Sojourn in Egypt
TRANSLATION
(13) Now when they had departed, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek to destroy the young child. (14) And he arose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt. (15) They remained there until the death of Herod so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled: “Out of Egypt did I call my son.” (16) When Herod realized that he had been tricked by the Magi, he was irate. He had all the male children that were in Bethlehem and its environs who were two years old and under killed in accordance with the time which he had learned from the Magi. (17) Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by Jeremiah the prophet: (18) “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children. And she would not be comforted, because they are gone.”
(19) After Herod had died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, (20) “Arise and take the child and his mother and return to the land of Israel, for those who sought to take the child’s life are dead.” (21) And he arose and took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. (22) But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. And having been warned of God in a dream, he withdrew to Galilee. (23) And they took up residence in a town called Nazareth so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, namely, that he would be called a Nazarene.
OBSERVATIONS
On five occasions in the first two chapters of Matthew we encounter the phrase, “an angel of the Lord” appearing in a dream, first to Joseph (1:20), then to the Magi (2:12), and then three times more to Joseph warning him to flee to Egypt (2:13), advising him to return to Israel upon the death of Herod (2:19 & 20), and directing him to settle in Nazareth in the district of Galilee (2:22). Other repetitions included “Egypt” (four times in vss. 13, 14, 15, & 19), “Herod” (five times in vss. 13, 14, 16, 19, & 22), “child” (five times in vss. 13, 14, 20, & 21), three times accompanied by “and his mother” (vss. 14, 20, & 21), and twice by “the land of Israel” (vss. 20 & 21). Three times Matthew used “fulfill(ed)” and “what had been spoken” together (vss. 15, 17, & 23).
OUTLINE
I. Jesus’ parents fled with him to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath. (13-15)
II. Herod had all the male children less than two years old in the region of Bethlehem killed. (16-18)
III. When it was safe, Jesus’ family returned to Israel and settled in Nazareth. (19-22)
IDEA STATEMENT
God’s protective care for Jesus and his family first led them to Egypt far away from murderous Herod and later brought them back to Israel after Herod’s death to live quietly in Nazareth.
APPLICATION
Throughout his Gospel, Matthew sought to demonstrate how Jesus, God’s Messiah, fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Already we’ve seen how Matthew established Jesus’ legal claim to the title, “King of the Jews,” by tracing his lineage back through David all the way to Abraham (1:1-17). Then, Matthew repeatedly pointed out specific prophecies which had been fulfilled throughout Jesus’ life and ministry. In the first of these, he cited Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the virgin conceiving and bearing a son named, “Immanuel” (Is. 7:14 quoted in Mt. 1:22 & 23).
This chapter contains three more “fulfillments.” Only in Matthew’s Gospel do we read about Joseph fleeing to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to avoid Herod’s slaughter of the children. Note how careful the Gospel writer was to show how this journey fulfilled a rather obscure prophecy in Hosea 11:1 (vs. 15). An additional fulfillment had to do with the impact of Herod’s killing all the male children two years old or under in the region of Bethlehem (vs. 16). According to Matthew’s account, this horrific slaughter fulfilled another obscure prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:15 regarding Rachel, the wife of Jacob, weeping for her children.
A final fulfillment noted in this chapter involved the return of Jesus’ family to the land of Israel after Herod’s death. Their decision to live in Nazareth in the northern territory of Galilee, prompted by another of the dreams God gave to Joseph, also fulfilled prophetic scripture according to Matthew. However, we encounter a problem with this reference because we cannot find an Old Testament passage that used Matthew’s specific wording. One possible explanation is that Matthew linked the word, “Nazarene,” with the Hebrew word for “branch or sprout.” “Branch” was a term used to designate the Messiah in Isaiah: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit (Is. 11:1).” The Hebrew word for “branch” used the same three root letters, NZR, as the place name, “Nazareth.” Matthew’s point may have been that Jesus, the “branch,” predicted by Isaiah, was “sprouting up” in a village in Galilee with a similar name.