54 Joseph, Mary and Jesus Escape to Egypt [Matthew 2:13–23]
The Bible passage: [Matthew 2:13–23]
The Story:
After the wise men were gone, an angel suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the child and His mother and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you. Herod is about to search for the child to destroy Him.”
Joseph got up, took the child and His mother during the night, and escaped to Egypt.
They stayed there until Herod’s death, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: Out of Egypt I called My Son.
When Herod saw that he had been outwitted by the wise men, he flew into a rage. He gave orders to massacre all the male children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and younger, basing the age on the time he had learned from the wise men. What was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.”
After Herod died, an angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Get up! Take the child and His mother and go to the land of Israel. The ones who wanted to kill the child are dead.”
He got up, took the child and His mother, and went back to the land of Israel.
When he heard that Archelaus was ruling in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And being warned in a dream, he took his family to the region of Galilee. They settled in a town called Nazareth, which fulfilled what was spoken through the prophets, that He will be called a Nazarene.
The Lessons:
- We have two more visits from messenger angels.
- Herod having the baby boys killed reminds us of the time that Pharoah had the baby boys killed at the time of the birth of Moses. 6 The Birth of Moses
- Herod’s instructions to kill baby boys under two years of age gives us more reason to think that the visit of the wise men must have been about a year after the birth of Jesus.
- We are reminded of two other prophecies. [Hosea 11:1] and [Jeremiah 31:15]
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