Christ picks darkest place to begin ministry

John 1: [29] The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

[30] This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.
[31] And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

"Do you hear preachers explain why they water baptize today? Have you ever heard one say, 'I'm trying to make Jesus manifest to the nation of Israel'? No, what you hear is, 'Water baptism is an outward expression of an inward faith' and all that kind of stuff," explains Alex Kurz.

"Not one verse says that's why you get water baptized. John warns apostate Israel, 'You know why you need to get water baptized? To flee the wrath to come.' I've not heard preachers who water baptize explain why they're doing it. Is it to flee the wrath to come? Is it to make Jesus manifest to the nation of Israel? Is it to 'save yourself from this untoward generation,' as Peter states it in Acts 2?

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Matthew 4: [23] And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

[24] And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

"This is what Jesus is doing when He begins his messianic ministry; He begins the conflict by entering into the darkest region of Israel (Galilee), taking the battle right to the powers of darkness. What's He doing? He's casting out all of these devils.

"By the way, these devils know who He is. They say, 'We know who you are.' See, the issue is the timing. They say, 'Wait a minute, you're not supposed to be doing this.' Kind of interesting. Even the devils know something about dispensationalism. They understand some basic things about timing and so on.

"He takes the conflict right to these entities that are trespassing--'They're in my land! And my people, they're cut off.' Galilee of the Gentiles. They're treated as inferior to the rest of the nation of Israel. Why? Because they've adopted to the ways of the Gentiles, participating in Baal worship, etc.

Matthew 4: [15] The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

[16] 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.
[17] From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

"See the geo-political connotation there? You have darkness that is occupying a region. This region is the northern part of the Promised Land. It's the region and shadow of death, as the passage continues.

"Here's the problem. You have this digression. The Gentiles are in darkness and God's people are light, but now all of a sudden you see darkness encroaching upon 'the people,' meaning the nation of Israel.

"Historically, Galilee was not an attractive or appealing area. I Kings 9 gives a little bit of the history of Galilee.

Verse 11: [11] (Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.

Solomon says, 'Thank you so much. I'm going to give you 20 cities in the land of Galilee.'

[12] And Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they pleased him not.
[13] And he said, What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother? And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

"Cabul means worthless. It means 'as nothing.' Twenty cities, that's a quite a gift, and the guy says, 'I'm not happy about this. You've given me a wasteland!'

II Kings 15:29: [29] In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Jonoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.

"Here we have this Assyrian invasion. My understanding is when you study military warfare and so forth the Assyrians, as well as the Babylonians, when they invaded the land, they came out of the north. By the way, doesn't Daniel say a lot about the Antichrist coming from the north?

"When Assyria came in, they came down through historic Galilee and we see that is going to be a problem.

Matthew 4:16-17 is quoting Isaiah 9: [1] 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.

[2] 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.

"You see how those two tribal regions are being singled out? Look at what God is saying about those two tribal areas. It says 'at the first He lightly afflicted the land.'

"That would be a reference to the Assyrian captivity. When the Assyrians came down and invaded Naphtali and Zebulun, they depopulated that area. Obviously if you're going to bring captives back to Assyria, you're displacing the Israelites.

"Remember, for example, in Exodus when Israel is in a strange land, it's a 'darkness that can be felt.' It's a 'horror of great darkness.' This time the Gentiles are now invading and ultimately influencing the northern part of the Promised Land.

"At first God lightly afflicted the land, but notice 'and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.'

"That's probably a reference to the Babylonian captivity. Things are only going to get worse for that land mass.

"You have darkness encroaching and it's an area that even Israel viewed as being cut off. That area belongs to the nations. Jesus, in an act of mercy, is reversing the courses of punishment that God levied against the nation of Israel.,

"I think it's just remarkable that Jesus, as the Light, He goes into the darkest-most region of the Promised Land. Isaiah 9:2 says 'they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.'

"That's the Lord Jesus being merciful and gracious. His ministry campaign begins in the darkest-most place. Light has sprung up."