While the Christmas season may be over for 2019, I still am enamored by the nativity accounts in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Magi from the East came to visit him, bearing gifts. From there, Joseph took Jesus and Mary and headed to Egypt.
King Herod was interested in finding the baby Jesus, not because he wanted to worship him, as he implied to the Magi, but because he viewed him as a threat to his throne. So he arranged for the Magi to return to him, relating the details of their discovery of Jesus, so he could eliminate him. However, God had other plans, and as we look at this section of Matthew 2, we can see that his plans were in place from the very beginning.
God sends an angel to Joseph in a dream, telling him to flee to Egypt, in verse 13. This was a command to depart right away, and verse 14 indicates that it probably took place on that same night that the Magi arrived. This was according to God’s plan all along, and Matthew indicates this clearly by one of a long list of prophecies that surrounded the birth of the Savior. In this case, the Old Testament passage quoted is from Hosea 11:1:
When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.
A trip to Egypt would not have been a difficult thing to do. Traveling one hundred miles directly from Bethlehem would put Joseph well past the border, and two hundred miles would put him at the Nile River. In Egypt, there the family would find friends, probably relatives, because there were an estimated one million Jews in the Nile valley at that point in history. Early tradition states that this small family came to the cities of On or Heliopolis. And of course, the trip was easily financed, with the gifts that the Magi had recently delivered to them.
Matthew’s account is more concerned with Joseph’s immediate obedience than with the details of the trip. He also seems to bring into mind a typological aspect of this, showing how Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s history. The parallel is shown in the second half of the quote from Hosea: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Israel, as a nation, could be referred to as a son, as seen in Moses’ statement to Pharaoh in Exodus 4:22, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn.’” But that sonship is just a foreshadowing of the greater reality, that Christ is the greater “Son.” It isn’t a stretch to see that both are in view here.
Matthew shows his readers that Jesus arrived safely to Egypt and will return safely later, and then returns to King Herod in verse 16. Herod had expected the wise men to report back to him after their visit to Bethlehem. When they returned to their own country without complying to his wishes, Herod was furious. In possibly a reactive measure, out of his anger, he ordered the slaughter of all the male children in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. Since he couldn’t know which child was a potential rival, he eliminated all of them within a certain age range.
It has been estimated that from twelve to fifty baby boys were killed. Matthew tells us that those killed were “two years old and under.” According to Jewish counting of age, this would mean all children from birth up to between twelve and thirteen months old; all past one year old would have been counted as two years old. Not knowing whether the child was born before or after the appearing of the star, Herod included all the children of that full year in which the star came. Of course, if the age were expanded to fit how we count years instead, that number only increases. Both are a sad commentary upon the rule of Herod, showing just how ruthless he was.
This tragedy too was foretold. It is found in Jeremiah 31:15, and was initially written in reference to Nebuchadnezzar’s conquering of Israel. The survivors of the Israelites at this point in history were gathered by the Babylonians as captives at Ramah. It was there that a lament was was heard from the mothers who had lost their children. Jeremiah describes the scene as Rachel, the mother of two great tribes, as weeping, and refusing to be comforted. This image was even more appropriate to the scene of mothers in Bethlehem, who had just lost their sons.
Thus says the Lord, “A voice is heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”
Prophecy is a funny thing. Matthew’s use of this passage does not necessarily mean that Jeremiah predicted the slaughter at Bethlehem. This is because prophecy typically has double meanings. First, there is the initial, immediate meaning, and in this case, this is what Jeremiah was writing about. But then there is the future, non-immediate meaning. Jeremiah’s words, written for a completely different occasion, were chosen by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to be applied to the situation in Bethlehem as well.
At first glance, this is a passage that doesn’t seem to hold a lot in the way of relevance for us in the twenty first century, but with some careful examination, we can see that it does. In this brief passage about a flight to Egypt and the death of so many children, we can see that both were foretold in advance. God knew ahead of time the circumstances that would be in place, and was already working to meet the needs of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.
God still does this. He still knows what we need, long before we know it ourselves. And he has been working ahead to meet those needs, and has already accomplished what is most needed. So take heart. When you are facing difficult or seemingly impossible circumstances, remember that God has already seen, and has already moved, and has already arrived. He’s there, in those situations, waiting for us.
Question: What circumstances seem beyond your control, that God must step in and resolve because you cannot? Are you watching to see what he will do? You can leave a comment by clicking here.