Matthew 4:12-17

¹² Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee. ¹³ And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴ that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: ¹⁵ “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: ¹⁶ The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.” ¹⁷ From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Commentary

Having overcome every temptation by the devil, Jesus while still in Judea hears of the imprisonment of John the Baptist, Jesus’ forerunner. Now John’s imprisonment occurred when Herod, the Roman appointed ruler over the Jews would first imprison and later by the scheming of his illegitimate wife behead John the Baptist for his rebuking Herod for his taking his own brother’s wife as his own wife, as well as for all the evils that Herod had been rebuked by John for doing (see Matt. 14:1-12). Therefore with John the Baptists’ arrest his ministry ends, and Jesus’ ministry in Galilee begins. Now Jesus’ ministry there will begin with His returning to the very region He grew up in, Nazareth. Now in Luke’s Gospel we read how the people of Nazareth will reject our Lord and Savior and then try to kill Him when He declares to them their own unbelief, inferring to them that there will be believing Gentiles (like in times past) that will be saved before they (see Luke 4:14-30). And so with Jesus rejection at Nazareth He moves on from Nazareth to the city of Capernaum (Herod’s capital city on the Northern shore of the Sea of Galilee) in the land of Zebulon and Naphtali (vs. 13), that it might be fulfilled which the prophet Isaiah spoke, saying: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.” ^{vs. 16}

For it is the Lord Jesus Christ alone who comes to all people everywhere and shines God’s everlasting light in the face of sin, Satan and darkness. And so whether darkness is from sin and the outlying despair that always follows it, or darkness from the ruler of darkness himself who always seeks to hold people into bondage to himself (2 Tim. 2:25-26) who won’t release his prisoners (Isaiah 61:1), until Christ comes and shines His great light which not only shatters and scatters the darkness, but it is Lord Jesus Christ alone who is the Light of the World (John 8:12) who brings illumination and revelation of the One True God and of Jesus Christ whom He sent who by His Spirit and by God’s Word, Grace, and Power defeats and destroys the darkness and the ruler of it from every heart and every life of everyone and anyone who repents and believes in Him. And so from the time that John’s ministry ended, the Lord Jesus Christ began to preach and to say to one and to all, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” ^{vs. 17}

Thus the Lord Jesus Christ call and command is for everyone, everywhere to repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand! For in this spiritual war there is only one side to be on, and that is the side of God’s everlasting love and life found only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore I urge you to repent and believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ for yourself that you too might become a child of God (John 1:12) and be delivered out of the realm of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of God’s Son’s love (Col. 1:13). Therefore don’t delay be reconciled to God today!

Scripture Quotations

The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.