Trust And Obey

Basically, I grew up in upstate New York. There were some woods at the end of the street and there was a pond more or less in the middle of it. In the winter, we would skate on it and play hockey.

The thing is ... as we gathered on the edge of the pond, we always had the same debate: Was the ice thick enough? We would argue ... debate. Some would say "yes, it 'looked' thick enough to hold us." Others would say, "no way, it's not thick enough."

There was only one way to tell ... step out onto the ice ... and listen. If we didn't hear the ice crack or the guinea pig, I mean, tester, didn't fall through ... then another brave person would step out onto the ice ... and then another ... and if the ice were thick enough, it would hold all of us and soon we'd be skating or playing hockey or just skating and having a good time, not thinking about the ice at all. We didn't have to because the ice h ad proven that it could hold us up.

Joseph (of Nazareth) stepped out on what appeared to be very thin ice the moment that he obeyed God and took Mary to be his wife instead of "quietly" divorcing her. He had no idea what would happen. Well ... he had some ideas ... none of them good. But he took a chance and acted on blind faith.

Well ... his faith wasn't completely "blind." Matthew described him as a righteous man who believe in and trusted God. If God told him to marry Mary, then God would be with him and would give him the strength or whatever he needed to accomplish God's will. But still ... the "ice," so to speak, looked pretty thin. But as he inched out in his faith, his faith and his confidence in God grew and became stronger. Or ... like when we played pond hockey ... his faith became second nature ... his faith in God no longer blind but solid, secure.

As we are going to see, God has incredibly poetic nature. I don't know if you've ever noticed that. In a dream ... a vision ... God told Joseph to get up and take Mary and Baby ... or Toddler ... Jesus to Egypt. Why is God sending them to Egypt beautiful? Poetic? I'm sure that it was neither beautiful nor poetic in Joseph's mind at the time ... and probably not Mary's either.

God tells Joseph ... just like He told Abraham ... to leave his family and friends and travel to a land that he had never seen before ... to start out building a life for his wife and child ... find a job ... a home ... and I'm sure that he was wondering: "Why Egypt?" But he wouldn't know .... and I doubt that he ever figured out "why Egypt." But he stepped out in faith and before he even took one step in the direction of Egypt, God had provided for him and his family. Some Magi ... non-Jews from far, far away ... came to Joseph and Mary to see this child declared by the stars and gave them valuable gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Enough ... maybe even more than enough ...to sustain them while they lived in Egypt.

And, as if going to Egypt wasn't scary and challenging enough, staying in Judea was even more dangerous. After the Magi left, Herod ... who had been tipped off by the Magi that a new king has been born ... ordered that all male children who were two years old or younger were to be slaughtered. Jesus would have been one of the infants executed by Herod's soldiers. And ... while Jesus will eventually be killed ... the time and the place of Jesus' death had already been determined for God's purposes ... namely, the salvation of mankind for its sins and the restoration of our broken relationship with God ... and not for Herod's selfish or ambitious purposes, which was to protect his position and power for himself and for his sons or heirs.

All of this had been seen and prepared for by God hundreds of years before Joseph or Mary or Herod had ever been born. Matthew says that Joseph remained in Egypt until Herod had died and an angel told him that it was safe to return home. "This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the LORD through the prophet [Hosea], 'Out of Egypt I have called my son'" (Matthew 2:15).

God knew about Herod's attempt to kill Jesus by killing all the boys of Judea who were two years old or younger: "Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 'A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation. Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more'" (Matthew 2:17-18).