How on earth would the Jews believe Jesus was the Messiah coming out of some backwater nowhere like Nazareth? If he’d come from a Jewish stronghold like Jerusalem, yes, but not from that northern region known as “Galilee of the Gentiles.”
But Matthew had an ace up his sleeve, a prophecy from Isaiah that pinpointed exactly where the Messiah would come from. It would be in that very area, “Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan“ Isaiah 9:1, in “the land of Zebulun and Naphtali” on the west side of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan river.
And it was here that Isaiah had predicted years of darkness, firstly due to the evil of all its kings, then invasion by the mighty Assyrians that left the area desolate and populated mostly by pagan Gentiles in the years following. But Isaiah had also predicted that God would “honour” the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, Isaiah 9:1, and those “walking in darkness would see a great light,” and in “the land of darkness a light would dawn” (2) – that Matthew then quoted word for word in Matthew 4:15-16 as proof that Jesus really was the Messiah.
So this backwoods area of Zebulun and Naphtali in the province of Galilee, with its mix of Jews and Gentiles, was the home ground for Jesus’ childhood and most of his ministry. It was here that he turned water into wine, fed thousands from just a few loaves and fish on two separate occasions (Mark 6 and 8), healed hundreds who came to him including the demon possessed (Luke 4:40-41), raised a young girl from the dead, calmed a raging sea, and “news spread about him through the whole countryside” (Luke 4:14).
There was no ignoring the dawning of a great light, but what a shock when Jesus stood up in the synagogue of his hometown of Nazareth in Luke 4:16-21, where he not only quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 as being fulfilled as he spoke, but also in the lifetime of Elijah and Elisha that God had sent them to feed and heal two Gentiles, but no Israelites (Luke 4:25-27). The intent was clear, that Jesus had been sent as a light to the Gentiles in this land of darkness too – exactly as Simeon had recognized in Jesus when he saw him, describing him as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your people Israel,” Luke 2:32.
And all this tucked away in the story of Jacob’s son Zebulun, that Jesus would become a light to Jew and Gentile alike. But does that include him being a light to those “Living in a dark world” today?….(next blog)
Buck To Basics 