3When 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.”
14So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15where 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.” (Matthew 2:13-15)
Thoughts: God rescued His Son. God rescues us more than we begin to realize. It is interesting that often people who have little and are so dependent upon God for help and for rescue seem to have more faith than those who have much and think they can leave God out of their lives. Herod thought he did not need God, to the point he would try to kill anyone God sent to take his place.
There is a classic cross reference about this in Revelation:
1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.4Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”a And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
There is a classic cross reference about this in Revelation:
1A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. 3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads.4Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.”a And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
This apocolyptic and esoteric passage points to the idea that the worldly and spiritual evil powers that be tried to kill Mary and her child. It tells us that behind the things we see there is more going on.
Joseph once more is obedient. He listened to the dream, and his listening saved the lives of his wife and child. Jesus knew what it meant to be a refugee. Fleeing his house (for Joseph apparently had a house by the time the wise men arrived), Jesus went into the wilderness toward Egypt. This tells us God fully sympathizes with human plight of being pushed around by political and spiritual powers and what it means to be homeless and a refugee as the people of Israel were in Egypt.
Joseph once more is obedient. He listened to the dream, and his listening saved the lives of his wife and child. Jesus knew what it meant to be a refugee. Fleeing his house (for Joseph apparently had a house by the time the wise men arrived), Jesus went into the wilderness toward Egypt. This tells us God fully sympathizes with human plight of being pushed around by political and spiritual powers and what it means to be homeless and a refugee as the people of Israel were in Egypt.
Prayer: Thank you Lord, for seeking to understand and sympathize. Have mercy on us and our world. Give us listening ears as Joseph had.
