The Escape To Egypt: A Christmas Story: Bible Series 2010

The Escape to Egypt
"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." (Matthew 2:13) This had to be frightening to both Joseph and Mary even though they knew that their son, Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the King of the Jews was with them. Why would anyone in their right mind want to kill the Son of God? The Son of Man? He had not even taken His first steps yet or even spoken His first words. It was certainly as if the people in high positions throughout the land knew who He was and what He was to be. King Herod said that he was the only king of the land and that there was no other. But when he was approached by the three kings of the orient, and they told him differently, he was angry and he wanted the child killed.

"So, he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 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."" (Matthew 2:14-15). Here the prophet spoken about is Hosea and this is from Hosea 11:1 which says: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." What is interesting here is that in the Old Testament in the Book of Hosea, many will tell you that this references the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during the era of Moses. It is said that God had such a love for His people Israel that He was actually talking about sending them out of Egypt into the Promised Land. This is all great, but this is also one of the prophesies of Jesus' life when He was a child. He was sent into Egypt and as was said from the angel of the Lord, Joseph and Mary and their son Jesus was to stay in that far off land until they heard from him.

"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. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "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." (Matthew 16-18). During the time that the northern tribes of Israel were taken by the Assyrians, Rachel, a wife to Jacob could be heard crying and weeping. The weeping was very bad in this case as was the case when the young children were put to death by Herod. Another amazement of similarities between Old Testament and New Testament times.

(Note: When it comes to the weeping and to the order of having children killed, I can only think back to my studies of the Holocaust. I did a lot of research as I lost family during the period of World War II and when I was in Israel, I could only weep when I found family names of those killed during that awful period in Jewish history. I was at Yad Vashem, which means the Hand of God, the Holocaust Museum in Israel).

Tomorrow, I will be bringing another part of the Christmas Story to you and it will involve Jesus' return to Nazareth with Joseph and Mary.

Thanks for reading our blog and enjoy the continued Bible Series and soon there will be some of Alex's music posted here.