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Good Monday morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends. Finally, Christmas week is before us. I have always loved these next 10 days and sought to walk them very carefully, listening intently for what Jesus might say to me. Why? Because these are “bridge days”.
Imagine a deep canyon and a swinging bridge that spans the gorge. That bridge represents these next 10 days. As we walk it, we’ll pass through Christmas Eve, Christmas day, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and then enter a new year, 2020, on the other side. Once we step off the bridge on New Year’s Day, in 2020, and we look back, imagine the bridge remains, but is now closed to any return. There is no going back. 2019 will drift away, slowly, but increasingly it becomes history. The events and relationships of these next 10 days will be added to the memories of Christmases past. We will move forward together into the uncharted future of 2020 and beyond. Oh such an exciting moment in the story of each of our lives. I hope to carefully help us each maximize this 10 day journey.
We’re in Matthew 2:19-23 today. Only four little verses, but so significant in the Christmas story. Joseph and his little family are in Egypt. You’ll recall they fled in the night, having been warned by an angel in a dream, that disaster loomed. Herod’s rage lashed out, and baby boys were slaughtered in Bethlehem, in an attempt to find and kill baby Jesus. (Matt. 2:13-18)
Put on your spiritual warfare glasses for a moment. Do you see what was happening? Satan had to oppose the miracle of the incarnation of Jesus. God living here on earth, would only be trouble for Satan, who with his demonic forces have worked so diligently to hold the human race in bondage to sin and evil. With our minds blinded according to 2 Corinthians 4:4, and our selfish, prideful hearts leading us to daily make decisions that push God away… from Satan’s perspective, the worst possible disruption to his evil dominion of earth would be God coming here to live among us! Therefore Satan must oppose Christmas, at all costs. Can you see this spiritual battle for the hearts, minds and souls of every person?
So think back over the Christmas story… do you see the battle raging? Do you see many things Satan tried to do to disrupt God’s miraculous, wonderful plan to send His Son, Jesus, to live among us? Another way to look at this is to identify all the miracles God did, through the entire Christmas story, including Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, the Innkeeper, the Caesar, the Shepherds, Herod, the Magi and all the unnamed people in Nazareth, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and everywhere else the Christmas story touched… how many things can you identify, which God did, to make the Christmas miracle become reality? Now consider that all those miracles where evidence of the battle raging. God accomplishing His great Redemption plan and overcoming Satan’s schemes and opposition, so the human race could have a Savior!
We don’t know exactly how long Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus lived in Egypt or where they lived or how Joseph provided for the daily needs for his little family. We assume as a carpenter, he found at least some work. We know they had the gifts of the Magi, that they could sell if need be. I assume they lived very simply, probably at poverty level, as most refugees do even today. I also assume they lived with a shared, hopeful expectation, that their return to Israel would be very soon. Like many refugees, they may even have lived in a tent, as their Hebrew ancestors had, when they fled Egypt 1500 years before. Let’s not rush friends… let’s linger in Egypt with Joseph & Mary and infant Jesus for a little while.
Consider that God incarnate, as that little baby Jesus, is the same God who met Moses at the burning bush, and was very active in every aspect of those months of 10 plagues, as both the Egyptian Pharaoh and the Hebrews came to understand the power and majesty of God, and His determination to bring His people out from their bondage! And the same God who led them out of Egypt that Passover night, and the same God who led them through the Red Sea and the same God who met with them at Mount Sinai! That God is now an infant in a refugee tent in Egypt! It’s almost beyond our comprehension, right? It’s the miracle of the incarnation of God… Immanuel, God with us!
I wonder how often Joseph and Mary sat together, under the stars, discussing what had taken place there, in Egypt, so long ago, with their ancestors. And as they talked, Mary held in her arms, the One who had been there and unleashed His mighty power to accomplish the great Exodus! Don’t rush friends, sit with them. Engage the conversation with them. It may have been that Joseph and Mary’s tent was right on the spot where a Hebrew slave family had lived so many generations before! And when God was leading that slave family out with Moses, He was able to look down the corridors of time to when Joseph, Mary and God incarnate, Jesus would be there, in that very same spot!
Historical details tells us Jesus was born in 6bc and Herod the Great died in 4bc. We don’t know how long after Herod’s death Joseph had his Matthew 2:19,20 angelic dream experience. Nor do we know how long from the night of this dream to the day Joseph once again led Mary, with Jesus in her arms, on the road to a new home. The language Matthew uses in 2:13,14 and 2:19-21 are very similar. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says “Get up, take the child and his mother and go…” Vs. 14 says Joseph “…fled during the night” to Egypt. Vs. 21 says he “…went to the land of Israel.” I don’t get the same sense of urgency in their leaving Egypt, although I’m sure they were delighted to leave their refugee life and return to Israel and begin living again in their home-country.
Herod the Great did something before he died which is helpful to you and me today… he made a plan for his family! Do you have a plan my friends? Regardless of your age… do you have a plan, and does your family, at least your spouse, know the plan you’ve made, for what should happen the day you die? What should happen to your body, your belongings, your investments, your legacy?
Herod made a plan… all three of his sons would be elevated to share in rule over Palestine as he had ruled. Herod divided Palestine into three regions and gave each son one of the regions. That’s what verse 22 is all about. “Having heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there.” Joseph had good reason. Archelaus was ruthless and vicious like his father, and killed lots of people without remorse. He was removed from power and banished by the Caesar, after only 9 years!
As I read that verse, it appears to me Joseph was wanting to take his family back to Bethlehem and make that their permanent home. I can understand that, can’t you? Rather than going back to Nazareth and facing the taunts of people who assumed Joseph and Mary had been impure in their engagement and Jesus was their illegitimate child, Bethlehem would be a much better place for his family to build a life together.
So for a 4th time, Joseph has an angelic experience in a dream. “Having been warned in a dream, Joseph withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth.” (Matt. 2:22). Nazareth was a military town. The main Roman garrison for all the Galilee region was based there. It was also a major crossroads for trade travel. Travelers from every direction, far and wide, were frequent in Nazareth. A very interesting place for Jesus to grow up!
I’ve often wondered… I presume Joseph and Mary discussed at length, what their options would be when the day finally came that they could leave Egypt and return to Israel. It seems to me they had a plan for Bethlehem and headed back in that direction. Was it en route, some night along the way, that Joseph had this fourth dream? The word “withdrew” that Matthew uses, gives me the sense that Joseph ‘withdrew’ from his plan to live in Bethlehem or nearby, and turned north to live in Nazareth.
How long did Joseph and Mary discuss this fourth dream? What route did they take to Nazareth? What did they talk about as they walked? What were their hopes for their future, for their family, for Jesus, Mary’s firstborn? And when they finally arrived, how were they received back in Nazareth?
It had likely been at least two years, maybe longer since they had left Nazareth heading to Bethlehem for the census. How long before they finally felt at home in Nazareth? I would guess it wasn’t long before they began having children. Mark 6:3 tells us they had several… and they are named: James, Joseph, Judas, Simon and some daughters! What was it like for Jesus growing up in that busy house and that town of Nazareth?
Again I remind us… today is Monday, Dec. 23. The next 10 days are hugely significant in all our lives, as we walk through Christmas to the edge of a new year and then step across, never to return to 2019. How will you discern, in these days, what God has in His mind and His heart for you, in 2020?
Like Joseph & Mary, how will you walk from where you are now, today in 2019, into 2020, following God’s clear leading, so where you end up next year, you will be confident is exactly what God has as His best for you? Like Joseph & Mary in Egypt, knowing they’d soon be heading into a new future… we have a 10 day road ahead of us, leading into a new year with Christmas along the way. Oh my friends, I hope you’ll spend important time with God, seeking to know His future for you, which will position you, to bring Him great glory with every day of your 2020!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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