FROM THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT TO THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS.
Matthew 2:13-18.
MATTHEW 2:13. Joseph was called into exile. It is important that we do not linger in the place where we have been, but continue to follow the leading of God in our spiritual walk. After all, wherever God places us we are but ‘strangers and pilgrims’ (cf. Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11).
Likewise it is important to wait in the next place for only so long as it takes God to “bring us word.” Joseph was called into exile, but only “until” that took place. There is a time to stand still, and a time to move forward.
MATTHEW 2:14. Christ’s humility was an exile, but it was also the path to His exaltation. For Him, going down “by night into Egypt” was a further step of descent towards the nether regions of death. When we are in darkness: physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually - even there our beloved Jesus is with us (cf. Psalm 23:4).
MATTHEW 2:15. Death is the great leveller. Even kings, governors, presidents and rulers must give an account of their actions before God: murderous tyrants all must also die, and face their maker. Jesus was in Egypt only until Herod died.
Matthew is an expert at demonstrating how the types and prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus. Israel is the type of our Lord, and our Lord is the ultimate manifestation of all that Israel typologically represented. Israel was called out of Egypt under Moses (cf. Hosea 11:1); Jesus was called out of Egypt under the guardianship of Joseph.
MATTHEW 2:16. Herod's reaction showed his true desire. Herod had no desire towards ‘the desire of all nations’ (cf. Haggai 2:7), whom Jewish women desired to mother. Herod had all the baby boys in Bethlehem murdered because he desired thereby to murder Jesus.
MATTHEW 2:17. Herod was too late. Jesus had escaped. But he unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy of Jeremiah.
MATTHEW 2:18. There seemed to be no consolation for the mothers in Bethlehem. Rachel, who was buried there after her own death in childbirth, is portrayed by Jeremiah as weeping for her children as they went into exile (cf. Jeremiah 31:15). Matthew sees her weeping again, in another fulfilment of this Scripture, when the infants in Bethlehem were so cruelly massacred.
This may seem to offer no comfort - but if we follow his quotation back to its source, we may find something in the context from which the quote came.
This is the right use of Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:13), and scriptural things with scriptural. For prophecy did not come by the will of man, but holy men of God, bearing the Holy Spirit, spoke from God (cf. 2 Peter 1:21).
Jeremiah's prophecy does not stop with Rachel's weeping, but proceeds to offer her counsel (cf. Jeremiah 31:16-17). 'Refrain from weeping.' says the LORD through Jeremiah. 'They shall come back! Your children shall come back to their own border.'
The Jewish people did return from exile seventy years after Jeremiah's prophecy. They have done so again in our own generation, against all the odds, after a second exile of nearly 2,000 years.
Do these words offer no comfort to the bereaved mothers of Bethlehem, or indeed any believing mothers bereft of their children? After all, 'Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning' (cf. Psalm 30:5).
Terrorism is thought to be a modern phenomenon, but when you think of it, Herod was a terrorist. The idea is to instil fear upon the intended victim, prior to destroying him entirely.
Herod the Great came to his end alone and in agony, one year after the slaughter of the innocents, and five days after he had ordered the execution of his own son. Not a nice man.
The devil seeks to terrorise our own souls, but he will fail. The irony is that when we suffer reproach on behalf of Jesus, it carries its own benediction (cf. Matthew 5:11-12). In the end Satan cannot snuff out the anointing within us. We find rest in the midst of reproach, and in the end all his failed attempts redound to the glory of God (cf. 1 Peter 4:14).
