“Now
when they (the
wise men) 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 and destroy Him.’
And he rose and took the child and His mother by night and departed to
Egypt 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.’’’-Matthew 2:13-15
(ESV. Read 2:13-18).
With what unrest Mary and Joseph spent
the days at the time of the infancy of Jesus’ life! First came the call for registration for the
taxes and the arduous journey to Bethlehem from Nazareth, some 80 miles, at a
time when Mary was so near to giving birth.
Then they were lodged in a stable, the only housing available for them
in Bethlehem so that the Son of God was born in a lowly place. Other than their encounter at the Temple with
Anna and Simeon who recognized the Baby as the Messiah, and the visit from the
Magi, which Matthew records, we have no other scriptural accounts of their time
in Bethlehem, or even how long they were there.
Since Herod’s decree to kill the children had an age designation (all
male children two years and younger), “according to the time the star
appeared,” Mary, Joseph and Jesus may have been in Bethlehem awhile. The fact that they were “in a house” at the
time of the Magi’s visit tells us some time had passed since shepherds visited
them at the stable. The time of the Wise
Men’s first seeing the star and when they came to Bethlehem could well have
taken two years. But we are certainly
assured, even if we don’t know how much time was involved, that God’s hand of
protection was upon the holy family.
Again Joseph was warned by an angel in a dream that he should take Mary
and Joseph and flee to Egypt to escape Herod’s jealous wrath and the decree to
kill male babies. We think how horrible
was that decree. But Herod seemed to
have no feelings of compassion, for he had members of his own family murdered
(his wife Marianne and three sons). To
order the deaths of infants of his constituents would be within the parameters
of how he ruled. Think of the sorrow it
brought to parents affected by his decree!
God was providing a means of escape for the Baby Jesus, and his parents
acted immediately on the warning Joseph received.
How far was the trip to Egypt? We are told it was 200 miles to the country
itself, and possibly as much as 350 miles if they went to either Cairo or
Alexandria, major cities. Traveling an
average of twenty miles per day, it would have taken at least ten days from
Bethlehem to whatever city the family went in Egypt. A shrine in Cairo claims
to be the place where the holy family resided while in exile. Alexandria was a refuge for Jews, having the
largest concentration of Jews anyplace outside of Palestine. For the long journey to Egypt, Mary and
Joseph may have joined a caravan, which would have been the safest way for them
to travel. Many scholars believe that the gold, frankincense and myrrh,
expensive gifts from the Wise Men, may have been used to finance the trip and
the holy family’s stay in Egypt. Mary
and Joseph stand as the first in a long line of persecuted Christians who had
to flee to escape the death of Jesus.
When Herod died, an angel appeared again to Joseph to tell him to return
to Israel. But when Joseph heard that
Archelaus, Herod’s son, was reigning over Judea, he took his family to Nazareth
in Galilee. There, Jesus was subject to
His parents until he was about thirty and began his public ministry.
Prayer.
Lord, being in human form made Jesus subject to all the problems and
challenges of life. His parents were not
exempt from persecution and hardships.
When we are prone to complain, help us to remember that the Son of God
also encountered great opposition and adverse conditions. Amen.
