After they
had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his
mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you,
because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with
him.' 14So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him,
left that night for Egypt, 15where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
I called my son out of Egypt.
16Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the
wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed
who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to
ask the wise men. 17Then were fulfilled the words
spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
18A voice is
heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping
for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.
19After
Herod's death, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20and said, 'Get up,
take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for
those who wanted to kill the child are dead.' 21So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him,
went back to the land of Israel.22But when he learnt
that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being
warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee. 23There
he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the
prophets were to be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.
1. Those greatly
used by God must accept great disruption of their plans/expectations. Consider
the changes Mary and Joseph had been through since Jesus came into their lives.
Mary gave up her expectations of a normal life pattern, probably endured
significant stigma because of her seemingly illegitimate pregnancy, and had to
have her first child while homeless in a strange city. Joseph also gave up his
expectations of a normal married life, also likely endured aspersions because of
the circumstances of Mary’s pregnancy, and now had to become a refugee to avoid
his family’s slaughter. They are not
unique in going through that pattern. Abraham, Joseph (son of Jacob), Moses,
David, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Daniel, and Paul all had to have their lives
turned upside down to accomplish the great things God called them to. Perhaps
that’s why God’s word repeatedly tells us that we must cede control to Him in
order to realize all the fruit He wants for and from us. See, Genesis 12:1-2,
Matthew 10:39,
Matthew 16:25,
Mark 8:34-35,
Luke 9:24,
Luke 14:26,
Luke 17:33,
John 12:24-25,
John 21:18,
Philippians 3:7-8,
Hebrews 11:8.
2. Although God
does indeed push those who serve Him, He gives them helps along the way. In this
instance, He gave (via the wise men, Matthew 2:11)
the means to finance the Holy Family’s unexpected journey and a safe place to
escape the danger that made the journey necessary. That sounds a lot like the
dynamic discussed in Deuteronomy
8:2-4 and 1 Corinthians
10:13. Further, God knows
how much we can take and, at some point, gives us a break. For example, after
all Joseph went through God eventually allowed him to get “settled in a town called Nazareth” (emphasis added). That too sounds a lot like the dynamic described in
1 Corinthians
10:13.
3. God enlists
temporal, earthly, institutions to accomplish His eternal, divine, purposes.
Here he used the jurisdictional division between Egypt and Herod’s kingdom to
provide the Holy Family refuge. In Acts he used the Roman judicial/administrative
system to protect St. Paul, to get him to Rome, and to give him multiple opportunities
to spread the Gospel along the way.
4. This passage
is another illustration of the dynamic described in Genesis
50:20 and Romans
8:28: that God is able to turn all things, even evil things, to the
good. Here he used the Herods’ dysfunctions/oppressions as foils to fulfill
prophecy and hence draw more folks to an understanding of Jesus’ nature. See Matthew 2:13-15,
22-23. That does not
eliminate or minimize the harm that comes from evil, but does show that God can
bring good out of the worst of things.
5. Joseph’s
very prompt response to the angel’s directions illustrates another principle we
see in scripture: alacrity in doing what
God tells us to do. The language of Matthew 2:13-14
and 21 indicates that Joseph acted immediately upon receiving the angel’s instructions; the Greek word
translated here as "got up" means
to be roused from sleep, and v. 14 tells us that Joseph and family left that
very night. Genesis 22:3
tells us that Abraham was similarly prompt in obeying God’s directions about the
putative sacrifice of Isaac. Matthew 25:16
points out that the good servant got right to work on the task given him.
6. Jesus and His family became
refugees. We ought to see Him in today’s refugees and respond to them as we
would to Him. See, Matthew 25:31-46.
We ought to, at a minimum, pray about
what we and our leaders can do to help today’s refugees, and then take whatever
action God shows us. Some good materials for guiding our prayers can be found in
the
MESSAGE OF HIS
HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2014) Migrants And Refugees: Towards A Better World,
the MESSAGE OF HIS
HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 92nd WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES
(2006) "Migrations: a sign of the times' and the
scriptures collected in Wisdom
Principles: Caring For the Weak & Vulnerable
Other meditations on Jesus’ nativity are collected at What We Can Learn from Jesus' Nativity: The Annunciation through Simeon & Anna
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