Good evening and welcome to the Panhandle. Tonight you will see that God always has a plan. And if you look close enough in the Old Testament you can usually find bits and pieces of that plan. So lets dig in and see what we find out in this study.
The students at Princeton, I believe it was at Princeton, played a joke on one of the professors. He was one of those old bugologists, and I reckon he had specimens of all the bugs in the world in his frames and boxes. The mischievous boys got the legs of one bug and the body of another and the head and wings of others, and put them together as if nature had so formed them, and then they laid it on the old professor's table and walked in, and asked him what kind of a bug that was; and he said:
"Gentlemen, that is a humbug" When a fellow gets a little of everything in him and is made up of a hundred different sorts of things, then he is a first-class humbug in every sense of the word.—Sam Jones. (One Thousand Evangelistic Illustrations.) Herod was a Humbug of the worst kind.
I am going to tell you an awful story, a story that we should never forget. It is the story of how a very jealous king did something unthinkable. It is also a story about Christ Jesus and God's purpose for Him. Christ Jesus, who was born in the midst of Herod’s brutality, knows our suffering. He comes to the frightened and the sick and the hungry, feeds and heals, and teaches the presence of God’s power wherever there are tears. We worship a God who comforts those who suffer. A God who visits with us through His Word, through prayer, and through other Christians. We are not left to face this life alone.
Matt 2:13-23
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him."
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 "A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more."
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: "He will be called a Nazarene."
So let's start by looking at how a hasty exodus to Egypt saved Christ Jesus and fulfill a prophecy.
1. The EXODUS (vs. 13-15)
The Magi had gone home by a different way after being warned to do so by an angel, why Because Herod had no intention of worshiping the Christ Child, Jesus but instead he wanted to kill Him. That's why Herod wanted to know when the star first appeared. And that's why Herod wanted the Magi to report back to him.
When the Magi found the Christ Child, they worshiped Him and gave Him gifts, but they did not honor Herod's request? That was step one of a two step plan to save the life of the child, our Lord Christ Jesus. In the second part of the plan God sent an angel to Joseph to tell him to take his family and get out of Bethlehem.
The distance from Bethlehem to Egypt was between 40 and 100 miles depending on which route they took. The trip probably took them between 4 to 10 days to complete on foot again depending on the route they took. The shortest way to leave Herod’s domain was by way of Ascalon, which lay on the main road to Egypt or the way of the sea. The other way suggested is said to have been the safer way. It was the way of the Desert of Shur by way of Farma to Basta. This is the way that the Coptic Christians of Egypt writings' support.
Either way it would have been a difficult journey. Once they arrived in Egypt (which had several large Jewish populations) they settled into a Jewish community. Tradition says, either near Alexandria or Memphis.
If the trip was so difficult, why did God command them to go to Egypt? First of all Herod wanted to kill Christ Jesus. But Herod's power did not reach to Egypt so the Christ Child would be safe there.
Second, historically Egypt has been the land of refuge for those fleeing from Palestine for one reason or another. It was in Egypt that Jacob, and his family found refuge during the years of famine in Canaan (Genesis 42). When King Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death, "Jeroboam fled to Egypt" (1 Kings 11:40). When the citizens of Judah killed the governor who Nebuchadnezzar had placed over them, they forced the prophet Jeremiah to flee with them to Egypt (Jeremiah 41:17). In light of all this, it seems only natural that Egypt would be the place that Joseph and his family would go to for safety. And it was fairly close.
Third and not to be over looked is for the fulfillment of prophecy. Remember Matthew is the master of tying Christ Jesus back to Old Testament prophecy concerning His birth, life, death, and resurrection. Here Matthew projects an Old Testament passage forward to the birth of God’s Son rather than backwards to the Exodus of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt thereby tying Christ Jesus' exile to Hosea 11:1 ~ When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.
Just as Joseph took Mary and baby Jesus to Egypt to save them, so Christ Jesus was raised up on a cross to save you, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” (John 3:14-15). Won't you invite Him to become a part of your life?
In the early church, pagan philosophers such as Celsus attacked Christianity by describing Christ Jesus as both an illegitimate child and as one who lived in Egypt and learned the sorcery and magic of the Egyptians. But Matthew makes it clear that Christ Jesus went to Egypt as a little child and that He returned from Egypt as a child.
2. The EXILE (vs. 15-16)
Herod was a master assassin, and here he needed to identify the Child King. The Scripture says he felt tricked by the wise men, and in his anger he acted to remove the life of any child born to be king. This brutality was in keeping with Herod's character. Remember me telling you that jealousy as to his authority led him to murder two high priests, his uncle Joseph, his wife, and three of his own sons, besides many other innocent people.
Having inquired of the wise men as to when they had first seen the star and begun their journey, he concluded that he needed to kill all the young boys the age of two years and under. According to theologian William Barclay, the small population of Bethlehem would mean that between twenty to thirty children would have been executed in the town. Including the border areas, the number could have been twice that.
So while Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus were on their way or were in Egypt, Herod sent his soldiers or rather executioners, to Bethlehem. There the horrific slaughtering of all male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under took place. The scene in Bethlehem that day must have been heart-rending. Mothers must have clung desperately to their little boys when they heard the soldiers marching down the street going from door-to-door. Fathers may have tried to hide their sons in secret hiding places. But all to no avail. When the soldiers were done with their bloody work wailing mothers were holding their dead babies, and powerless fathers sobbed in rage. Even so, Christ Jesus, the Savior of the world, escaped the edge of the sword by the providential care of God.
Once again Matthew quotes from the Old Testament, of Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for they were not (Jeremiah 31:15). Jeremiah was speaking primarily of Jerusalem being led into captivity, leaving the land where Rachel lay buried, and in a figure of speech he sees Rachel as the land of God’s promise, weeping for her children who should be there but were not. Matthew uses this Old Testament passage in a new setting, focusing on the hopelessness in Bethlehem, because its hope for the future died with the death of its children.
For Matthew, the blood of Bethlehem calls to mind, then, the two greatest crises faced by God's Old Testament people: the blood of the Hebrew children in Egypt, and also the blood of the Exile. Once again, history was not merely being repeated rather, it is being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. Even Herod's wicked actions, led to the fulfillment of prophecy. God, in His provision, led Joseph, Mary and the child Jesus out of Bethlehem just in time.
God in His provision has made it possible for you to have a restored relationship with Him. That way is Christ Jesus, won't you invite Him into your life?
3. The Purpose (vs. 17-23)
Upon Herod’s death in around 4 B.C., the kingdom he had ruled was divided into three parts. Herod divided the kingdom, leaving a part to each of his three remaining sons. Judea was left to Archelaus, Galilee was left to Herod Antipas, and the northeast region beyond Jordan was left to Philip. Archelaus, who succeeded his father, Herod, in Judea, attempted to continue the pattern of his father and began his rule with the slaughter of three thousand influential people. Emperor Augustus granted him only the rank of ethnarch; then in a.d. 6 he was removed and banished. It was this pattern of violence that led Joseph to take his family and go on from Judea to Galilee. There Herod Antipas' reigned was a more tolerant and peaceful.
At the time Galilee was an out of the way providence, far from the centers of religion and political power in Jerusalem. That Joseph took his family to live in Galilee was no accident or just a chance happening. Galilee was relatively quite and unnoticed, where Christ Jesus could grow up among the common people whom He had come to save.
Now Nazareth was a town with a dubious reputation ~ Nathanael said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." (John 1:46). It was a Roman military post with all the disreputable trappings. It was in this setting that Christ Jesus learned to understand and have compassion on the sick and sinful people around Him. His ability to dine with the outcast did not develop over night.
So you see while Joseph's return to Israel with his family may have seemed haphazard, God had a purpose in every detail. God also has a purpose for your life. But until you ask you will never know what it is. So ask Christ Jesus into your heart and see what God's got planed for you.
Thanks again for dropping by and may our Father in heaven richly bless you and your family.
Biblesurfer
Sources used for this study: Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. Stuart K. Weber
No comments:
Post a Comment