13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Herod Kills the Children
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
The Return to Nazareth
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. Matthew 2: 13-23
Matthew 2: 13-15
1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. 2But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.… Hosea 11: 1-2
Remain there until I tell you - So the wise men were wise and did not go back to Herod, and an angel came and warned Joseph to flee the country. Matthew tells us that this is to fulfill a prophecy, wherein Israel is a foreshadowing, a type of Christ. It is not difficult to see this, for He is the Seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, out of Isaac and Jacob, a Son of David, as we saw the lineage in Matthew 1. Think about it, that genetic line was promised through Israel, to Israel were given the oracles, the prophesies concerning Messiah, He is always with them and associated, the King of the Jews. Matthew 1 Part 2. If you look at the redemptive story relating to Egypt and Israel's situation of slavery there, it is a marvelous picture of salvation. They do not bring themselves out, Israel does not engage in an uprising or war with Egypt. They are brought out by the hand of God, through miraculous signs and wonders. The last of the plagues was the death of the firstborn, and this started the tradition of the Passover, where the blood of the Passover lamb was painted on the door frames and everyone in that house was passed over for the sake of the blood, which pointed to the atoning work of Christ. There is a lot in this picture, as we are all slaves to sin, and the book, wherein this prophecy comes from, was written by Hosea, who had a wife named Gomer, who was a prostitute, and she would not give up her sexual sin. She ended up being sold into slavery, but so much was Hosea's love and compassion for her, that he bought her out of bondage, and she represented Israel.
1This is the word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel. 2When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.” 3So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.… Hosea 1: 1-3
Last post we discussed the gifts that the Magi brought, and one of them was very helpful here, the gold, for this was not a rich family, but now they would have the money to stay in a foreign land. Egypt is also interesting because during Alexander's time there was a city named for him there, Alexandria, and it was a safe haven for Jews to retreat to, so there was a Jewish population in that city as well. Now the Bible doesn't go into Jesus's time in Egypt, but that hasn't stopped many a heretic from doing so in their fictions, and even more so, His critics, and this is quite fabulous, meant to be critical, but instead proving itself a huge problem, look at this:
They despised Him. They despised His origin. They despised His presence. And they despised Him at the end. He was “a man of sorrows.” Nobody gave Him honor and nobody gave Him respect. Nobody important. He had no one in His life that mattered. He hung around with a bunch of ragtag nobodies from Galilee who, seven of whom may well have been fisherman. The rest were uneducated Galileans. And the only non-Galilean in the group was Judas from the town of Carioth. He was the kind of person you just turn your face away from. That’s why we rejected Him.
You know, it got ugly from there. Do you know the Hebrew word for Jesus is Yeshua? Have you heard that? Yeshua. The Jews through history have changed it to Yeshu, Yeshu, which is an acrostic for “let his name be blotted out.” Let his name be blotted out. He is also called Tului, in Hebrew, “the hanged one.” And “cursed is anyone - ” Deuteronomy says “ - who is hanged on a tree.”
Maybe you’ve heard the story about Mary being a hairdresser. This is written in the Talmud, which is the codification of Jewish history. That His mother Mary was a hairdresser who committed adultery with a Roman mercenary named Joseph ben Pandera, produced Yeshu, who learned the magical arts in Egypt and led people astray. That’s a quote from the Jewish Talmud.
They developed early on a prayer, Jewish prayer. “May all Christians be suddenly destroyed without hope and blotted out of the book of life forever.” This is a deep-seated animosity. And it hasn’t been helped through history by what so-called fake Christians have done to the Jews. But they started out with contempt and it’s still there even today. And do you know every Jew knows the story of Jesus so he or she can reject it? I mean, you’re not really a Jew if you don’t know you can’t believe in Jesus. We didn’t esteem Him. That’s an important last line. “He was despised; we did not esteem Him.” That’s the ultimate scorn. You know what that means in Hebrew? He was non-existent. He didn’t even exist. To put it mildly as Paul said in Romans 9:32, “They stumbled over the stumbling stone.” John Macarthur from Behold The Lamb Sermon Sep 29, 2012
Now, I want you to look at that third paragraph, and I want you to note that He went to Egypt, according to the Jewish tradition about Jesus. These are not His fans, but note some of their statements, they sound just like the sort of things I would eat up when I was younger, quotes like this:
Now Hume was a smart man, a grand philosopher, however circular you may find some of his arguments to be, he was a high intellect, and so was Hitchens. From a materialist standpoint, wanting there to be no God, yes, the virgin birth is hard to believe, right, I mean I can't go out and witness one. Ironically, the material universe coming from nothing, and given the magic of time, producing life and all we see, was not so hard for them to believe. That's something neither had observed either though, a pretty big miracle indeed, but the easier solution for this virgin birth is that Mary was either raped by a Roman soldier, or she was a minx like Hitchens said, so no miracles. But for the Jews around that time, who were by no means atheists, their explanation for who Jesus was, went beyond the accusations of infidelity, of prostitution. No, this teenage girl was a genius, who came up with this story of the virgin birth, and was so lucky as to have it supported by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 7:14, who makes a claim that a virgin will be with child. This same Isaiah, who historians said couldn't possibly have written it during the time he claimed because it sounded too much like the historical figure of Christ. They dated Isaiah to be written during or shortly after Jesus's time, until they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, which put it back to no closer than 200 years before Jesus was born. Wow! Mary is truly a Jedi too, because, not only does she have this prophecy, and those of Messiah throughout the OT, including some staggering prophecies from Isaiah 53, but according to the Jews in the Talmud, He also goes to magic school. Do you notice something here? His enemies don't deny the miracles, they try to explain them away by saying He is a sorcerer, just like they did in the recordings of the Apostles. Weird, I wouldn't try to explain something that didn't happen, that would just seem to give it credence.
…26If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.… Matthew 12: 26-28
…24A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! 26So do not be afraid of them. For there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.… Matthew 10: 24-26
…31At this, the Jews again picked up stones to stone Him. 32 But Jesus responded, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?” 33“We are not stoning You for any good work,” said the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because You, who are a man, declare Yourself to be God.”… John 10: 31-33
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Mark 3: 1-6
