Christmas is over in Hospital
Christmas is over! The tree is still up, but it’s empty underneath. Christmas took weeks to build to a crescendo … and then it’s over.
“The Post-Christmas Blues.”
We spend weeks before Christmas preaching about events leading up to the birth of Jesus but what happened AFTER Christmas?
Some people don’t think of Joseph was important in the Christmas story. He’s usually ignored.
The emphasis is on Jesus, Mary, Shepherds, the Wise Men. Today, Joseph is our central character.
Matthew 2:13
The Wise Men visited Mary and Joseph and presented them with their three gifts. After they leave, Mary and baby Jesus go to bed, and Joseph has a DREAM. The angel tells Joseph in the dream to flee to Egypt, because Herod is going to try to kill Jesus.
There are four things to notice here.
1. Joseph’s Obedience
2. God’s Provision
3. Herod’s Opposition
4. God’s Plan
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13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 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.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
1.- JOSEPH’S OBEDIENCE – see 2:14. Joseph didn’t waste any time. … he got them packed up THAT NIGHT and headed for Egypt.
Think about it, they’d travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem expecting to stay only for a few days and then return. Their FAMILY was back in Nazareth … they hadn’t even said “Good-by.” They hadn’t planned on MOVING lock, stock, barrel to Egypt ! Joseph probably had a carpenter shop back in Nazareth … what would happen to that?
In the middle of the night, God said “Go!”. Joseph didn’t try to figure it all out. He OBEYED. That’s why God chose Joseph to be Jesus’ step-father. God knew his heart … that Joseph was sensitive to God’s will.
2.- GOD’S PROVISION – see 2:11. When God calls, He provides! God wouldn’t have told Mary & Joseph to go to Egypt, and then say, “Good luck, You’re on your own!” They would need money to live in Egypt … and God provided it for them…… through the Wise Men.
3.- HEROD’S OPPOSITION – see Matthew 2:13b, 2:16. This isn’t usually included in plays about the Christmas story. We leave this part out. Mary & Joseph and baby Jesus running for their lives … fleeing the country. Dead babies left behind. It’s not part of our Festive picture, is it?
Herod was a mean, vicious person. History has a lot to say about him. Caesar Augustus was quoted as saying that it would be better to be King Herod’s pig than his son. Pigs were protected by law … Herod’s family weren’t. King Herod had already killed 2 of his own sons … he had them strangled. He also killed one of his 10 wives … his favourite wife … because he thought that she had been unfaithful to him (she wasn’t!). He killed his 18 year old brother-in-law, because the Jews liked him better than they liked Herod. He also killed her grand-father, and her 80 year old uncle, who had once saved Herod’s life. He also killed his own uncle and his mother-in-law. What’s a few Bethlehem babies to Herod!
The slaughter of innocent children in Bethlehem fulfilled a prophecy (Jeremiah 31:15) –
See Matthew 2:17-18. Why “Rachel” why “Ramah”?
Rachel, the wife of Jacob, was buried in Bethlehem.
Bethlehem is about 5 miles South of Jerusalem. Ramah was about 5 miles North of Jerusalem.
Herod drew a circle around Jerusalem, probably 10 miles North/South of Jerusalem, and said “Kill every boy under 2 years of age.”
4.- GOD’S PLAN – see Matthew 2:15.
It had been God’s plan all along (Hosea 11:1) for Jesus to come out of Egypt … just like His children (Israel) did 1500 years before under Moses.
Mary & Joseph wouldn’t be alone in Egypt. Egypt was also under Roman rule, but Herod had no power there.
Thousands of Jews had already fled there to find safety from wicked King Herod. There were Jewish synagogues and a Temple.
The land that had once ENSLAVED the Jews, God now used to PROTECT the Jews.
Matthew 2:22 Being warned by God in a dream Mary & Joseph headed North, to Nazareth in Galilee. From then Joseph’s son became known as Jesus of Nazareth
Matthew 2:23 – This also fulfilled prophesies of the Old Testament (Isaiah 11:1, 53:2-3). Nazareth was a small town. It isn’t even mentioned in the Old Testament at all.
Was it so INSIGNIFICANT that in John 1:46, Nathanael said “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
God wanted Jesus to be raised in a simple village, without fame or prestige.
There were a lot of Gentiles in that area, that’s where God wanted Jesus to be raised.
There is something special about insignificant places (eg IoWight!) and ordinary people … isn’t there?
God knows we are ordinary and we are the type of people that God uses.
I pray that you will know that God has put you here on this place will use you and BLESS you here.
In CONCLUSION:
1.- The Safest Place To Be, Is Where God Leads You.
2.- A Christian Isn’t Exempt From Troubles
3.- God Is In Charge.
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15 This is what the Lord says:
“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”16 This is what the Lord says:
“Restrain your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,”
declares the Lord.
“They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,”
declares the Lord.
“Your children will return to their own land.18 “I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:
‘You disciplined me like an unruly calf,
and I have been disciplined.
Restore me, and I will return,
because you are the Lord my God.
The Safest Place To Be, is Where God Leads You to be.
Footnote
