At first glance one might say, Jesus moved out of the area because He wanted to fulfill that prophecy that His preaching would begin in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. That's all right until one understands that the word "departed" means "to withdraw." Now it begins to take on a different connotation. Then when we begin to read, at the beginning of verse 12, we see why He withdrew. He withdrew because He heard that John had been put in prison. Why was John put in prison? Because there was a persecution raging that was going to—in the estimation of Jesus—envelop the very beginning of His ministry too.
So Jesus accomplished two things at one time. He got out of the area, and He also fulfilled a prophecy—that His ministry would begin in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. We're going to add proof to this because we're going to go, in just a little bit, to the book of Luke and we're going to see why He got out of the area of Nazareth. We're going to see very clearly why He got out the area of Nazareth.
Jesus applied this prophecy to Himself in Matthew 4 when He began His Galilean ministry.
The spiritual illumination arrived in Galilee through Jesus Christ, who brought God's truth. Light had dawned on them just as prophesied in Isaiah.
It is a powerful light symbolizing the clarity and evidence of the truth, and this was not like the light of a candle, but the full strength of the sun or greater. It is a bright light because it illuminates important things of great significance, so it will endure for a long time and reach far.
And it is a shining light that is growing. The work of Christ, like a grain of mustard seed or the morning light, was small at first but gradually increased in brightness as His light shone.
