The Hometown of Jesus
Old Testament prophecy fulfilled by Jesus
His ministry will be in Zebulun and Naphtali.
Everything in Jesus ministry fulfilled prophecies in the Old Testament. It is all connected from the book of Genesis to Revelation.
Jacob had six sons with Leah. Her sixth son (Jacob’s tenth son) was named Zebulun. When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the tribe of Zebulun was given a fertile area of land in the north.
Jacob had two sons with Rachel’s maid, Bilhah. One of those sons was named Naphtali. He was the sixth son born to Jacob. When Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the part of the land given to the tribe of Naphtali was mountainous and small (about 50 miles long and 10-15 miles wide).
By the time of the divided kingdom, Isaiah wrote down the prophecies God gave him. Because of their sin of idolatry, the ten tribes of the northern kingdom --including Naphtali and Zebulun-- would be taken captive by Assyria. These ten tribes are known as the “Lost Tribes” because they were dispersed and ceased to exist.
But the ten tribes have never been lost from God’s sight. God knew exactly where they were then. God knows exactly where they are now. And God knows exactly where these ten tribes are in the future (12,000 young men from each of the twelve tribes will be God’s witnesses during the tribulation, Revelation 7:4-8).
In Isaiah 9:1-2 the prophet wrote that although Naphtali and Zebulun would see great anguish-but in the future they would see a great light which would shine on them. Jesus was that light that would shine on these two territories.
Nazareth and Cana lay within the territory of Zebulun. Jesus lived in Nazareth. Jesus performed His first miracle in Cana.
The cities of Chorazin and Capernaum lay within the territory of Naphtali. Much of the ministry of Jesus took place in there. Jesus performed many miracles in Chorazin (Matthew 11:21). Jesus performed many miracles in Capernaum and used it as the center of His ministry. He taught in the synagogue there.
All of Jesus’s apostles, except for Judas, came from this area then called the Galilee.
At the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, all of these threads come together to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah written almost 700 years before.
Matthew 4:12-16 tells us how:
12 Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; 13 and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This happened so that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled:
15 “The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
[e]By the way of the sea, on the other side of the Jordan, Galilee of the [f]Gentiles—
16 The people who were sitting in darkness saw a great Light,
And those who were sitting in the land and shadow of death,
Upon them a Light dawned.”
Just as it had been predicted by Isaiah, the people of Zebulun and Naphtali who were sitting in darkness saw a great light.
And that light was Jesus, the light of the world.
Carla Killough McClafferty
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