“The Real Out of Egypt Story”
Matthew 2:13-23
Last week we examined the story of the Magi as they made the long and dangerous journey following the star to worship the new born king. They stopped at the palace (where better to find a king) but all they found was an old, treacherous and suspicious king. Herod the ruler in the land was not really a king and was not even a Jew. But when he was told of the birth of the “new” king he told the Magi that he too was interested in the location of the new king. Herod the king must have thought he was being clever when he told the Magi to be sure and come back to let him know where they found the new born king for he wanted to go and worship also(2:8). Yeah, right. Of course Herod’s real intention was to remove this usurper to his throne. But being warned in a dream the Magi took a different route as they departed (2:12).
As we pick up with the story there are three things we want to note about the days following the departure of the Magi.
First, The Flight to Egypt. (2:13-15)
“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." (14) When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, (15) and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son."
•God’s Protection.
As soon as the Magi had departed from Bethle-hem, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. The angel told him to pack up Mary and his new son and head to Egypt because Herod was going to try to kill him. Joseph got up (it appears immediately) and the family left in the night (which would mean no one would know when or where they departed). We must marvel at the obedience of this young man of God. God told him to go and he went!
But even in this account we see that Joseph is not presented as the physical father of Jesus. The angel tells Joseph, “take the young child and His mother.” It does not say “take your son” but rather “take the child and his mother.” And although Joseph is not the biological father of Jesus he takes his parental responsibilities very seriously - to do everything in his power to provide and protect his young charge.
•God’s Provision
I don’t want us to miss the connection that it is the gifts of the Magi that gave the young parents of Jesus the finances to make a journey out of the country possible. The gold given in recognition of His right to be king is a very practical provision for the journey to Egypt and the means to live on as they established themselves in a new place.
Jesus and his family survived but we should not lose sight of the fact that they did so as refugees. They left behind whatever semblance of a life they had been able to build in Bethlehem and start over with only what they could carry on their persons. Even as a child, Jesus already was experiencing the fact that the Son of Man would lack even a place to lay his head (8:20). Have you ever stopped to considered that in contrast we as Christian’s in the West have come to act as if the easy life we enjoy is a divine right.
Matthew is very concerned to show that way that the birth of Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. He will quote Old Testament scripture five times in the first two chapters alone. He has already quoted two proph-ecies (Isaiah 7:14 in 1:23 and Micah 5:2 in 2:6) and in the reminder of the chapter he will quote three more.
The first Old Testament prophecy that Matthew refers to is found in verse fifteen and is Hosea 11: 1, “…And out of Egypt I called My son.” Matthew applies the text which refers to Israel leaving Egypt to Jesus. At first glance this text does not seem to have anything to do with Jesus. But just as Israel went to Egypt to be protected and was delivered back into the land, Jesus is protected in Egypt. Matthew makes it clear that just as Israel as a nation came out of Egypt, so does the Son of God.
Secondly, The Murder of the Children of Bethlehem. (2:16-18)
“Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Beth-lehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. (17) Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: (18) "A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more."
When Herod discovered that the Magi had seen through his plan, enraged he conceived an atrocity worthy of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin or Saddam Hussein he ordered the cold-blooded murder of all the male children of the village of Bethlehem and the surround-ing area under the age of two (2:16). Herod seems to even leave himself a margin for error, if according to the Magi the star appeared about a year ago, that would make the new King around a year old, so just to be on the safe side let’s kill all the male babies up to two years old.
This is a part of the Christmas story that is not included in the Christmas carols. I have never seen a Christmas card that depicts this part of the Christmas story, and yet it very real. Some people are concerned that the story of the murder of the children is not found in any supporting secular historical documents. But since Herod was killing people all the time, this event was merely one more example of his cruelty. Tyrants are not know for recording their atrocities. As we noted last time Herod had always been cruel but he was even more brutal as he grew older. He had killed his (favorite wife) Mariamne, his sons, almost any one who was a threat to him in any way. Just one example was Herod’s young brother-in-law who drowned in an “accident” in what archaeology has since revealed to be a very shallow pool. (Josephus. War 550-1)
In our modern minds the slaughter of the innocent children of Bethlehem sounds like an event of epic proportions, much like Hilter’s Holocaust. But since Bethlehem was a small village at the time (perhaps 1,000 in population- the number of children killed would have been 20-30). That of course is not to diminish the monstrous nature of what Herod did nor the devastation it would have had on the families and the community. Rachel, wife of the Patriarch Jacob, who was buried in Bethlehem, is a picture of all the mother’s who wept over the death of their children.
The second Old Testament text that Matthew refers to in verse eighteen is Jeremiah 31: 15-17, “Thus says the LORD: "A voice was heard in Ramah, lament-ation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more." (16) Thus says the LORD: "Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy. (17) There is hope in your future, says the LORD, That your children shall come back to their own border.”
The tears referred to by Jeremiah are for those who have been carried into captivity. When the Babylonians invaded Judah in 586 B.C and carried the Jews captive into Babylon, Jeremiah40:1 tells us that the deportation headquarters were in Ramah! (Obvious then Ramah was a place of weeping!) By application in Matthew the tears are for the innocents who were killed by Herod’s order.
But perhaps the point that we should see is rather than weeping over the past, instead of contin-uing to look back in sorrow, the survivors are to look forward in hope. The exiles will one day return to the land and the Messiah had escaped Herod’s hands and one day He would return to His land from Egypt.
Third, The Return To Nazareth. (2:19-23)
“ But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, (20) saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child's life are dead." (21) Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel. (22) But when he heard that Archelaus (ar’-ke-la’-us) was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. (23) And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Nazarene."
Matthew explains that after Herod dies (4 B.C) an angel appears to Joseph in a dream telling him to go back to Israel. His initial thought seemed to be of returning to Bethlehem, no doubt they had developed contacts and friends in the time that they had lived there, and after all Bethlehem was the city of David, where else would the future king be raised. But the coming king’s days were not to be spent in a royal court, but with the common people in the common town of Nazareth in Galilee. But news came that Archelaus, a only surviving son of Herod the Great, was ruling in that region and he was just as ruthless and his father. This was confirmed as being a very real danger by another dream, so Joseph settled in Galilee.
The last prophecy that is referenced is found in verse twenty-three, “And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, "He shall be called a Naza-rene." Because Matthew says that this “was spoken by the prophets” (plural) he does not appear to be citing a specific prophecy but the general teaching of Scripture. It is not so much that the Scriptures specifically say He will be from Nazareth but that He would be looked down upon as having no particular standing. Isaiah writing of the coming Messiah wrote, “He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3).Nazareth was an unimportant city that had nothing but a poor reputation among the people of Israel. Jesus was often called “the Nazarene” as a title of contempt. When Nathanael was told by his brother Philip that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah he responded by saying, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46)
Conclusion
First, there is a message about divine detours. We have no idea what Joseph and Mary thought about having to flee Bethlehem for Egypt. But I think we can be fairly certain that it was not a detour that they anticipated. They probably were looking forward after the birth of Jesus to returning to Nazareth and setting up a home. But whatever Joseph’s thoughts may have been his obedience was immediate and unquestioning.
You may feel like you are in the middle of a detour in you life and you wonder what is going on. You thought your life was headed in a one direction when suddenly you found yourself in a divine detour. I cannot tell you what God is doing your particular situation, but I can tell based on the Word of God, that it is because God loves you and it is for your good. Try not to be too impatience as God works out His plan in you life.
Secondly, there is a message about hostility to Jesus and His message. From the very beginning Satan has done all that he can to thwart the plan of God to redeem man from his sin. Way back in Exodus (Exodus 1) Pharaoh decreed that all the Israelite male babies were to be killed at birth. This was simply another attempt by Satan to abort God’s plan to bring a redeemer into the world. Herod did everything he could, he killed every male baby he could find, but he didn’t get the ONE that mattered - God protected him.
It was Satan that was behind Herod’s plan to kill the promised deliverer. In Revelation 12:4-5, John wrote, “And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. (5) She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne.” But John says Satan was unable to carry out his plan because God protected the baby.
So do not be deceived many are still hostile to the message of Christmas. Christmas is under attack in America and is one of the newest target of Political Correctness. Christmas was a threat to Herod and it threatens many people today. The world did not welcome Jesus then and it doesn’t welcome Him now. Here are a few examples how our modern world is hostile to the news of Christmas:
• In Seattle, a King County official sent out a memo asking county employees not to say “Merry Christmas” and to be “religion neutral.”
• In Frederick County, Maryland, a school employee was prohibited from handing out Christmas cards on a public school campus.
• Red poinsettias were banned from the Ramsey County Court House in St. Paul, Minnesota because they offended one person who believes these flowers are a symbol of Christianity. After bitter debate, an uneasy compromise was reached red poinsettias were banned but white ones were permitted!!!!!!!!
• A Pennsylvania fourth-grader was stopped from giving Christmas cards to classmates.
• Two Minnesota middle-schoolers got in trouble for wearing red and green scarves in a Christmas skit and for ending the skit with a Merry Christmas wish for the audience. [John Leo. “Where is Christmas?” US News and World Report. 12/19/04 p. 47]
In the words of Bill O’Reilly, “Tis the season to be dopey.” He goes on to say this following:“Of course, all of these things are completely insane, but they are definitely symptomatic of what America is facing: A well-organized campaign to destroy tradition and replace it with the bland philosophy that nothing is any good unless it includes everybody.
“Let’s walk through this: Christmas is a federal holiday. That means that the word Christmas is legal in every way and can be used as a greeting or a description, or whatever you want. Christmas exists because of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a man who changed the course of Western civilization. A man whose philosophy became the cornerstone of democratic thinking. All men were created equal in the eyes of Jesus and in the eyes of America’s founding fathers.” (Bill O’Reilly, “Santa is Appalled,” December 22, 2001)
Third, there is a message here about Divine Providence. Providence is not a subject that we hear a lot about in our day. Providence is the doctrine which teaches that God is in control of every detail of the Universe. He not only has control of all the big details, but He also has control of the most minute details of life. Everything in the universe fits into His great master plan.
God is our deliverer. He delivered Jesus and he will deliver you. One thing to keep in mind is that sometimes God delivers us “out of” our troubles and some times God delivers us “through” our troubles.
I think about the three Hebrew youth of Daniel chapter three - Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego. They are faced with the decree of the king that they must bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image or they will be throw into the fiery furnace. Their response is an encouragement to believers of all time, they said “.… our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. (18) But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3: 17-18) The conclusion they came to was that God was able to deliver them, He may decide to deliver them out of the fiery furnace or He may decide to deliver them through their death in the furnace but either way He will deliver them. In like fashion, some-times God delivers us from, that is out of our difficulties, and sometimes He delivers us through our difficulties but our God WILL deliver us.
“The Real Out of Egypt Story”
Matthew 2:13-23
First, The ________________ to Egypt. (2:13-15)
•God’s ______________________.
•God’s ______________________.
Secondly, The _______________ of the Children of Bethlehem. (2:16-18) (Hosea 11:1b, Jeremiah 31: 15-17)
Third, The _________________ To Nazareth. (2:19-23)
Herod dies (4 B.C)
He will be despised (Isa 53:3, John 1:46)
Conclusion
First, there is a message about divine ________________.
Secondly, there is a message about ________________ to Jesus and His message. (Revelation 12:4-5)
Third, there is a message here about Divine ___________
