Jesus taught the first Disciples how to pray and that prayer included our Scripture of the Week from Matthew 6:10 “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” How can God’s will be done on earth?? God’s will will be done on earth as Believers of Jesus Christ obey God’s Word.
I believe this is a main biblical principle in the events right after Jesus was born on earth. We noted last week in Matthew 2 that God affirmed the Magi’s obedience to God’s revelations and they were overjoyed! This morning let us look at what happened to Mary and Joseph after the Magi left them and again, let us note how their obedience fulfilled God’s Will!
Open your Bibles to Matthew 2 and read along with me v12-23…..
v13: Word of God given by an angel
Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus were to escape to Egypt because the tyrant king Herod planned to kill Jesus.
Escape to Egypt? A foreign land? Mary just had a baby! Egypt seems to be so far away!! How are we going to find lodging?
show map of Bethlehem to Egypt…. The border of Egypt was about 80 miles from Bethlehem and many scholars believe Mary and Joseph went deep into Egypt to hide from King Herod.
Joseph and Mary had all sorts of reasons not to obey God.
v14-15: tell us Mary and Joseph obeyed! Why and how could they have obeyed??
Because they had all the resources they needed for travel (the gifts from the Magi), disobedience would have been just due to laziness.
Mary and Joseph obeyed the Word from God and what do we note at the end of v15?
v15b: With their obedience, prophecy (God’s Will) was fulfilled! Just think about this for a moment, God spoke through Hosea about 800 years before Jesus was born and there were so many possibilities for this prophecy not to happen; yes first of all Mary and Joseph could have disobeyed, King Herod and the Magi were involved!
And what else can we note from this passage?
v16-18: King Herod had boys in Bethlehem 2 years and under killed to try and get rid of Jesus. The Magi must have seen the signs for 2 years, but still it tells us the lunacy of Herod!
Jeremiah was prophet of God about 600 years before Christ.
v19-20: Mary and Joseph again obeyed the Word of God by returning to Israel.
v22-23: We note again the obedience of Joseph and Mary to God’s Word and the fulfillment of God’s will.
But let us not miss the fact that Joseph had already made up his mind not to go to Judea before being told to go to Galilee. Another way to know God’s will is to understand the circumstances and have inner peace.
Simply the lesson for us in this passage is “Our obedience to God fulfills God’s Will.”
Let us also not that God’s Will does not always happen here on earth. A good example is 1 Timothy 2:4 which tells us that it is God’s Will that all men be saved; but yet not all men believe in Jesus Christ and are saved.
And let me close by answering the question, What is God’s Will for you and me?
1. whatever God says!
2. what are the circumstances?
3. what godly counsel have I received? (let us not forget that Joseph and Mary were in agreement of their actions)
4. do I have inner peace?
It is God’s will for us as we wait for the return of Jesus Christ to earth to remember what He did for us through Communion. Before we partake and celebrate, let us quietly pray to the Lord about what we have heard and what we are about to do….
