Matthew 2:13-23

Section 4. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT AND RETURN

TEXT: 2:13-23

13. Now when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
14. And he arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt;
15. and was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call my son.
16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise-men, was exceeding wroth. and sent forth. and slew all the male children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had exactly learned of the Wise-men.
17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet, saying,
18. A voice heard in Ramah, Weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; and she would not be comforted, because they are not.
19. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
20. Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead that sought the young child's life.
21. And he arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither; and being warned of God in a dream, he withdrew into the parts of Galilee,
23. and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets, that he should be called a Nazarene.

THOUGHT QUESTIONS

a.

What characteristics do you see in Joseph that reveal some of the reasons why God chose him to be Mary's husband and Jesus-' protector?

b.

What does this incident reveal about Herod's nature?

c.

Why do you think God allowed His only Son to grow up in such a despicable little town as Nazareth? Had not the byword said, Can anything good come from Nazareth?

d.

Why would God have Joseph take the family out of the country when Herod never did see the Baby and could not have identified it anyway?

e.

What does the age two years old and under indicate about:

(1)

the appearing of the star to the magi in the East?

(2) the age of Jesus when Herod sought to slay Him?

f.

Why would God send Joseph to Egypt and not to Edom or Arabia or perhaps to Mesopotamia?

g.

Why should Joseph be afraid to return to Bethlehem, even though Herod the Great was dead as well as those that sought the child's life?

h.

Why should not Joseph be equally afraid of the ruler of Galilee, who was also another son of Herod the Great?

i.

Would the Bethlehemites have known the location of the house where dwelt the Babe born to be King?

PARAPHRASE

Now when the magi had departed, it was then that the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, Get up now: you must take the little Child and His mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I direct you further, For Herod is about to search for the Child to do away with Him.

So Joseph awoke and, taking the Child and His mother by night, they made their escape to Egypt where they remained until Herod's death. This resulted in the fulfilment of what the Lord had declared through His prophet Hosea (Hosea 11:1): I called my Son out of Egypt.

When Herod realized that he had been trifled with by the magi, he flew into a furious rage. He issued orders for the massacre of all baby boys in Bethlehem and its whole neighboring vicinity, of the age of two years or less, corresponding to the time he had ascertained from the wise-men.

Then Jeremiah's prophecy (Jeremiah 31:15) was which reads:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel is weeping for her children,
Refusing all consolation,
Because they are gone.

After the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared by dream to Joseph in Egypt, commanding, Rise and take the little Child and His mother with you and make the trip back into the -land of Israel. For they who sought to slay Jesus are now themselves dead! So Joseph got up and took the little Child and His mother and journeyed toward the land of Israel. Hearing, however, that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judaea, Joseph was afraid to go there. So, having been instructed by God in a dream, he withdrew to that part of the country called Galilee where he settled down in the old hometown of former years called Nazareth. This action resulted in the fulfilment of the message of several prophets who said, He shall be called a Nazarene.

SUMMARY

God, indicating Egypt as the place of secure refuge, warned Joseph of Herod's murderous intent. Joseph instantly obeyed by taking Jesus and Mary into Egypt. Herod carried out the massacre of the innocents and later died. Then God informed Joseph that it was safe to return to Palestine. They settled in Nazareth. The incident results in the fulfilment of two prophecies.

NOTES

Matthew 2:13 The magi having left the house of Joseph. each settled down for the night. But this night was to be troubled by dreams: one which warned the wise-men not to return to Herod; another warning Joseph to save Jesus-' life by flight into Egypt. It would seem that it was Joseph's plan to remain indefinitely in Bethlehem, but this was to be their last night there. To the little family this was a night of conflicting emotions: happily surprised by the adoration and offerings of the magi, they had gone to sleep only to be shaken by the angel's warning to flee. The high honors of being parents of God's Son are also accompanied by sorrow, pain and great self-sacrifice. Whatever plans Joseph had laid for the support of his family there in Bethlehem must immediately be scrapped due to the urgent necessity of immediate flight to Egypt. Egypt's near border lay approximately 100 miles to the southwest of Bethlehem, beyond the reach of Herod, They could not travel rapidly, so all attention must have been given to immediate departure while it was yet night. They must escape detection at all costs, so that they could not later be followed by Herod's men.

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream: see on Matthew 1:20. Joseph is the legal father of Jesus, so the care of the Child is in his hands. The one word of hope in the angel's message is the promise of a future appearance, This flight into Egypt though sudden is not unforeseen to the mind and will of God, because the magi had just delivered God's provision for the little family's sustenance in Egypt, i.e. the gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Escape to Egypt is quite reasonable, since it was the closest Roman province outside Herod's jurisdiction and was large enough to hide a peasant carpenter, his wife and Baby. Thousands of Jews had settled there. In Alexandria, the chief city of Egypt, the Jews occupied a more influential position than anywhere else in the ancient world. (ISBE, 94a). It would not be at all difficult for Joseph to labor at his craft until the day of their return to Israel.

The full treachery of Herod is exposed: Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Perhaps the wise-men had narrated to Joseph the drama of the star, their visit with Herod, and his directing them to Bethlehem. Herod knew about Bethlehem: Joseph must leave instantly.

Matthew 2:14 The dream having come to Joseph while he was sleeping, upon awaking, he arouses Mary into instant action, explaining to her the urgent reason for his unexpected actions. Prompt obedience to the divine message when it becomes clearly understood, as always, is the key to physical and spiritual safety! Much as we might desire to know of that flight - its means, its duration, its exact destination, its dangers - Matthew leaves us only those details necessary to the accomplishment of a greater design than the satisfaction of curiosity: the tracing in the life of Jesus the great outlines of the Messiah clearly promised in the OT.

Matthew 2:15 The death of Herod occurred in the spring of 4 B.C. at Jericho. From this date we have a clue to the approximate fixing of the true date of the birth of Christ. An eclipse of the moon, mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities, XVII, vi, 4), occurred on March 13 of that year just prior to Herod's death. The events which preceded March, 4 B.C., then, are:

1.

The enrolment under Quirinius (Luke 2:1-2)

2.

The birth of Jesus (Matthew 1:2; Luke 2)

3.

The purification of Mary, before the presentation of Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, required 40 days (Leviticus 12; Luke 2:22-39 a).

4.

Return to Bethlehem and visit of the magi (Matthew 2:1-12)

5.

Flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13 ff)

6.

Death of Herod (Matthew 2:15-19), after 40 days illness at Jericho.

Therefore, the birth of Jesus occurred sometime from 80 days to three months prior to March, 4 B.C., or perhaps even earlier. The common dating for the commencement of the Christian era is four years too late.

That it might be fulfilled. See the general study connected with this chapter. The words of Hosea 11:1, when first spoken by the prophet, had only one son of God in view, Israel: When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. But God, looking upon the people of Israel and prophesying through the lips of Hosea, saw in Israel not merely a potentially great, sacerdotal people who could be His own possession. Rather, He could see in Israel, even as He led them by the hand out of the house of bondage, that yet-unformed Israelite Who would be the Messiah. God could see in Israel what even Hosea could not have seen nor could have intended in his prophetic utterance. It was not until the return of God's true Son from Egypt that God's foreknowledge and planning could be seen. Now the thrilling news could be heralded: God brought Israel out of Egypt under the leadership of Moses not for Israel's sake, but for Jesus-' sake! The obscure passage of Hosea shouts: God knew ahead of time and carried out His plan for Israel by means of Jesus! It is not merely coincidental that the angel sent Joseph to Egypt, and not to Babylon or elsewhere.

Matthew 2:16 Herod, mocked of the wise-men. Not a word of this slaughter is found in the available secular history. Some have seized upon this fact to discredit Matthew's inclusion of such a story. No doubt, from the Christian point of view, the massacre of these little boys would be a particularly atrocious and newsworthy event. One would think that at least Josephus would have included the story in his life of Herod. But several factors combine to explain Josephus-' silence:

1.

The all-too-common exposure of infants, being an almost ordinary feature of the period, might render the murder of these infants worthy of no special horror. (Unger, Archaeology and the NT, 57)

2.

Bethlehem's position was that of an obscure little village of no particular interest to the leaders of the period and the number of male children in it under two years of age would not be many;

3.

Herod's closing years were painted in the blood of nobles and those of position. A few babies might not even merit attention outside the limits of Bethlehem!

4.

Even if Josephus knew of the incident, he might have ignored it, since a full explanation of it would have necessitated mention of Jewish messianic hopes, which, in preparing his work for Roman readers, he might have chosen to omit,

There is no reason, therefore, to suppose that if the massacre of the Bethlehem babes had really occurred, Josephus would necessarily have included it in his history, Yet, though the tragedy is not attested by other history, it is in perfect harmony with what is known of Herod in his latter years, Matthew in no wise exaggerates the character of Herod by saying, When Herod found that he had been trifled with by the magi was in a furious rage. Although he had been an able monarch, yet in the last years of his reign his cruelty reached the verge of madness: his murdering his own children and the one wife he loved, and his plan to slaughter all the leading citizens of Jerusalem in the hippodrome, contain exactly that quality of wild and useless bloodshed which appears in Matthew's record. (See Machen, Virgin Birth. 238, 239) When frustrated in his diabolical cunning by the divine warning to the wise-men, Herod's uncontrollable rage, so characteristic of this outwitted man, now shows itself in murder. It is no less murder because done by the State in the name of the king, The fatal order concerned those baby boys whose parents lived in Bethlehem or worked the farms that spread out fan-like from and depended upon Bethlehem. Since it appeared that the wisemen had tricked him at least once, Herod took no further chances, giving the order to kill all who had not yet reached their third birthday. Two years probably refers to the time of the rising of the star as seen by the magi at its first appearance. Herod connects this with the birth date of the supposed Messiah and gives his order accordingly.

Matthew 2:17 See general study of prophetic fulfilment at the end of this section.

Matthew 2:18 Ramah was a city in the tribal territory of Benjamin, located about 6 miles north of Jerusalem. (1 Samuel 10:2; Genesis 35:16 ff; Genesis 48:7; Joshua 18:25) The prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:15) focuses our attention upon this city as the separation point where the victorious armies of Babylon took Israelitish captives into Babylon (Jeremiah 40:1), leaving only the poor of the land who wept. In a poignant, poetic figure, Jeremiah pictures the ancient mother rising from her tomb to weep also at the deportation of her children, as if they were being wrested from her arms forever. Matthew appropriates this inimitably beautiful image, using it to portray the suffering of the mothers in Bethlehem. Thus, the fulfilment is not one based upon the facts predicted, but upon the words which so aptly describe this otherwise unrelated event. Matthew might have said, If these sadly beautiful words adequately described the sorrow of those who beheld the captives depart for Babylon, never to be seen again, how much more adequate are they to picture the first of a series of tragic martyrdoms for the sake of Him who would be Israel's Redeemer? If Rachel wept when the great promises of God seemed to be annulled by the deportation of her children into captivity, how much more could she do SO due to this heart-rending disaster where the Messiah is taken to Egypt upon threat of His life and these innocents must suffer?

Matthew 2:19 Observe how simply Matthew tells his story: he mentions enough of the historic circumstance to leave his narration open to historical verification while omitting what would merely detract from the mainline emphasis of the life of Jesus. Josephus describes with considerable gruesome detail the facts surrounding the horrible death of Herod (Antiquities, XVII, vi, 5). With the death of the tyrant, the immediate danger to the Child ceased. Faster than a Roman courier, an angel of God relays the news of Herod's death to the Jewish carpenter down in Egypt.

Matthew 2:20 The land of Israel is a phrase used to indicate all four of the small provinces which comprised it: Galilee, Samaria, Judea and Perea. The first area into which Joseph would enter, returning from Egypt, is Judea. They are dead obviously refers primarily to Herod the Great who sought Jesus-' life, although there may have been others who concurred with him or were employed by him.

Matthew 2:22 The angel had only announced the death of Herod and commanded Joseph to take the family back to Palestine. He had not indicated a specific place to which Joseph was to bring them, nor had he stated who was to be Herod's successor. Upon crossing the Egyptian frontier into Judea or perhaps in conversation with some traveler recently returned from the Jerusalem area, Joseph learned the bad news: Archelaus is reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod. Archelaus, according to Josephus, was barbarously cruel to those Jews and Samaritans who had opposed his accession to power and had taken their quarrel with him clear to Rome, complaining of his ruthlessness to the Augustus. The news would travel rapidly of Archelaus severe measures taken to repress a passover riot in which he killed 3000 shortly after his accession (Ant., XVII, 9, 3). Thus, Joseph was afraid to go there, for it seemed still unsafe to return to Judea with the savage and reckless Archelaus on the throne. There implies Joseph's first intention to return to Judea probably to resettle in Bethlehem where they had lived since the birth of Jesus until the flight into Egypt. What could be more natural than that they should desire to bring up the Child in His ancestral home until the time of His appearing as King to Israel? It is an open question whether Joseph had heard of the slaughter of the infants of Bethlehem. Nazareth is forgotten for the moment, although they had lived there earlier. (Luke 2:4) Matthew's first geographic notice is at Bethlehem, implying that Joseph's residence there had been interrupted only by Herod's plot, and now that that danger is past, Joseph seems determined to return there. Why?

1.

Because Galilee was despised by the Judeans as the fringe area of piety due to its proximity to the great pagan commercial centers and heathen influences and environment in general.

2.

It was inhabited by a mixed population whose dialect of Aramaic was marked by more frequent errors and malpronunciation that that of the Judean or Jerusalem dialects. Religiously, they tended to be less bound by traditions than Judeans. These differences fed the general rabbinic contempt for all that was Galilean. (cf. John 7:52)

3.

Jerusalem, on the other hand, was the center of the Jewish world, while Galilee was, religiously speaking, about as far from that center as was Rome. In Jerusalem stood the Temple and here was the vital center of Judaism. (Cf. Edersheim, Life, I, 221ff)

4.

Mary had kinfolk in the Judean area (Luke 1:39).

And yet, should they have returned to Bethlehem, the danger would arise that they would be recognized, remembered and exposed to the wrath of the parents who had been deprived of their baby boys or else to the cruelty of Archelaus. Common prudence dictated the withdrawal from the dominion of Archelaus, and yet the courageous Joseph might have been thinking that, despite these objections, the proper home for the young Messiah would be in the ancestral home of David rather than in the half-Gentile Galilee. Clearly, a message from God was needed to indicate the proper solution to his dilemma.

The verb translated warned (ASV) may simply mean to receive a divine communication or revelation of any kind. The content of that revelation is not given, leaving to conjecture how much of Joseph's actions are in direct response to an express command. At least, he moved the little family to Nazareth of Galilee as a result of that word from God. This move demonstrates the foreknowledge and wisdom of God:

1. Because Galilee was then under the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas, brother of Herod Archelaus, but who was also his competitor for the throne of Herod the Great, their father. It would not be as likely that Antipas would deliver the Child Jesus to Archelaus. (Cf. Antiquities, XVII, 11, 4 also 9, 4)

2. Because within just a few short years Judea was bathed in the blood and constant uncertainty of civil wars, whereas remoter Galilee was relatively spared (Ant., XVII, IO), until Jesus could come to the years of His majority.

Matthew 2:23 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets that he should be called a Nazarene. There is no one OT prophet who specifically promises that the Messiah shall be called Nazarene. Matthew, using the plural prophets, draws attention either to several prophets in particular or to the prophetic books in general or perhaps to the message of the entire Old Testament.

If Matthew has in mind several particular prophetic writings, which? Some maintain that Nazareth comes from the Hebrew stem netzer, meaning root, sprout, shoot or branch, thus linking Jesus of Nazareth =Notsri with the famous Branch prophecies of Isaiah 11:1 and, by extension of the root idea to other Hebrew words and prophecies: Isaiah 11:10 (Shoresh); Isaiah 53:2 (Shoresh); Jeremiah 23:5 (Tsemach); Isaiah 33:15 (Tsemach); Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12 (Tsemach). According to this view, Jesus would bear in popular speech the exact equivalent of one of the best-known designations of the Messiah. The difficulty with this view lies in its entire dependence upon a play on words, perhaps obvious to the Hebrew mind but not at all obvious to a Greek reader of this Gospel. Further, the extension of the idea to synonymous Hebrew roots spoils the supposed homonymity upon which the interpretation depends.

If, on the other hand, Matthew refers to the prophetic message in general or to the burden of the entire OT regarding the person and position of the Messiah, then, a specific prophecy is not needed to satisfy Matthew's description. Rather, the basic question would be: what does it mean to be called a Nazarene? A Nazarene is one who hails from Nazareth. but, as a slander, that libelous label contained, at least, the description of an insignificant town out of which nothing great or good was expected (cf. John 1:45-46), and, at most, when applied by the unbelieving Jews to Jesus and His followers, it spat out all the hate and odium possible (Acts 24:5). Jesus-' being called a Nazarene, due to His having lived there, fulfilled the message of the prophets in this respect that He was to be despised and rejected. Nazarene was the label that marked the Jews-' rejection of Him. This rejection was abundantly predicted (Psalms 22; Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12). Though Jesus was by birth and family stock a Bethlehemite (Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:3-4), Matthew draws attention to that circumstance which occasioned Jesus-' being considered a Nazarene, and to the fact that all was according to the foreknowledge of God,

FACT QUESTIONS

1.

How did God make known His will to Joseph?

2.

What were God-s instructions to Joseph for the Babe's protection?

3.

When did Joseph put into effect God's plan for the escape?

4.

How long did the family remain in the foreign country?

5.

What was apparently God's provision for the sojourn in that country?

6.

Who said, Out of Egypt did I call My Son, and where is this quotation originally located? What is meant by the original quotation as viewed in light of the second?

7.

What was the reaction of Herod when his plan was frustrated? Is this what might have been expected of the man from what is known of him from other historical notices?

8.

Which prophet wrote the words: A voice was heard in Ramah. ? To what event did he refer? How is it possible for Matthew to cite these words with reference to the slaughter of the infants?

9.

Where did Joseph apparently think of settling as he brought the family back into Palestine?

10. Who now ruled in the province of Judea? In the province of Galilee?
11. What is known of the city of Nazareth?
12. List all the facts since Jesus-' birth that secured His safety during those critical months.
13. Why should Jesus be called a Nazarene, when He was born in Bethlehem?
14. In what sense can it be said that His being called a Nazarene was predicted by the prophets? What prophets predicted this?

15. Luke 2:39 says, And when they had accomplished all things that were according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. But, Matthew tells this long, involved story of the wise-men, the slaughter of infants, the flight into Egypt and return to Israel, all of which must be inserted between the presentation of the Baby Jesus in the temple and return to Nazareth. How is it possible that Luke should have ignored such a thrilling story if it is true? It is possible that Matthew could have invented that gruesome story? How could both writers be telling the truth?

16. List several reasons why Josephus, our most important, secular Jewish historian, would probably not have recorded the coming of the wise-men to Herod, the excitement of Jerusalem and the slaughter of the infants, even if he had known about these events.
17. List all the miracles or apparently miraculous details that are connected with the birth of Jesus.

18. List all the names and titles applied to Jesus in these early Chapter s: Matthew 1:3; Mark 1; Luke 1:3; John 1.

19. List the facts and problems connected with the date of Jesus- Birth. Prove as well as you can the date of His birth.
20. List all the prophecies fulfilled in the incidents connected with the early years of Jesus, as stated by Matthew.
21. Tell why the fulfilment of such prophecies is so significant to the Jews.
22. Explain how this historic fulfilment of prophecies lends support to a belief in the inspiration of the OT which contains them,
23. Discuss the childhood and youth of Jesus: tell all we know about it and what we may reasonably suppose.