About this time, mixed in among the Christmas Cards, are a few holdouts of the annual Christmas Family Christmas letters. Before the days of Facebook and social media sites, these Christmas letters were extremely common. Some are especially gifted at crafting these and tying in faith reflections for some very meaningful cards. I picture my mom putting a great deal of effort into sending out such letters to the relatives in Iowa and elsewhere who we didn’t get to see that often. Others though will read as long stories about details very meaningful to the writer but not so much for the recipient reading it. It’s an interesting letter about someone else’s life but it doesn’t have much to do with me.
When it comes to the Bible and especially the Christmas story events we can come away with that similar impression. That’s true of today’s text where it reads about an early traumatic event with Mary and Joseph centering on their child. But besides questions about why a child could stir up so much drama, and the oh isn’t that interesting reaction, the story seems at least at first to have little to do with us. Yet the deeper truth though you probably don’t realize it, but you were there. You are part of this story.
Before we get to our part in the story, your first reaction might be these verses are too light on details! We want to know more! Why didn’t Mary and Joseph keep a journal? There’s so many unanswered questions! Why is it that Joseph didn’t appear to be present for the wisemens’ visit, yet the dream comes to him and not Mary? Why Egypt of all places? How did they get there? Where did they stay? How long were they there? And more! But when it comes to this story, apparently the details are on a need to know basis. What is revealed is shocking to Matthew’s readers.
Verse 13 “When they – the wisemen – had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. This is Joseph’s second divinely sent dream. The first divinely sent dream served to interrupt Joseph’s plans to divorce Mary quietly because she was found to be with child. Joseph it’s time for another curveball. And in that dream, Joseph receives four commands: “Get up, Take, escape, and stay.”
Get up said the angel – take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt and stay there until I tell you.
GET UP: This is a dream after all and Joseph is sleeping. Joseph has probably been working since dawn in his carpenter shop like he does everyday to provide for his family.
TAKE the child and his mother: This is more than a mere command to pack up your belongings. In the original language, Joseph is being assigned to their protection and care. The responsibility is placed on him and him alone.
ESCAPE TO EGYPT: FLEE, GET OUT OF DODGE, Hurry up!
STAY THERE – Stay there until I tell you which implies eventually a third divine message will be coming to Joseph in the future.
So why is Joseph getting up? Taking? Escaping? And Staying? Because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him. Actually it is more than just kill him as we’ll get into next week. The original meaning behind the word is that Herod intends to erase baby Jesus from human history as if he never existed in the first place.
Did you catch what is going on? Joseph’s dream triggers this flight to Egypt even before King Herod knows the wisemen outwitted him! Joseph’s dream leads to the Flight to Egypt even before Herod gives the order! God spares his Son in that moment to preserve him from premature death to die a far more terrible death on the cross! God not only outwits Herod so that the Christ child will live! God sees to it they will remain in Egypt until Herod himself is erased from life.
And so what does Joseph do? He obeys with the repetition of those very four words lost in our translations. HE GETS UP< HE TAKES< HE ESCAPES< AND THEY STAY THERE.
Add to that how quickly they departed in the middle of the night – The most dangerous time that today we take for granted. We get in the car, flip on our headlights and go. Such things just weren’t done. Only the most courageous or reinforced dared travel by night for robbers or animals along the way.
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We know the story is called the flight to Egypt – The flight is in the urgency but not at all like getting on a plane. Taking the ancient trade route, called the Way of SHUR would have taken them passed Mount Sinai to the Nile River Delta. Historians of the time note well over a hundred thousand Jews at the time lived on the outskirts of Elephantine and Alexandria. Going on foot or by leading a donkey – we are talking more than 350 miles just to reach the Egyptian border. If Alexandria or Elephantine were there destination, the journey could have taken as long as 45 days. Or if they settled in the Jewish areas in Pelusium or Avaris by the Nile Delta maybe 30 days.
Have you recognized your part in the story yet? You were there. Unlike reading an annual Christmas letter, you are included which should spark all sorts of awareness and appreciation in what sketchy details we have.
Matthew’s purpose behind mentioning Jesus’ escape to Egypt isn’t just to satisfy the curiosity of his readers. Matthew is trying all along to convince his Jewish readers that Jesus is the long awaited for Messiah – the Son of God. And once again, Matthew inspired by the Holy Spirit, links Jesus back to an ancient prophecy:
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And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” Hosea 11:1
The setting of Hosea 11 where this quote originates from is a courtroom setting. God is the prosecuting attorney in this case and presents his evidence. The Son that God so loved in verse 1 is his covenant child Israel. Israel has been subject to slavery and bondage in Egypt. Fulfilling his Covenants, God freed Israel under the leadership of Moses and Joshua. Ultimately, God brought them back to the Promised Land in Palestine. Listen to what God has to say through his prophet:
“But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. Yet my people are determined to turn from me.”
Here’s the point of inclusion:
In the time of the prophet, God was using this text to prosecute Israel 1.0. These were the biological descendants of Abraham who were heirs to God’s covenant promises. Add to that a very small minority of outsiders who also became believers. Hosea 11:1 in this case refers to the era of Moses and Joshua when God brings his people out from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. Yet the people continually rebelled against God and the prophet’s calls to repentance. So Israel 1.0 is prosecuted by God in Hosea 11 and losing the case, Israel will face exile. Though God will bring them back from exile, they lose their freedom as a nation state and are dominated by the other nations around them. Yet God remains faithful to his promises and pledges to bring the Messiah through Israel 1.0
In the time of Matthew: Though Matthew was making an effort to appeal to his fellow Jews, the era of Israel 1.0 was giving way to Jesus introducing Israel 2.0 and Christ’s kingdom and church. God designs the pattern to repeat. And in a grand symbolic moment of repetition, God uses Egypt to deliver Christ from Herod’s wrath. God’s do over. Jesus as Israel 2.0 – He is the ideal Israel of God who will ultimately come out of Egypt. He does so with perfect love and obedience that Israel could never do. Jesus is the new Israel. And while he did not marry or have biological descendents – He is the head of the church, a church of which God has granted us a place and claim to this very Jesus who had to flee for his life as a child. His life was preserved by God to suffer an even more destined fate on the cross. A fate from which God his father did not spare him our of love for you and me. If Herod had succeeded and wiped this child from existence, God’s plan for our salvation would have been in jeopardy. But in preserving this child through Joseph’s obedience, Jesus was able to accomplish the redemptive purpose for which he came.
Christ’s defining moment in this story leads to our own. Therein is the fulfillment of the prophecy – Out of Egypt I called my son so that Christians like you and me will be called out of the world. Through this event and the other Christmas events – it isn’t some annual family letter where you read about someone elses highlights from a distance. Through these stories God is revealing the love he lavishes on you as the Father running out of the home to find you and embrace you to redeem you from the yoke of slavery to sin.
