Matthew 4:12-25 continues…

Jesus had received the message of John Baptist’s imprisonment, and He leaves Nazareth for Galilee. He makes His home base Capernaum, and He does this because He has a great heart for fulfilling the Scriptures. The Scriptures He is fulfilling by coming to Capernaum is Isaiah 9:1-2.

There is a point here that I will try not to forget when I get to another chapter of Matthew concerning His dwelling at Capernaum, which was pointed out to me in a magazine article I read, and is connected with John 6:16-21, and the relation with chapter 14 verses 22 – 33 of Matthew.

Capernaum is now Jesus’s home where His ministry headquarters are. The word “Dwelt” in verse 13 is “To house permanently”. This is an indication of Jesus’s intent. It does seem to have a special and significant prophetic meaning.

“Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 4:12-17 (KJV).

THE LIGHT OF JESUS CERTAINLY SHINES WHERE HE DWELLS. Jesus was the dawning of the great light that was to shine, fulfilling the Scriptures of Isaiah 9:1-2: “Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined”.

John the Baptist was a messenger of the Light (John 1:6-9). When the King came it was in God’s plan and time for the prophet to be silenced. With John Baptist in prison that messenger was virtually silenced. John was actually the last of the Old Testament prophets. The prophets basic message was repentance, because that was what was needed, and until John the Baptist, there had been silence from prophecy for about 400 years.

When John is silenced by imprisonment and eventually his death, Jesus continues the message of repentance. The seventeenth verse gives us His beginning message, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Though since that first message of Jesus; He has died, was buried, has risen from death and the grave, and has ascended to His Father’s right hand; the message of repentance is especially needed in the world today. It is a time of immorality run amuck. That being due to the people of God forsaking God and going after the gain of the material world. Jesus is still the Light. The Light that shines in darkness, and shining in darkness reveals the sins of our hearts, and calls us to repentance.