Matthew 2:16-23 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 is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” 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.” 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, that he would be called a Nazarene.
In the above scriptures, we see Joseph taking Jesus to Egypt to get away from Herod the Great. Herod displays openly what is in so many leaders in today’s world, the desire retain power at any cost. But evil resides not only in kings and rulers, Paul says in Roman’s 3:9-12 (NLT), Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one. What God are people avoiding? They are not seeking the God who will take away their sins, the God who holds the gate to an eternal, sinless existence, the God who created all things. People in general are unwilling to give that eternal God control over their lives, no matter how good or religious they seem to be. Paul says the law of God was given to reveal the unrighteous or imperfections in people’s existence. The righteous law was given to reveal that no person can be completely without sin or fulfill the requirements of the law down to every jot and tittle. The problem of disharmony with the Creator is that eternal existence with him in a place where no mar of any kind can exist is unattainable. The law reveals the innate sinfulness of the mind and that no one can ever be made right with God through his or her own efforts. All humans carry Adam’s seed of imperfection or unholiness. We easily see this wickedness in Herod—his decision to kill all the little boys two or under who lived around Bethlehem demonstrates clearly the evil that can be hidden in a person. These little boys were slaughtered for his self-interests. What it must have meant for soldiers to kill little ones, so helpless and small in stature. How many of these little boys greeted the soldiers at first with a smile, only to realize that they were going to be harmed greatly. This contagion of violence besets human beings, even to the point of killing the innocent. Herod perpetrated this act of killing children, but this same violence exists in the world today, some horrors exist in secret, closeted behind closed doors, but other crimes against children occur openly with arrogance. Some estimates say five million children are involved in human trafficking worldwide, including slave labor and the sex trade. Sin exists, but we humans like to think that we are not the evil ones, others are. We believe they should be judged rightly for their evil deeds, forced to pay the penalty for their crimes. But evil lurks in the hearts of all men. God told Cain, If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7) The devil is prepared to overwhelm your humanness, your initial creative image, after God’s likeness. Of course, Cain killed Abel, spilling the first human blood on Earth’s soil. Killing innocent people has always been in the DNA of the fallen Adam. Now we see a wicked king placing the baby Jesus’ life in peril.
To keep Jesus from being killed, an angel intervenes in Joseph’s life. Joseph heeds the words of the angel, taking his family to Egypt. In Egypt, surely God inspired Joseph to settle in a place where the Seed of Righteousness could be preserved. After a time in Egypt, Joseph’s dreams were once more interrupted by an angel with an emphatic command, 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. As with the journey to Egypt, the destination in Israel had to be a safe one for the precious child to survive, so Joseph settled in Nazareth because the son of Herod, Archelous, was now king. This story of the king of the Jews being born in Bethlehem was probably well-known in the Herod family, but Archelous was probably not too concerned about this story for all the little boys around Bethlehem had been destroyed. All of this movement by Joseph, to Egypt and back to the district of Galilee, the town of Nazareth, had been foretold by the prophets many years earlier. But now we see Jesus the baby thriving in Nazareth, not an exalted place but a safe place. As with the Jewish nation, even in the heathen nation of Egypt as slaves, we see God protecting the Seed of Abraham. The promise God made to Abraham would be fulfilled through the man Jesus. His words, his life of miracles and wonders would bring healing to the world—his life would be a wakeup call for mankind. As was written: But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5) The Good News, accepted by faith, would allow men and women an intimate relationship with a holy God. Through Jesus’ work on the cross, the Spirit of God is released to people who have had their temple’s cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, to abide in them forever. Immanuel (God with us) has come to Earth to heal the brokenness in humankind, to change them from the seed of Adam to the seed of Jesus. No longer will people be aliens to God, but they will be children of God, located forever in the family of God. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! (1 John 3:1)
We know Jesus’ life was preserved by God through the ages, but will men now accept the Nazarene as God? In the Bible we see the people of Galilee initially reject Jesus’ divinity, but after Jesus had been to Jerusalem and performed many miracles, the Galileans accepted him as a man of God. Because of this new understanding of who Jesus was, a man from Capernaum came and asked Jesus to go with him to heal his son who was dying. Although Jesus heals the child, He indicates a disgust with the Galileans by saying, Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders? (John 4:48) Now the Galileans were willing to believe in Jesus as someone special, but they needed miracles and wonders to undergird their beliefs. Jesus knew as soon as He ceased to do works amongst them, they would go back to their unbelief. This was disconcerting, for He knew his stay with the Jews would be over soon because he faced the cross. Even today, people seek signs and wonders to bolster their faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus’ disgust with the Jews’ need for miracles to believe was probably heightened because He had just stayed with the despised Samaritans for two days, teaching them about the Messiah. His words were so impactful to them that they proclaimed him the Messiah when He left them. Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. AND BECAUSE OF HIS WORDS many more became believers. They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42) The Galileans were in need of continuous miracles; the Samaritans believed Jesus’ words. The Samaritans knew the words of Jesus would bring them eternal life. Eternal life, of course, resides in Jesus the Messiah, not in the miracles He performs. Now Jesus contrasts the Samaritans’ approach to him to the Galileans’ approach. The former would bring eternal life to them, the latter would be blessed only as long as Jesus performed miraculous deeds. We would ask our breakfast friends: What do you need, miracles are the words of Christ? Are you doubting today because you feel Jesus has let you down somehow and now you need a miracle to believe? Our lives reside in the living word of God. We believe not because of a special happening in our lives. We believe because the baby Jesus came to become the Messiah, to enlighten the souls of men with his life-giving words, and to give his life as a ransom to all. The Samaritans believed that when Jesus left them they had eternal life. Now, dear friends, you have eternal life, a substance, a real gift, not because of miracles, but because of a covenant given to Abraham and his seed. God said, all I have I will give to you, and Abraham’s part was: all I have I will give to you, my Lord. We are covenant people. Jesus has fulfilled our part to God. He gave himself completely to God, as a substitute for our wayward, rebellious nature. Praise God, the Seed was preserved throughout all generations, millenniums. Joseph obeyed the angel each time he was directed to move just as we obey the Holy Spirit now as He leads us to follow Jesus. Amen!
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