THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST 3 (HIS REFUGE IN EGYPT).

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THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST 3 (HIS REFUGE IN EGYPT).

Matthew 2:13-23 (NIV):

13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,

15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[a]

16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt

20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,

23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

When the wise men did not return to Herod, he felt slighted and sent his men to Bethlehem, to kill all the babies from two years. Now the issue of killing is so simple and common to Herod, who did not spare his first wife and some one who ordered one to be killed even while he himself was dying.

In his providential care for his son, God directed Joseph into Egypt with Mary and the child. Many Jews were living in Alexandria in Egypt, which suggests that this might have been the place to which the Holy family fled to.

HIS RETURN TO GALILEE: Matthew. 2:19-21

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Joseph and his family had been in Egypt only a short time (probably not more than two months) when word came That Herod was dead. Upon hearing this news from an angel they returned back to the land of Israel.

And God warned him not to go into Bethlehem, for Archelaus Herod’s son who took over the throne was also blood thirsty like his father. Therefore, Joseph took the child and his mother to Nazareth where they finally settled.

THE CHILDHOOD OF JESUS IN NAZARETH: Matthew. 2:23, Lk. 2:39-40:

Nazareth was an obscure village, very small and unnoticed that it is no where mentioned in the Old Testament.

It was so little regarded that even the devout Nathaniel would ask many years later, “can any good thing come out of Nazareth? John. 1:46.

So, it came to pass that in the quiet provincial atmosphere of Nazareth, he grew and waxed strong”. Under the guidance of Mary and Joseph he was “filled with wisdom” and because of his own holy purpose the grace of God was upon him Luke 2:40.

The four gospels pass the childhood of Jesus in almost complete silence. Luke alone gave a small glimpse of the growing child.

HIS VISIT TO JERUSALEM Luke. 2:41-50.

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Jesus at twelve followed Joseph and Mary to Jerusalem for the annual feast of Passover. For Jewish sons were required to attend the feast including children from twelve and these children are not staying tight in the land of their families until they camped at night, that is the reason Mary and Joseph did not immediately note that Jesus was missing.

When the parents found him in the temple three days later, he was neither disturbed nor anxious. He was rather surprised at their anxiety and said to them “how is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my father’s business?” Luke. 2:49.

These are the very first words of Jesus that are recorded in the scriptures. And these words show that by that time he was aware of his heavenly origin and messianic identity. Mary spoke of Joseph as thy father; both Jesus corrected her by speaking of God as my father.

Finally he followed them and return to Nazareth, and nothing was recorded about him again until eighteen years later. Within these silent years he spent in that little village, he passed them in poverty and manhood in a happy home with brothers and sisters.

Following the miraculous birth of her first born son, Mary and Joseph became the parents of other four sons and several daughters. (see Mark. 6:3). Then, at the later part of his ministry his brethren associated with his ministry.

According to tradition Joseph died when Jesus was nineteen, and he, being the eldest, become the head of the family, we know that Joseph was not alive when Jesus begin his ministry.

The villagers of Nazareth called Jesus “the carpenter it would therefore, seem that he assisted and then succeeded Joseph in his trade.

Merry Christmas!

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