be an inglorious trade and that Jesus was born in a manger made Him seem poor. All that showed is that Joseph and Mary were not prideful, and they were humble enough, as expected, to stay in a stable which was often under the main house.

What trade was Jesus’s? From the Greek it is learned that both Jesus and Joseph were “tektons;” they were “craftsmen” in some or many trades. Today, they would be called “technicians.”

The two were creative and wise. Joseph revealed his wisdom when He listened to the Voice of God speaking and obeyed. The propensity of the evidence is that Joseph and Jesus were not “poor carpenters,” but that Joseph was a wealthy and skilled craftsman who paid taxes because they were nobility in the House of David. Joseph was required to pay estate taxes because he was heir to the throne of David, and everybody, even Cyrenius, the governor, knew that, to wit: “Because he was of the house and lineage of David” (Luke 2:4).

Everybody knew that royal family. Everybody knew that they were of the House of David. In other words, Jesus was born a king and many thought of Him as a newborn king. Most certainly Herod knew that! So, why was Jesus considered to be poor?

⁵ Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. (Phil 2:5-7) 

Jesus was born a “king” but identified Himself as a “servant” like He wanted everybody else to be. He was made in the likeness of men. He made Himself poor that we could be rich! Richness and poverty are not degrees of wealth but how we think of ourselves. “The Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mat 20:28).

Jesus paid for our lives by ransoming His own. He forsook money and paid for our sins with the very blood of God. His blood became precious because it was the exclusive blood of the King of kings and LORD of lords. He indeed was King of the Jews and High Priest of priests.

He, for a time, since Judaea was without a king and Rome was without an active Caesar, was truly the “Caesar” (King of kings) and High Priest on the order, not of Annas nor Caiaphas, but on the order of Melchizedek — the Prince and Lord of Peace (Heb 5:6).

Jesus was born of a wealthy and noble family who made Himself poor for our sakes. His wealth would not have been sufficient if he had lived as a king. He gave all He had; He gave His blood. We should treasure every drop of blood that He shed because it is only by His blood that any can be saved (Rom 3:25).

(picture credit: MedicalXpress)