After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this child, and wants to kill him.” Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.”
Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.) That’s when Jeremiah’s sermon was fulfilled:
A sound was heard in Ramah,
weeping and much lament.
Rachel weeping for her children,
Rachel refusing all solace,
Her children gone,
dead and buried.
Later, when Herod died, God’s angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: “Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead.” Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee. On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
A good start to my working day.
Even Jesus didn’t have a stable family life in those early years, living in fear and exile. Very similar to many families in the world today.
And God knows “the plans” he has for us, even if we don’t always understand why it has to be so hard. Amen to that.
I am also comforted (and confronted) by the instability of Jesus early life… I think it’s amazing that Jesus and his family were refugees, fleeing in fear for Jesus’ life!
The thing that confuses me though is Herod and the scholars… What did the scholars do to trick Herod? I had a look back at the earlier verses in Matthew 2 and read that Herod had sent the scholars (wise men) to find this new messiah and report back to him, but they were warned in a dream not to return to Herod, “they left for their own country by another road”… Still, not coming back is hardly a trick, is it?… a bit rude maybe, but it seems to me that it’s those meddling angels Herod should have been angry about :)
I’m just amazed at Joseph’s faith. It is a massive step to up sticks and move to another country…yet he does it.
I pray I would have that much faith if it happened to me.
Theres a great illustrated version of this story in the Manga Bible that really sums up how terrifying this was for the people at the time and Joseph and Mary. Check it out! :)
I do like the bit where they start travelling in darkness and continue into the daytime… the light. In fact they were well on their way by daylight. Sometimes we have tough things to do and although we know we are obeying God the way is not always clear, but as we carry on obeying the light shines more and more as we journey on.