While Isaiah was prophesying in Judah, a new prophet’s voice was heard in the north, in the land of Israel. Towards the end of his book, the prophet recalled the exodus, when under the leadership of Moses, the Israelites left Egypt for the Promised Land. Hosea described Israel as God’s child, saying:
Hosea 11:1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
In this passage, Hosea reminds the people of an earlier time God delivered His chosen people out of Egypt. His people, Israel, were in bondage and slavery at the hand of Pharaoh, King of Egypt.
Centuries later, Matthew describes another Egyptian delivery. An angel of the Lord warned Joseph in a dream of the impending annihilation of Jesus. Joseph fled with his young family down to Egypt to escape the destruction ordered by King Herod. Joseph remained with his family in Egypt until the Lord called him out, following Herod’s death.
Matthew 2:14-15 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.”
Herod had already plotted to murder all the boys in Bethlehem two years of age and under. (This actually likely amounted to about twenty children
Mary and Jesus flee to Egypt. This was not a random location. Egypt had a sizable and thriving Jewish community – Philo says it was one million strong. It was friendly towards Jews, and the closest Jewish community outside Israel.
And so Joseph and his family leave “by night,” most likely to avoid any detection, and they live there until Herod dies and the threat has passed. They would not have had long to wait, since Herod died in 4 B.C.
Out of Egypt
Jesus and his family likely lived among a Jewish community and enjoyed a degree of anonymity and separation from Hellenistic culture. Herod the Great died in March of 4 BC and Jesus’ family returned to Nazareth soon thereafter.
Just as the people of Israel came out of Egypt to the promised land lead by their saviour Moses. God then calls Joseph and Mary from Egypt to the promised land to bring the Saviour of the World out of Egypt.
Egypt represents the old life of sin. God is also calling you out of Egypt to a land of promise.
Perhaps you are in a dark season of your life, as the Egyptians were during the plague, or as when Joseph and Mary fled for their lives to a distant land. But I can promise you this, if you will trust Jesus, which is the mark of being God’s elect, out of darkness God will call you; out of thick Egyptian night he will fetch you, and a new land of promise will be waiting for you to dwell in.
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