Messiah: Flight into Egypt

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My Son.” (Hosea 11:1, NIV). “So he (Joseph) 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).

Clair M. Crissey in commenting on what we call the “Flight into Egypt” states: “The shape of current (world) politics would be much different if Ishmael (father of Islam), Isaac (father of the Jews), or Jesus (founder of Christianity) had been killed in infancy. In His providence, God preserved all three. In Jesus, hope for salvation is extended to descendants of the other two.” (Holman: The Disciple’s Study Bible, 1988, p. 1171).

Joseph was told in a dream to escape Herod’s decree of killing all male children aged two and under. He immediately obeyed and took his family to Egypt. We do not know when they departed for Egypt, where they lived there, or how long they stayed. However, deducing from historical evidence of the period, we know that Archelaus, more wicked and overbearing than his father Herod, ruled in Judea from 4 B. C. through 6 A. D. When Joseph brought his family from Egypt after the danger of murdering the infants was past, he took them back to his hometown of Nazareth to live, a safer zone than the politically-charged Jerusalem. The flight to Egypt is not only a fulfillment of prophecy, but it represents the plight of many refugees then and since who have had to flee their own country and find refuge elsewhere to escape death. Oppression forces families to become refugees. The Son of God and His family were no exception. They, too, had to go down into Egypt for safety, and eventually return to more familiar surroundings when the situation was more stable.

We are told that Egypt at the time Joseph took Mary and Jesus there had about a million Jews living there. Many were businessmen, tradesmen and otherwise enjoying a prosperous life. Since Joseph was a carpenter, he probably found ready employment in his known trade and thus could provide for his family’s needs. A legend, told about the holy family’s sojourn in Egypt, states that idols fell flat on their faces as Jesus would pass by shrines. There is no proof for this story, but in the flight to Egypt, God made provision for the safety of His only begotten Son. And Joseph, the earthly guardian father of Jesus, acted in obedience to God’s command. He cooperated fully in God’s plan for sparing Jesus for His life of ministry and mission. Selah!

c Ethelene Dyer Jones; Monday, December 27, 2010