Week Commencing 18th December 2022

Matthew 2: 13-23 (MSG) Escape

After the scholars were gone, God’s angel showed up again in Joseph’s dream and commanded, Get
up. Take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt. Stay until further notice. Herod is on the hunt for this
child, and wants to kill him. Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother under cover of darkness. They were out of town and well on their way by daylight. They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: I called my son out of Egypt. Herod, when he realized that the scholars had tricked him, flew into a rage. He commanded the murder of every little boy two years old and under who lived in Bethlehem and its surrounding hills. (He determined that age from information he’d gotten from the scholars.) That’s when Jeremiah’s revelation was fulfilled:
A sound was heard in Ramah, weeping and much lament. Rachel weeping for her children, Rachel refusing all solace, Her children gone, dead and buried. Later, when Herod died, God’s angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead.” Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and re-entered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father,Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee.
On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfilment of the
prophetic words, He shall be called a Nazarene.”

As Christians we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but do we remember He had to escape death by fleeing to Egypt and wait for a change in the leadership to return to His homeland. As Christians how do we feel about migrants at times?

Listen to Jerry's blog here:- WhatsApp_Audio_2022-12-17_at_14.mp3