ADVENT 2015 - ESCAPE TO EGYPT

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 146: 1, 2

When the Magi’s visit worshiping Jesus was completed, they were warned in a dream to return home by another route avoiding a meeting with King Herod. After the Magi left, Joseph had a second dream where an angel appeared. The angel said Joseph must quickly take Mary and Jesus to Egypt and remain there until told to return. Herod was searching for Jesus to kill him. Matthew 2:12-14.

It was not surprising people fled to Egypt since colonies of Jews were established there. Earlier Johanan and his group approached the prophet Jeremiah for God’s guidance on their journey to Egypt. The response Jeremiah received from God is stated in Jeremiah 42:15-17. “’If you are determined to go to Egypt and you do go to settle there, then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow you into Egypt, and there you will die. Indeed, all who are determined to go to Egypt to settle there will die by the sword, famine, and plague.’” 

God knew Johanan and his band wanted his approval of their plan and would not listen to any other advice. Jeremiah 43:7 says, “So they entered Egypt in disobedience to the Lord and went as far as Tahpanhes.” Jeremiah was forced to travel to Egypt with this group in hope that God would perhaps then spare them this fate. This reveals a parallel between this escape to Egypt and Israel’s history. Israel went to Egypt when an infant nation just as Jesus did as a child. In Hosea 11:1 we hear, “’When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.’” God led Israel out and God brought Jesus back. God never stopped loving his people and trying to save them.

King Herod meanwhile was obsessed with the need to kill Jesus. Herod ordered the slaughter of babies two years and younger because he wanted Jesus to be included in that age range. This indicates Jesus was older than a newborn. We read in Matthew 2:16-18, “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. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ‘A voice heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.’” 

Herod was fearful Jesus would take his throne. He could not understand the purpose for Jesus’ birth. Herod was a king because of human appointment while Jesus was King by divine appointment. Jesus did not want Herod’s throne but did want to be king of Herod’s life. Jesus came not to take things away, but to give us freedom, peace, and joy.

In 4 BC Herod the Great died of an incurable disease. Matthew 2:19-23 tells us, “After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 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.’” This was the third appearance of an angel Joseph had in a dream. “So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 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, 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.’”