Good first Tuesday of 2024 my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
In the last three months our world has witnessed some horrific brutality. The October 7th Hamas coordinated, vicious, attacks on several peaceful, southern Israel Kibbutz communities, has resulted in an avalanche of violence. You’ve seen the pictures and read the reports. Our world has witnessed a powerful response as the Israeli military attempts to destroy wicked Hamas while finding and rescuing innocent citizens of several countries being held as hostages. Sadly, this was not the first-time horrific evil has been poured out upon the people of Israel down through history, as you well know.
Yesterday I left you walking with Joseph and his wife Mary carrying little infant Jesus heading for Egypt! Why Egypt, you ask? Because shortly after the Magi had left them, an angel of the LORD had warned Joseph in a dream that King Herod would be seeking to kill infant Jesus and therefore Joseph needed to flee Bethlehem with his family, in the middle of the night, and seek refuge in Egypt, a place we presume Joseph and Mary had never been, didn’t know anyone there, and therefore would obviously be refugees seeking shelter in a foreign country.
The Matthew record tells us: “Having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, the Magi returned to their country by another route…. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and he gave orders for his soldiers to kill all the young boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity, who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.” (Matt. 2:12,16,17)
The horrific October 7th Hamas attack, and their brutality with Israeli children and babies, was a modern-day version of this genocide in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. For many years to come the reality of this barbaric slaughter scarred Israelite families throughout the Roman Empire, and even the name Bethlehem awakened terror in most Jews everywhere in the first century.
The Bible gives us no further detail of that horrific slaughter of little Bethlehem boys, but because we’ve seen so many similar, vicious atrocities in our lifetime in many parts of the world, we don’t need further Biblical details, do we? Joseph and Mary arrived finally in Egypt after an on-foot trek of perhaps more than 100 miles, depending on the route they took and where they settled in Egypt.
The Bible gives us no details of how they found a place to live or food to eat or how Joseph provided for his little family while they were in Egypt. All we know is that God was watching over them and protecting them as they obediently participated with God in the miracle of the incarnation of God here on earth in the person of Jesus Christ.
As a newborn baby, Jesus was in need of everything from Joseph and Mary that parents must provide all infants anywhere in the world. As a young child, Joseph and Mary taught little Jesus how to walk and talk and all the other essentials for living that you and I learned at that age. Weeks turned to months while Joseph and Mary waited for some word from God that it was safe to return to Israel, all the while protecting little Jesus.
We’ve seen enough reports of refugees in recent years that it should not be difficult for us to imagine how challenging these months were for Joseph and Mary. How many times did they cry out to God asking WHY?
Why was obedience to God so difficult and dangerous? Why was participating with God in accomplishing His purposes here on earth so complicated?
Finally, that long awaited word came to Joseph as other instructions from God had come to Joseph. Matthew’s record says: ‘After King 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 return to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the Child’s life are dead.” (Matt. 2:19,20) Oh my how that must have been such welcome great news to Joseph that I doubt he waited until morning to tell Mary. I imagine Joseph awakened Mary from her sleep and told her what he had just heard, and right then and there they began making their plans to pack up and head home to Israel!
History tells us King Herod the Great died in the year 4bc which is why most scholars place the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem at about 7 or 6bc. History also tells us Herod the Great had four sons all vying to replace their father on the throne, so to prevent chaos Herod divided up his kingdom in four pieces and assigned each of his sons rule over one of them.
Archelaus was one of those sons. He was even more wicked than his father Herod the Great, so the Matthew record tells us: “So Joseph got up, took the Child Jesus and His mother Mary and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, Joseph went to the district of Galilee, and they went to live in a town called Nazareth.” (Matt. 2:21,22)
Of course, my friends, their return to Nazareth would have been both sweet and sour. It would be familiar as Mary’s home, but it would be very difficult because of course no one would believe that this little boy Jesus was anything other than a boy conceived in shame before their marriage and thus he’d be shunned. How long did it take before the town began to give Joseph their carpentry business, especially if they knew young Jesus had been working alongside Joseph in fabricating those carpenter made chairs and tables?
We learn from Mark’s Gospel chapter 6 that God blessed Joseph and Mary with other children, in fact four other sons are named. Mark writes that the people of Nazareth said of Jesus: “Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t His sisters here with us?” (Mark 6:3)
So that gives us a glimpse of what the growing up years for Jesus, Joseph and Mary might have been like, in a house full of at least 7 children in Nazareth. Let’s pause here my friends and I invite you to look back over your life journey. Do you see times when God was protecting you, providing for you, working out details in your life for God’s glory and your good?
As we begin this new year together, I urge us to take some time and thank God for the truth of Psalm 139 at work in each of our lives, as it was for Joseph, Mary and little Jesus, … it’s God’s sovereignty and His attention to the details of our lives! And here’s a worship song to help us consider this my friends:
Today’s Scripture is Matt. 2:13-23.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“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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