11/6 Matthew 2:13

3 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."


We will be looking at the life of Christ four times, once in each of the Gospels. Matthew presents Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. He links numerous Old Testament passages with events in Jesus' life to show that sending Jesus to save us was God's plan from the beginning. In Divine Messiah I showed that in nearly every chapter of Matthew Jesus is seen as doing something the Scriptures ascribe to the eternal God of Israel. It is one thing for Jesus to be a great teacher, but another thing altogether to say that He is God, one with the Father from all eternity.

From His birth we see the ancient conflict between good and evil, as Herod was inspired to try to kill Jesus as a baby. It reminds us of the earlier killing of the baby boys in Egypt (Exodus 1:16). Both were an attempt by Satan to stop the fulfillment of the promise in Genesis 3:15. A male descendant of Eve would crush the head of the serpent, Satan.

God is all-knowing. He is outside of time. There is nothing His foes can do that He has not already seen and countered. Joseph was warned to take the child and His mother to Egypt. Notice the angel did not say "your wife" as they had not yet consummated their marriage. The gifts from the wise men to the Christ child would fund the journey and their stay in Egypt.

Consider: Nothing ever catches God by surprise. It is impossible to fight against the One who created all things and knows all. Are you on the winning side of this eternal conflict?