Throughout the Scriptures God often revealed His will in unique, supernatural ways.
Hopefully our own responses to the will of God will be as immediate and complete as was Joseph and Mary’s.
Matthew 2:1-2 NLT
1Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise mena from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2“Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose,b and we have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:13-23 NLT
13After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
Matthew quotes from the Old Testament three different times in today’s Gospel lesson demonstrating how God’s work throughout the Old Testament had everything to do with the Christ child born in Bethlehem.
In quoting Hosea 11:1, Matthew is showing us that the Messiah is the true Israel in the grandest sense, He is the epitome of everything Israel was supposed to have been, but never was.
Matthew 2:13-23 NLT
16Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.
Herod had hopes of destroying the child the wise men hailed as the “King of the Jews“.
17Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18“A cry was heard in Ramah—
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted,
for they are dead.”
The Holy Spirit moved Matthew to tap into the pain and anguish of the parents who lost those children, who were their pride and joy, at the hands of a madman.
Today we pause to remember the Silent Cry of the Holy Innocents who were massacred by King Herod’s troops. Can we even begin to imagine the horror of such an event? When will religious persecution ever end?
Quoting Jeremiah 31:15, Matthew illustrates the deep weeping and mourning that was heard in Bethlehem by comparing it to the lamenting of mothers in Ramah, who had lost their children when they were dragged away into exile. In the original context of Jeremiah, God was comforting His people with words of promise that He would one day “turn their mourning into joy.”
Matthew is telling us, as did Jeremiah in his day, that there is hope in the midst of despair and life in the midst of death because a new King is born. The birth of the Christ child inaugurates the new covenant as foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34 so that all God’s people will know, love and worship Him.
Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords bring hope in the midst of hurt and life in the midst of death.
Matthew 2:13-23 NLT
19When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. 20“Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” 21 So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother.
22But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. 23So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
During the early life of Jesus, we see the hand of God protecting and providing for the family of the Messiah in amazing ways. God gave supernatural guidance just when it was needed.
As we ponder anew the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ we must remember that every detail was part of God’s plan and the promises and prophecies about Christ’s birth were made by the Lord of heaven and earth before the foundation of the world was set in place.
Christ Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.
Jesus is the LORD over all of history because it is His Story.
Jesus had the first word at the beginning of history and He will have the last word when all is said and done.
“Our help is in the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 124 BCP 2019