Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 177th episode. In this episode I want to return to our study of the book of Matthew. We are in chapter 2. Before we get started I want to apologize for not creating much content lately. As most of you know I recently went through a divorce and it’s taken me a while to get my head right again. I’m doing very well and I hope to be back in a place where I can put out podcasts at least once a week. Thank you for those who have stuck with me – I promise there are very good things ahead. Matthew chapter 2 began with the wise men visiting the infant Jesus. Now we’re going to pick up with Christ’s flight to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s order to kill the children in his effort to eliminate Jesus. Let’s begin with verses 13-15:
Mat 2:13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”
Mat 2:14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.
Mat 2:15 He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”
The visit of the wise men brought attention to Christ’s location which put Him and His family at risk. The infant Jesus should have been heralded into the world as the King of kings – for that He is. But even the humble recognition and respect paid to Him by the wise men didn’t result in the world honoring Him, it put His life in danger because it exposed His location to the world which hated Him. God sent a command to Joseph by way of an angel in a dream telling him to escape with Jesus and Mary to Egypt. Joseph responded by faith because he didn’t know what kind of danger they were in nor how to get away from it on his own. It’s interesting to note that Joseph’s proximity to Christ is directly correlated to his correspondence with angels. Before Jesus Joseph didn’t have the proclivity to commune with Heaven. The same is true for us today. It’s only by our relationship with Jesus that we may approach the Holy Father in prayer and commune with Heaven.
By way of His angel God told Joseph in what feels like a matter-of-fact way that Herod will seek the infant Jesus to destroy Him. God is no stranger to the cruelty and malice of those who make themselves enemies of His church. He even told the evil Assyrian king Sennacherib back in Isaiah: I know thy rage against me. I think there’s comfort in the fact that God is privy to the motives of even the most depraved human hearts. Wicked people mistakenly think they can shroud themselves in darkness and remain hidden, but darkness trembles at the holy light of God. Many times in life we see children born into unfair circumstances where they have no chance to escape their suffering. We see so often that even older people who suffer are at least given a peaceful childhood. But it was not so with Jesus. The suffering of Christ began the moment He was born and extended to His earthly death on the cross. Satan as well as the evil forces of this world have been attacking the King and His Church from the beginning and they will continue to do so until the end when Christ establishes His eternal Kingdom. In Revelation the great red dragon is pictured standing at the ready to devour the child as soon as He is born – and this symbolism in part represents how steadfastly Satan persecutes followers of Christ. He lies in wait like a predatory cat hoping to devour new Christians should their faith backslide into deception. It’s something that should be taken seriously but not feared. There’s no reason to fear Satan when you trust in Jesus.
The flight of Christ into Egypt marked one of the earliest examples of Him demonstrating a principle He would go on to teach to His followers. He told them when they were persecuted in one city to flee to another. This example shows us that self-preservation is a godly principle when it is guided by a higher ethic. Jesus came to earth with the express purpose of dying for our sins – yet even He fled into safety when His time to die had not yet come. You might think it’s strange that God chose Egypt as a refuge for the infant Jesus. Egypt, after all, was notorious for its idolatry and its cruelty to the children of Israel. But I think part of Him choosing Egypt is to show us that God can take even the worst of places and use them for the best of purposes. Everything on Earth belongs to God and He can use His sovereignty at any moment to use it for His will.
Imagine how much faith it would take to be Mary and Joseph in this situation. If you truly believed your child was the Son of God, conventional wisdom would suggest He’d be perfectly well-able to defend Himself. Why must they flee to Egypt? Why wouldn’t God just summon a legion of angels to guard the life of Christ? Often when we encounter trials in life we think we know the answer with perfect clarity. Our fallible certainty leads us to think God is simply ignoring us or worse – betraying us. Sometimes we think the solution to a problem is so simple that the only reason God won’t do it is because He’s punishing us or He doesn’t love us – or maybe He doesn’t even exist. But we see by this example of God commanding Mary and Joseph to flee with Christ into Egypt that there’s a lot more to the world than we understand. There’s far more to God’s infinite wisdom than we could possibly comprehend. It’s dangerous territory for us to start thinking we know as well or better than God. Such fallacies can only lead to disobedience and self-inflicted misery.
Undoubtedly Joseph and Mary knew the stories of the Messiah being the glory of His people Israel. So it must have seemed strange that the infant Jesus would so soon need to flee the land of Israel. Mary and Joseph had their faith tested when they were told to pick up everything and flee to Egypt. When we think about God we often defer to the supernatural or to miracles. But God’s preservation of the infant Christ wasn’t carried out by way of miracle. There’s nothing miraculous about human flight to a different country. Being able to see God move in the ordinary parts of life is one of the crucial elements of faith. If you don’t see God working all around you and providing for you with small acts of grace then you aren’t paying attention.
Joseph was given the great honor of being husband to the blessed virgin Mary. But like all forms of honor in this world it came with a heavy burden of responsibility. A young mother and her child would have been very unsafe in the ancient world – so having Joseph so close to them during these years was no doubt an act of divine providence. Even the gold brought by the wise men was part of God’s plan because it would cover their expenses as they sought asylum from Herod’s madness. God knows about the trials and tribulations which are coming your way and it’s likely He’s already bringing resources into your life which will help you when those difficult times arrive. Often these resources take shape in the form of relationships. God brings people into your life to form the kinds of support structures you need for when the suffering comes. Mary and Joseph were instructed to remain in Egypt until God gave them a new word of command. This idea of waiting on God shows us that even when He gives us refuge from danger He still wants us to remain in a state of total dependence on Him.
We should find peace in the fact that even Jesus Christ faced exile, isolation, and abandonment in this world. Often when these things happen to us we struggle with wondering whether we caused it. Sometimes the cause is directly related to something you did, but other times it’s simply a consequence of the fact that we live in a fallen world. We need a Savior. If even Jesus Christ, who is the perfect person, had to deal with these issues in this present world then there’s no hope for us avoiding them on our own. If anything we should see the suffering as evidence for the reality that we need Jesus – and then we should rejoice over the truth that He is here for us and He will save us in the end. Christ being driven out of Judea is also representative of the fact that His own people knew Him not. Israel rejected their own Messiah and He sought refuge among the Gentiles in Egypt. This same sort of rejection would later occur when the Jews rejected the gospel of Jesus and so the apostles preached it to the Gentiles.
If we put ourselves in Joseph’s position it might seem logical to at least spend some time contemplating whether or not to pick up everything and flee to Egypt with a woman and an infant. The journey would be perilous and the probability of being received well in Egypt wasn’t great. But Joseph took decisive action and immediately obeyed God’s orders by packing and leaving the same night they were given to him. It can be tricky trying to figure out whether a particular command is coming from God or from somewhere else – but once we know it’s God we should act to obey His prompting immediately. Stepping out in faith to follow God’s will for your life causes you to depend entirely on Him because you don’t actually know what you’re doing or where you’re going. Such was the case for Abraham and for Joseph. Another lesson to be learned here is that wealth can sometimes get in the way of you following God’s will for your life. Mary and Joseph had very little in the way of possessions and so it wasn’t as hard for them to just pick up and obey God. On the other hand, if you’ve established yourself with property, possessions, and wealth it can be a lot more challenging to part with these things when following God requires it.
When describing the flight to Egypt, the Scriptures mention the infant Jesus before mentioning Mary. This might indicate the honor and glory which is due to King Jesus. It also refers to Mary as the mother of Jesus rather than the wife of Joseph. Her honor and her station comes from her relationship to Christ rather than her marriage. The same is true for you today. You might have a prestigious job or a happy home life, but your dignity rests primarily in the fact that you are made in the image of God and your honor can only come from your relationship to Jesus. By rights Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus should have been received with honor in Egypt, but human beings tend toward fickle idolatry. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus would remain in Egypt until the death of Herod. Some people think this was seven years but others think less time than that. Their time in Egypt meant living in the midst of idolaters and being far from the temple of the Lord. But that was okay because they had the Lord of the temple with them. Sometimes we are required to go far away from church and from the communion of the saints but we are never far from God Himself as long as we remain faithful. If life or if wicked people pull you away from the church you should not view this distance as sinful. Sometimes it’s just the tragedy of what happens to otherwise faithful followers of Christ.
In the book of Hosea, God, when discussing His people Israel, says, “out of Egypt I have called my Son.” The infant Christ seeking refuge in Egypt and then being called out to finish His mission is understood by some to be a fulfillment of this prophecy. You might wonder how some prophecies have multiple satisfactions. The answer is Scripture is the eternal Word of God and He’s fulfilling it every day. Even the grand narrative of redemption is being fulfilled right now in your own life if you’ve given your heart over to Jesus. Your life is part of the eternal story God is telling – and because He lives you also shall live forever. You’ll also notice how both the people of Israel as well as Jesus Christ had to live in Egypt under some duress.
This is kind of like a metaphor for the spiritual life of Christians as well. We are born into sin and into the bondage of our broken nature. But once we recognize Jesus and go to Him He calls us out of this spiritual Egypt and sets us free. From the beginning to the end, even in His own earthly life, God’s story has never been about the absence of suffering. It has always been about the redemption from suffering. The absence of suffering can be a wonderful thing but this condition often slips away unnoticed. Happiness is fleeting. But the redemption from suffering brings with it a profound and deep understanding of how much better things have become and how much your Savior must love you. Redemption from suffering brings humility, gratitude, and the desire to worship. I imagine we will feel many things when we stand in the presence of God in heaven, but those three qualities will definitely be part of the experience. Let’s read verses 16-18:
Mat 2:16 Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.
Mat 2:17 Then what had been spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
Mat 2:18 “A VOICE WAS HEARD IN RAMAH, WEEPING AND GREAT MOURNING, RACHEL WEEPING FOR HER CHILDREN; AND SHE REFUSED TO BE COMFORTED, BECAUSE THEY WERE NO MORE.”
Herod was kept waiting for the return of the wise men, and once he realized they weren’t coming back he was filled with rage. He probably felt a bit of jealousy at the thought of the wise men following this new king. You can see the snowball of wickedness building up in the heart of Herod. He already began from a position of tremendous insecurity at the birth of King Jesus. Now that his plan to assassinate the infant Jesus was foiled, his insecurity was compounded with a sense of feeling outsmarted and betrayed. Herod ignored every opportunity he was given to repent and make better choices – and eventually he dug himself into a hole which was too deep to climb out of.
Herod gave the order to execute every male infant under two years old who would be in the vicinity of where the Christ child was supposed to reside. You might wonder how Herod was able to find soldiers who were willing to carry out such a heinous task – but history is replete with examples of wicked leaders possessing a surplus of wicked followers to do their work. Every so often a psychopath rises to power and his blood lust cannot be quenched. These tyrants simply do not see human life as having any value at all. In some cases it’s even worse and the value they see in human life is precisely the reason they seek to destroy it. Herod was no stranger to murder and he even killed some of his own children. The worst of humankind was in hot pursuit of Jesus from the moment He came into this broken world.
Herod’s order was to execute all male children under two years old, but it’s likely Herod would have known the infant Jesus was under one year old. He didn’t care about how many innocent children were murdered just so long as the One he perceived to be guilty was caught. This is the opposite of what is called Blackstone’s Formulation. Blackstone’s Formulation says it’s better if ten guilty people go free than if one innocent person suffers. This principle of criminal law is founded on Judeo-Christian exposition and so it’s no surprise a tyrant who opposes God would act on the opposite. Herod was immersed in the volatile combination of unbridled hate and unrestricted power. Calling for the execution of all male children under two years old both in Bethlehem and surrounding areas was an instance of unreasonable cruelty.
Many might read the passage about Herod slaying the children and wonder why God would allow such a terrible event to take place. We should not view these children as deserving of their fate. A common mistake Christians make is suggesting that since all of us are born into original sin then all of us have it coming when tragedy strikes us. This is the wrong way of viewing it. These children were martyrs who fell at the hand of Herod’s evil choices. And Herod will be held responsible for his choices. When children get sick and die we should see this as evidence that we live in a broken reality which needs a Redeemer. The children murdered by Herod were among the first of the Kingdom of God who gave their lives for their Lord. You can be certain they were not forgotten and each of them are in heaven at this moment.
No doubt Herod believed his cruelty was enough to snuff out the infant Jesus and prove all the prophecies wrong. Such a ruler would have been possessed by enough arrogance to believe this kind of folly. But God laughs at the plans of the most clever of wicked kings. Humanity has been trying to subvert the will of God for all of history and yet the counsel of the Lord still stands. The prophecy concerning this great time of mourning in Ramah was fulfilled both when Nebuzaradan destroyed Jerusalem as well as when these infants were executed by Herod. The scope of Herod’s massacre was sufficient that weeping was heard from Bethlehem to Ramah. These women were called Rachel because many of them descended from Rachel.
Tragedies like Herod’s massacre are not enjoyable to contemplate and many of us prefer to block these events out of our minds and pretend they never happened. But the reality is we live in a world which is seen through a vale of tears for many people. The tears of the oppressed often go unnoticed by larger humanity but they never go unnoticed by God. The women in this passage are said to have refused comfort in the midst of their grief. It’s not uncommon for people to harden their hearts because of tragedies which befall them. But this is not a good long-term strategy. If we believe there is any amount of suffering which can be brought on by sin that goes beyond the scope of our Savior’s power to heal then we have embraced a lie. That’s not to say grieving is a sin. It’s to say many people will use grief as a justification to sin. You should never use grief as permission to sin because you’ll take a terrible situation and increase the misery by orders of magnitude. You also won’t heal properly. Your wound will fester and begin to poison other parts of your life. The reality of the situation with Herod’s massacre is that the birth of Jesus remains good news which outweighs even something as terrible as the murder of children. In the end God always wins and He will work out all things for Good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose for them. Let’s read verses 19-23:
Mat 2:19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said,
Mat 2:20 “Get up, take the Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for those who sought the Child’s life are dead.”
Mat 2:21 So Joseph got up, took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
Mat 2:22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee,
Mat 2:23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophets: “He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus spent some time hiding in Egypt, but now came the moment for them to return to Israel. Some scholars think Herod was dead within three months after his order to slay the infants. God wasted no time in exacting vengeance against the wicked king. The great thing about wicked kings is that all of them die and all of them face justice for what they did during their reign. The famed historian Josephus writes about the death of Herod as a dreadful affair. Apparently he was taken ill with a disease which burned him inwardly and which caused him gout. His disease caused such an intolerable smell that none could come near him. The disease only intensified his evil as he ordered his own son to be killed and he imprisoned much of the nobility. Herod was an enemy of God. To make yourself an enemy of Jesus is to divest yourself of all good things which make up humanity. When you are void of the Spirit of God all that’s left is only evil all the time – and the end of the road is always destruction.
At the end of this chapter we see the orders given from heaven to Joseph to leave Egypt with Mary and Jesus and return to Nazareth. Joseph stayed in Egypt and waited for this command and once it was given he obeyed it faithfully. The command is given to Joseph through an angel and we see that no matter where we are in the world we are not cut off from God. Our communion with God is not a condition of whether or not God is willing to meet with us, it always depends on whether we are willing to meet with Him. The angel told Joseph the wicked people who sought to kill Jesus were dead. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus had successfully weathered this storm of persecution. This has been the case for the church from the very beginning. Undoubtedly there are times where those who persecute the church appear to have the advantage or to have won the day. But the church is still here and all those who have persecuted it throughout history are long dead. Thousands of years later their names are forgotten but the name of Jesus continues to be worshiped all over the world.
Once again Joseph picked up his life and his family and made the journey out of Egypt and back to Israel. He obeyed God’s command without hesitation although the journey would be difficult. It’s possible Herod died at the beginning of winter so traveling from Egypt to Israel was challenging. It would have been easy for Joseph to choose comfort over obedience to the will of God. Modern Christians have a tendency to create idols out of comfort. In wealthy, developed nations it’s very easy to get yourself established with a comfortable lifestyle and be unwilling to leave it even if God calls you to. No amount of comfort is worth falling outside the will of God for your life. The key to making sure you’ll never ignore God for the sake of comfort is to come to terms with the fact that this world is not your permanent home. You’re just a traveler who occupies this life for short while, and then you are called home to eternity with God. If you can view this life as your temporary lodgings in Egypt and Heaven as your permanent place of rest in the Promised Land then it’s not so hard to avoid becoming attached to things in this world.
You’ll notice how it’s not until after Joseph gets up and begins the journey back to Israel that God gives him further instructions on where to go. As human beings we often want God to divulge His entire plan to us before we’re willing to obey any of it. But that’s not how God operates. God knows if you knew everything about His will for you then you would abuse this knowledge for your own gain. The more you know about a situation the less likely you are to depend on God by faith and without faithful obedience it’s impossible to honor God. Joseph is told to avoid Judea because after Herod’s death Judea came under the rule of Archelaus who himself was an enemy of Christ. One thing you’ll notice about the world is there is never a shortage of those who choose to oppose God. We can take comfort in the fact that God will not place us in a dangerous situation unless doing so is purposed to bring Himself glory. God views your life and your death as precious and so He doesn’t make decisions about either lightly or without eternal purpose. When people say there’s a reason for everything I think this idea is what they are alluding to. It’s comforting to know God is always in control and if you obey Him your life will unfold exactly how He intends it to even so far as the way He plans for you to die – and every moment of it has eternal significance. Life is a wonderful mystery.
God instructed Joseph to settle in Nazareth with Jesus and Mary. This particular area was being ruled by Philip who was a quiet and peaceful man. If you’re going through a storm in life you should pay attention for ways in which God is trying to bring you a quiet shelter from the tempest. Often this comes in the form of a person who can offer you a calm, stable presence. One of the chief reasons why you should go to church and never attempt to isolate yourself as a Christian is because you’re going to need this kind of support structure. God is amazing at working through the right people at the right time to bring peace and security into the lives of those who are struggling. Today it might be you who needs the support, but years from now you might be the one to offer it. That’s one of the miraculous attributes of God’s ability to redeem brokenness and use it to heal the brokenness in others. It’s common knowledge that hurt people hurt people, but our God is powerful enough to completely reverse this cycle if we hold to Him faithfully.
At the end of this chapter we see that after Joseph’s return to Nazareth with Jesus and Mary the Scriptures declare that Jesus shall be called a Nazarene. This was a term of derision because Nazareth wasn’t highly ordered in the social hierarchy. When you hear people talk about some place by saying, “nothing good ever came from there”, this is how they would have spoke concerning Nazareth. We’re two chapters into the gospel of Matthew and already we see from the moment Christ was born the world was raging against Him. He was viciously persecuted as an infant and now that He and His family survived the first storm He is labeled a Nazarene in an effort to turn humanity off to Him. Satan and the principalities and powers of this world will stop at nothing to convince humanity that the only name which holds true power has no power at all. Jesus so humbled Himself to save us that He was given this derogatory moniker and lowly societal position even though by rights He should have been heralded as the Almighty King of Heaven who has infinite power and wisdom. This is why servant-leadership is so important to being a faithful follower of Jesus. If our Lord was able to humble Himself to save others we certainly should be able to do so as well. Miracles happen when we lower ourselves and exalt Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives. In this world things might look hopeless at times but there’s no limit to what God can do with faithful people who choose to love the way He loves and sacrifice the way He has sacrificed.
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