Escape to Egypt — TDW Kids

A warning from God. “Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream” (2:13). God spoke before Herod could act. Nothing takes God by surprise. Four commands. The angel said, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word” (2:13). Arise means get up. Flee means run to safety. The reason. “For Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him” (2:13). Herod was jealous. He did not want any other King of the Jews. Right away. “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt” (2:14). Joseph did not wait for morning, and he did not ask for more details. A father's job. God trusted Joseph to care for Mary and Jesus. Joseph led his family by doing what God said. God the Father's care. Jesus is God's Son. God watched over Him as a little child, and He watches over His children today. “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). A refuge is a safe place to run to. What we learn. When God speaks in His Word, the best answer is to obey Him right away, even before we understand everything. Joseph did not see the whole plan, but he trusted the God who did.

The second dream (2:13). An angel had already spoken to Joseph in a dream before Jesus was born (1:20). In Matthew 1–2 God guides Joseph four times through dreams (1:20; 2:13; 2:19; 2:22), and each time Joseph obeys at once. Arise, take, flee, stay (2:13). The command has four verbs. The Greek word for flee is pheugō (say: FYOO-goh), to run away from danger. From the very start, God's plan for His Son included a hard road. Herod's fear (2:13). “Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” Herod the Great had ruled Judea for more than thirty years under Rome. He guarded his throne fiercely, even against his own family. A child “born King of the Jews” (2:2) was a rival he would not allow. Obedience by night (2:14). “He took the young Child and His mother by night.” Joseph did not delay until daylight. Faith that trusts God moves when God speaks. Egypt as a refuge. Egypt lay outside Herod's rule, and many Jewish families lived there at that time. God had sheltered His people in Egypt before, when He told Jacob, “Do not fear to go down to Egypt” (Genesis 46:3). God's King is safe. Psalm 2 pictures the kings of the earth raging against the Lord and His Anointed, while God laughs at their plans and sets His King on His holy hill. God says to that King, “You are My Son” (Psalm 2:7). Herod's plan could never succeed. For you. The same God who guided Joseph guides you through His Word and His Spirit: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go” (Psalm 32:8).

God knew about Herod's plan before Herod did anything. Nothing ever surprises God. He sent an angel to warn Joseph in a dream. God gave Joseph a big job. Joseph had to keep Mary and Jesus safe. Joseph did not wait until morning. He got up and left that very night. That is how we should obey God too. We do not wait or argue. We do what God says right away. Jesus was God's own Son. Yet God let Him be a small, helpless child. God the Father watched over Him every step. God watches over you too.

God warned Joseph in a dream. God knew Herod's plan. Joseph obeyed right away. God takes care of His children.

Until Herod died. The family “was there until the death of Herod” (2:15). Herod was a strong king, but he could not stop God's plan. A prophet's words. Matthew says this happened “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (2:15). Fulfilled means filled up or made complete. Out of Egypt. The words are “Out of Egypt I called My Son” (2:15). They come from Hosea: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son” (Hosea 11:1). Israel, God's son. God told Pharaoh, “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). Then God brought Israel out of slavery in the exodus. The true Son. Israel often turned away from God. Jesus walked the same road, from Egypt back to the Promised Land, and He obeyed His Father perfectly. Later God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). One story. The whole Bible is one story about God rescuing His people, and every part of it leads to Jesus. What we learn. God keeps His word, even across hundreds of years. Jesus is the Son who did everything right, and He did it for us.

Fulfilled (2:15). The Greek word is plēroō (say: play-ROH-oh), to fill up completely. A prophecy is fulfilled when its words reach their fullest meaning in Jesus. Hosea 11:1 looked back on the exodus; in Jesus those words are filled to the top. Hosea 11:1. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” Hosea spoke of God's tender love for Israel at the exodus. In the very next verse, Israel ran after idols (Hosea 11:2). Son and firstborn. God named Israel “My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). Jesus is the Son in the fullest sense: the eternal Son of God who became a child. The story lived again. Like Israel, Jesus went down into Egypt, came out again, passed through the waters at His baptism (Matthew 3) and was tested in the desert (Matthew 4). Where Israel failed, Jesus answered the devil with God's Word: “It is written” (Matthew 4:4). Like Moses too. A cruel Pharaoh once ordered the baby boys of Israel thrown into the river (Exodus 1:22), and God saved baby Moses. God saved Jesus from a cruel king too, and Jesus would lead a far greater rescue than Moses did. Why it matters. Israel could not keep God's covenant. Jesus kept it perfectly for His people, and God credits His perfect record to everyone who trusts Him: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The family stayed in Egypt until Herod died. Matthew said this made a prophet's words come true. God had said, “I called my son out of Egypt.” Long ago, God's people Israel were slaves in Egypt. God called Israel His son. He brought them out with great power. But Israel often did not obey God. Jesus is God's true Son. He would always obey His Father. Jesus came to do what we could never do. He lived a perfect life for us. God's plans always come true. He keeps every promise He makes.

Jesus lived in Egypt for a while. Long ago, God's people lived there too. God brought them out. Jesus is God's Son.

A jealous king. Herod “saw that he was deceived by the wise men,” and he “was exceedingly angry” (2:16). Herod would do anything to keep his throne. A cruel order. He “put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under” (2:16). This was a real and terrible sin. Sin is real. Herod's evil came from his own heart. God never makes anyone sin. This is what sin does when a person wants to be king of his own life. Rachel weeping. Matthew quotes Jeremiah: “Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted, Because they are no more” (2:18). Rachel was Jacob's wife, and she was buried “on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem)” (Genesis 35:19). God sees. “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart” (Psalm 34:18). God was not far away from those mothers. The answer. The King whom Herod tried to destroy is the King who will one day end all sorrow. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4). What we learn. The world is broken by sin, and that is why we need Jesus. When people are sad, we can stay close to them, pray for them and point them to Him.

Herod's rage (2:16). Herod was “exceedingly angry.” History records that in his last years he had already put to death a wife and several of his own sons to protect his throne. Killing the boys of Bethlehem was the same cruelty. Every child mattered. Herod used the time he had learned from the wise men (2:7, 16). Each boy was precious to God, for “children are a heritage from the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Herod would answer to God for every one. Jeremiah 31:15. Jeremiah pictured Rachel, the mother of Israel, weeping at Ramah as her children were taken away into exile in Babylon. Ramah was where the captives were gathered (Jeremiah 40:1), and Rachel's grave lay near Bethlehem (Genesis 35:19). Matthew shows that the grief of the exile came again at Bethlehem. Hope in the same chapter. God answered Rachel's weeping in the next verses with a promise that her children would come back (Jeremiah 31:16-17). In the same chapter He promised “a new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31), which Jesus brings: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20). Not defeated. Herod chose this evil, and God did not cause it. Yet Herod could not stop God's plan. The Child he hunted would one day “destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Grief with hope. Jesus is “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). Christians grieve real losses, and they bring that grief to a Savior who understands it.

Herod gave a wicked order to kill the little boys of Bethlehem. God did not make Herod do this evil. Herod chose it because he wanted to stay king. Sin makes people selfish and cruel. The mothers of Bethlehem cried and could not be comforted. Long before, Jeremiah wrote about Rachel crying for her children. Rachel was Jacob's wife from long ago. Her grave was near Bethlehem. God is near to people with broken hearts. He sees every tear. Jesus came into a world full of sin and sadness. He came to make it right again. One day He will wipe away every tear. Then there will be no more crying.

Herod was wicked. He had the baby boys of Bethlehem killed. God saw the mothers' tears. One day Jesus will wipe every tear away.

Herod died. “Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt” (2:19). Herod's power ended. God's plan did not. Safe to return. “Those who sought the young Child's life are dead” (2:20). Long before, God told Moses almost the same words: “all the men who sought your life are dead” (Exodus 4:19). Another danger. “Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod” (2:22). Archelaus was a harsh ruler, so Joseph “was afraid to go there.” God guides again. “And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee” (2:22). God led the family step by step. A humble hometown. They lived “in a city called Nazareth” (2:23). Nazareth was a small, ordinary village in the hills of Galilee. A Nazarene. “He shall be called a Nazarene” (2:23). Many people looked down on Nazareth. The prophets said the Messiah would be “despised and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3). What we learn. God leads His people one step at a time. Jesus grew up in a humble place, so no one is too ordinary for Him.

Herod's death (2:19). Herod the Great died in 4 BC, so Jesus was born a few years before that. The man who tried to destroy the King of the Jews died, and the Child lived. A greater Moses (2:20). The angel's words, “those who sought the young Child's life are dead,” echo what God told Moses in Midian: “all the men who sought your life are dead” (Exodus 4:19). Moses went back to Egypt to lead the first exodus. Jesus came back to Israel to lead a far greater rescue. Archelaus (2:22). After Herod's death his kingdom was divided among his sons. Archelaus ruled Judea so harshly that Rome removed him after about ten years. Galilee was ruled by another son, Herod Antipas. Guided by God (2:22). Joseph's fear was not unbelief. He brought it to God, and God answered it with direction. Fear that turns to God becomes trust. The prophets (2:23). The words point to what “the prophets” said again and again: the Messiah would be humble and rejected. “He is despised and rejected by men” (Isaiah 53:3). Nazareth was so small and looked down on that Nathanael later asked whether anything good could come from it (John 1:46). The Branch. Many Christians also see a link with Isaiah 11:1: “a Branch shall grow out of his roots.” The Hebrew word for Branch is netzer (say: NAY-tser), which sounds like Nazareth. For you. Jesus chose a humble beginning. He understands ordinary lives, and His welcome is for everyone: “whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Herod was very powerful, but he died. God's plan did not die with him. God spoke to Joseph again and again. Each time Joseph listened and obeyed. God led the family one step at a time. The family went to Egypt, then Israel, then Galilee. God guides us one step at a time too. Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a small town. Some people thought nothing good came from Nazareth. But God chose that humble town for His Son. Jesus did not come only for important people. He came for ordinary people like you and me.

God told Joseph to go home. Jesus grew up in little Nazareth. Some people looked down on it. Jesus came for everyone.