No 91 Come. Let Sonny, who thirsts, come.™
I painted this picture with the help of Matthew chapter 2, Hebrews chapters 1 and 2, Revelation 22:17, and the Holy Spirit.
First of all, in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, we read.
Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying,
gWhere is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have been His star in the East and have come to worship Him.h
When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
So they said to him, gIn Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
eBut you Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.fh
Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said,
gGo and search carefully for the young child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also.h
When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young Child was.
When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.
And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His Mother, and fell down and worshiped Him.
And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Then, being divinely warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.
Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,
g Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.h
When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying,
eOut of Egypt I called My Son.fh Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry;
and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
This is the story of the birth of Jesus as described in Matthew's Gospel.
Here is a little explanation about Herod.
He was an Idumean from the western side of the Dead Sea, and his connection to the Roman Empire began with a high official named Antipater, who took up with Emperor Pompeius in 63 BC.
He shrewdly allocated his power to his two sons.
When Antipater was killed in 43 B.C., his two sons, Phaesar and Herod, went on to hold high positions in the court of the then-Palestinian region.
However, Phaesar was soon killed in a Parthian raid, and Herod fled to Rome, where he suckled up to Augustus and obtained a mandate to restore Palestine.
That was between 39 and 36 B.C. He enthusiastically served as a link between the region and Rome.
He built a port and a base in Caesarea and a temple for Augustus in Samaria. Of course, he also built a temple for the Jews in Jerusalem, his territory, and got along well with the Sadducees, the temple aristocracy.
But the price he paid for this dangerous tightrope walk was too great.
He killed without mercy anyone who threatened his throne, whether they were his relatives or his son.
All historians who are familiar with his unusual character see the infanticide of Matthew as a historical fact.
I suspect that Herod's descendants are the Palestinians of today.
In 1948, a United Nations resolution established the Jewish state of Israel overnight in Palestine, which had previously been under British rule.
The Palestinians living there, fearing that their sovereignty was threatened, attacked Israel along with neighboring Muslim countries.
This act is only natural if they are descendants of Herod and their origin is the land of Judea and Idumea. This is their homeland.
Furthermore, Herod's cruelty can be understood as the act of a heir of his blood when one learns of the horrific terrorist attacks that took place on October 7, 2023, in the Gaza Strip and surrounding areas.
He killed his wife and children, whom he was supposed to protect, and his cruelty was so well known even in Rome that the Roman emperor said, "It is safer to be born a pig than to be born Herod's son.h
The reason why pigs are used as a metaphor is that the Jews in this region do not eat pigs according to the Jewish commandment.
Herod, who was mentally ill at the end, did not live long after this. When he died, by will, the territory was inherited by his three surviving incompetent sons.
One of them, Herod Antipas, who inherited his father's name, became lord of the region of Galilee.
It was he who cut off the head of John the Baptist and presented it to Salome.
Jesus called him a fox. Perhaps He saw the cunning of his father's inheritance.
At the trial, He revealed Himself to Pilate, but not a word to Herod.
Because He should have known that his descendants would attack His people, Israel.
He was as cunning as a fox, but he mishandled Emperor Caligula. He asked for the title of king but was denied, and he and his wife Herodiah were exiled.
However, Herod's family still held power in the region.
The Herod who appears in Acts 12 is Herod, Agrippa I, grandson of the first King Herod.
God did not forget His mercy toward this anointed one and gave him the stature and dignity of a king, but he did not return his glory to God, so God struck him. He was bitten by a worm and died.
@The English version describes it as a worm, but there are no such poisonous worms in Galilee, so I drew a mosquito, a typical pest in Galilee.
God did not use the wisdom of a serpent or the ferocity of a lion, but killed him with the sting of a mosquito, which can be destroyed by swatting.
Later in the book of Acts, his son, Herod Agrippa II, appears in chapters 25 and 26.
He was briefly could to hear Paul's defense while he was being escorted to Rome, where Paul asked him, "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe. g
Then Agrippa replied to Paul, " You almost persuaded me to become a Christian. g
God, in His final mercy, tried to save this family, but he did not respond.
He then said to Festo, the governor of the province of Syria, gThis man (Paul) might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.h
What happened to Herod's family after this? Since north of Idumaya is Arabia, it would not be surprising if at some point they melded with them and rose 1900 years later and attacked Israel, which had just undergone restoration.
And what is unfortunate for them in the eyes of God is that they inherited the name Palestine, which was named by the Roman Empire after the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah.
God said to AbrahamCg I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God." (Genesis 17:8)
After this, God commanded circumcision as a sign of the covenant: to claim the land, one must be circumcised, accept the God of Abraham, and at least identify himself as a Canaanite who had originally lived there.
@All they received was circumcision. Therefore, apart from God, their future will fade from history along with many other people mentioned at the end of the Bible scrolls.
Where, then, did the wise men of the East who brought gifts to Jesus come from?
If we assume that they were wise men from the East and therefore from a country with a high level of culture, then Persia (now Iran) would be the country of choice.
Their gift is odd, given its original purpose. Aside from the gold, frankincense is not a suitable gift for a birthday, as it is often used as a perfume and was also used with aloes at the burial of Jesus.
In chapter 2:10, we read that when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy, for it was proof of the accuracy of their astrology.
This can be taken as evidence that their astronomy was superior to that of the other nations.
The results of their visit indicate that the purpose of it was a plan to kill the Messiah, which is consistent with the modern Iranian policy of exterminating Israel.
In other words, this event prophesied the birth of Israel about 1900years later and the plans for its extermination by the surrounding Muslim nations beginning shortly thereafter.
However, both of these plans by the Gentiles will be frustrated.
David sings in Psalm 33. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the people of no effect.
The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations.
John, whom Jesus loved most, said more in The Epistle to the Hebrews,
Chapter 1, verse 11, They (Those things) will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment;
verse 12, Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail.
As these words indicate, Israel was destroyed and resurrected. The purpose is the Second Coming of Jesus.
And for that to happen, Jesus had to be born in the land of Israel.
And who does the Bible say Jesus is in the eyes of the Hebrews?
John writes, Chapter 1, verse 3: He being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
verse 4: having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Verse 5: For to which of the angels did He ever say, gYou are My Son, Today I have begotten You. And again, gI will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son.h
Verse 6: But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, gLet all the angels of God worship Him.h
Verse 7: And of the angels He says, gWho makes His angels spirits And His ministers a flame of fire.h
Verse 8: But to the Son He says, gYour throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of Your Kingdom, verse 9: You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.h
John quotes the Psalms, which are familiar to the Hebrews, and explains that Jesus was born as the Son of Man, the object of worship and the founder of all things, as seen by the angels, who are higher than human beings.
John probably heard the details of Jesus' birth from Mary, the mother of Jesus, and chose words from the Psalms to explain the story to the Hebrews in a manner that was easy to understand.
@But how could there be a greater contradiction than the fact that the Founder of all things was born of a created being, a human being?
In other words, how can we reconcile the fact that man, created by God, gave birth to God?
And why did God do such a mysterious thing? John gives us this short answer in chapter 2, verse 11: For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, gI will declare Your name to My brethren.
verse 14: Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same.
In other words, God wished to share the pain and joy of those in flesh and blood through Jesus.
Why would God Almighty have such a desire?
Exodus 3:8 says. And I am come down to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey:
This is because God knew that the most effective way to move people was to show them the delicious food ahead of them, a trait common to all carnal things.
However, I believe that God was aware of the carnal corruption of mankind before the flood of Noah, and therefore He sent His Son to earth as the Son of Man to fundamentally address this problem.
John, moreover, in verse 18: For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He can aid those who are tempted.
It emphasizes that the similarities between Jesus and us were human beings in the same flesh.
Jesus is now, as verse 3 states, He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
However, as is the nature of the Son of Man, when He was just born, He was a weak being who could not live even half a day without having everything under the one-sided grace of His mother.
During this weak existence, the first thing He learned was thirst and hunger.
He did not yet have strong words, and His dry mouth could only produce a cry of hunger.
But His cries were a beacon of hope for His mother, Mary.
How encouraged she must have been in this unfamiliar new place, Bethlehem, by the glow of a little life so desperately seeking her.
I am needed.
This little life cannot live without me.
She reaches out her hand, takes her beloved child in her arms, and speaks to Him.
Come. Let Sonny, who thirsts, come. Drink much of my sweet tit."
Jesus must have taken these words to heart deeply. For this is the eternal healing and salvation of all mankind.
And so, as Heavenly Father once told Moses, to give them a clear purpose, John writes that the Spirit will say to them in the last time,
Revelation 22:17. Come! And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.@Amen.
July 2025@ Oil 910mm~1167mm
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