The Flight To Egypt
2:13-15
After the wisemen left Bethlehem, an angel again appeared to Joseph in a dream and instructed him to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt. The reason was that Herod was “about to search for the child to destroy him”. God, in his omniscience, knew the mind of Herod. “The Lord knows the thoughts of man”. (Psalm 94:11)
Joseph was to stay in Egypt until the angel reappeared and told him he could return. The angel, as a messenger, relayed God’s instructions so that Jesus would be protected. Herod would continue trying to find Jesus and kill him.
Egypt was a natural place to which to flee. It was nearby, about 70 miles to the border. It was a well-ordered Roman province outside Herod’s jurisdiction.
Phil wrote that Egypt’s population included approximately one million Jews. Philo, was a prominent Hellenistic Jewish philosopher and theologian who lived in Alexandria, Egypt from 20 B.C.to 50 A.D.He, like Matthew, wrote in Koine Greek.
Egypt was a common place of refuge for fleeing Israelites.
Genesis 42 - Jacob and family
1 Kings 11:40 - Jeroboam
Jeremiah 26:21–23 - Uriah the prophet;
Jeremiah 43:7 - those who fled Israel to avoid exile in Babylon
The angel’s command was urgent. So, Joseph left at once, setting out by night to begin the seventy-five-mile journey to the border. Matthew’s focus is on God’s protection of “the child”. He wrote that Joseph took “the child and his mother”, which is not the normal order of priority. (14) He kept his family there until Herod died and the angel told him to return. Joseph again is obedient.
Behind Herod is the more sinister character, Satan, opposing God. It is the “battle of the seeds”. Remember, in Genesis 3:15, God told the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
Satan knew the will and work of God and sought to frustrate it. But, God did not let him. Look at this from the point of view of Revelation 12:1-6:
And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. [3] And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days.
Matthew ends the section with another scripture fulfillment. He wrote that this escape to Egypt fulfilled the words “Out of Egypt I called my son”. These words are from Hosea 11:1. The full verse says: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son”.
This is a reference to God loving the early Hebrews that, under the leadership of Jacob\Israel, took Jacob’s family to Egypt to survive a famine. The way had been prepared for them by Jacob’s son, Joseph. Likewise, this new Joseph, son of another Jacob, went to Egypt to protect his family.
Later, the Israelites, under the leadership of Moses, are called out of Egypt. Similarly, Jesus, under the leadership of Joseph, is called by God, through an angel, out of Egypt.
There were times in the Old Testament when God referred to Israel as his son. For example, and most relevant to our study, in Exodus 4:22-23:
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son’.”
Why is this important? Matthew is showing us that Jesus is the true Israel. That being true, those who are in Christ are also the true Israel. As Paul wrote: “Know then that it its those of faith who are the sons of Abraham”. (Galatians 3:7)
Matthew also shows us that Jesus, as the true Israel, is the true son of God.
The Slaughter Of The Innocents
2:16-18
Having been thwarted by the wise men from finding out where the King of the Jews was specifically located Herod, in anger and paranoia, killed all of the boys in Bethlehem, and the areas around it, who were two years old and under. He used the time frame for the king’s birth calculated by the wise men.
Matthew again shows this to be a fulfillment of prophecy quoting Jeremiah 31:15. There it originally referred to the grief experienced in the Babylonian exile. Rachel was the wife of Jacob, used as a symbol of grieving the loss of children in the defeat and exile of Israel via Babylon. It became a symbol of the abuse of Jewish children and Matthew applies it to Herod’s murder of Jewish children.
And, as pointed out earlier, it was Satan’s attempt to stop God’s plan of redemption through Jesus.
Back To Nazareth
2:19-23
Once Herod’s threat was removed by his death, an angel released Joseph to take Jesus back to Israel. He did this, probably hoping to return to Bethlehem. However, Herod divided his kingdom into three parts and put Archelaus over Judea, Samaria and Idumea. He was ruthless like his father and might attempt to carry out his father’s wishes toward Jesus.
Therefore, Joseph went instead to Nazareth in Galilee, his home before Bethlehem according to Luke. (Luke 1:26-27) Herod Antipas ruled in Galilee. He was considered cruel, but weak.
Matthew tells us this was also to fulfill that which was spoken by the prophets that Jesus would be called a Nazarene. (23) Those words do not appear in the Old Testament. So, what does he mean?
Nazareth was a despised place. We see this in Nathaniel’s words: “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. (John 1:46) Christians came to be known as the Nazarene sect as a criticism or sneer. (Acts 24:5) So, it may be that Matthew was not so much saying that Jesus would live in Nazareth as saying the prophets foretold that Jesus, as the Messiah, would be despised. That is said in several places.
The best known of these is Isaiah 53:3, which says: “He was despised and rejected by men…he was despised and we esteemed him not”. Matthew will show this to be true in several passages.
This passage shows us that God will accomplish all of his purpose. (Isaiah 49:10)
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