Providence in Prophecies - Matt. 2:13-23

Good morning

It is good to see all of you and to be together together as a church family

Let's take out our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 2

As we continue our series in Matthew

Up to this point, Matthew has used the lineage of Jesus and the promises of God to his people to help us get a full picture of who Jesus is as the coming king

We have seen the foretelling of his birth to Joseph so that we can understand Jesus as the Son of God

On Christmas Eve, we saw his birth and the responses of the wise men and Herod, the wise men who embraced and worshiped Jesus and Herod who rejected him.

And today we are going to see what Matthew wants us to know about the years that followed his birth

And the events of these years aren’t just historical information

They actually help us to make sense out of those times in life when things don’t go the way you thought they would go.

Think about your own life and a time when you looked around and said, “I just never thought my life would look like this.”

Perhaps that is where you are today

There are times in life when it is as if there was a script for your life and somewhere you lost the plot and now there is no way to get back to where you were supposed to be.

But when we feel this way, we need to be reminded of the doctrine of God’s providence to reassure us that even when we don’t understand what is going on, God knows, he is acting, and he will direct the course of our lives precisely where it needs to go.

Now, providence is something I have talked about before, but it isn’t a term that we use frequently enough to have an immediate recognition of what I mean when I use the term

So I wanted to put this definition up on the screen - It is my own definition from studying the topic throughout the years

“God’s providence is the reality that every event in the universe, regardless of size or scope, serves as a means of accomplishing God’s intended outcome.”

You might not have planned for things to go the way they are going, but from God’s perspective, because he is sovereign and in total control of all things,

everything is going exactly how it should go in order to accomplish his purposes and achieve his intended outcome.

So the title of this morning’s message is “Providence in Prophecies” because Matthew is going to show us in the early years of Jesus life,

even though things seemed to be off course,

even though it looked like the plot had been lost,

God’s providence was at work in the background so that specific prophesies about Jesus life would be fulfilled and God’s purposes would come to pass.

And if we can understand, from this text this morning, how his providence and sovereignty work, we can live confidently today, knowing that his providence is at work in our lives as well.

So let’s give these words our full attention.

Matthew 2:13–23 ESV

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.” 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.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

These are God’s words for us

Big Idea: God’s purposes are more powerful than any evil in the world. [8:30]

Let’s acknowledge right out of the gate: There is legitimately evil in the world.

And sometimes it can seem like it is the evil in the world that is directing things and that everything is in jeopardy of falling apart.

But as Matthew shows us, even the evil actions and intentions that exist all around us cannot stop God accomplishing his purpose in the world and in our lives

In fact, it is those same evil actions and intentions that are used by God to bring about his good purposes.

Remember what Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis, after they sold him into slavery seeking to get rid of him?

And that led to him being falsely accused by his master and thrown into jail

And then in jail he had two cell mates who both had dreams

And then God enables Joseph to interpret their dreams

And then Pharoah has a dream, catches wind of the fact that Joseph can interpret dreams

And calls Joseph to interpret it and Joseph does and warns of a coming famine

And then Joseph is appointed second in command in all of Egypt

And was instrumental in saving countless lives through the preparations for the famine

Lives that included his father and brothers

From whom would come the nation of Israel and the coming messiah

And then we realize that if Joseph hadn’t been betrayed by his brothers… Jesus would never have been born…

And so we can appreciate when Joseph says to his brothers, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good.”

Because God’s purposes are more powerful than any evil in the world.

[So the question we have to answer is]: How does God use the brokenness we experience, the presence of sin, and the evil actions of people to accomplish his good purposes?

When things seem to be falling apart all around us, what can we know about God and how he uses those things to accomplish his purposes?

We are going to see 3 ways that God’s providence is active as he uses our circumstances to bring about his intended outcome:

[OUTLINE]: God uses:

Danger to display his deliverance (2:13-15) [11:00]

If you were here for Christmas Eve, then you should remember that when the wise men came to Herod asking where the newborn king of the jews was, Herod said, “Search diligently for him and when you have found him, let me know so that I too may worship him.”

And here we see confirmed for us that he had zero interest in worshiping Jesus but wanted to kill him.

So Jesus and his family are in great danger.

And the angel tells Joseph in v. 13 to flee to Egypt.

Notice:

He is told by an angel in a dream and then they leave by night - Indicates that Joseph woke up from the dream, got everything together, and left right away.

I think this is meant to communicate just how imminent the danger was - “Get up and leave now!”

But the imminent danger was actually purposeful - It was accomplishing something

Matthew 2:15 “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’”

This prophecy comes out of Hosea 11:1, but what is interesting about this verse is that it is not a future-oriented statement.

In Hosea 11, God is referring to Israel as his first born son and said that out of Egypt he called his son Israel, referring to the exodus from Egypt that happened 1600 years before Jesus was born.

So the prophecy is actually a past-oriented passage in the book of Hosea and Matthew is saying that it is actually fulfilled in Jesus and his family fleeing to Egypt and then returning from Egypt

What is going on here?

How does Jesus fulfill a word spoken by a prophet about an event that happened centuries before Jesus’ birth?

There is a concept that we must understand if we are to read our Old Testament well and read our New Testament well in light of the Old Testament

That concept is called “typology”

Typology is a foreshadowing in which a person or an event, while real and historical, actually served to point ahead to Jesus.

There was a historical event or person who held significance in their day, but who they were or what they did actually foreshadowed a greater version of it that Jesus would be or Jesus would do

And you have heard me say a few times in this series that everything that God said to Israel was ultimately going to be fulfilled in Jesus

All of God’s commands to Israel, Jesus would obey perfectly

All of God’s expectations of Israel, Jesus would meet them fully

All of the ways Israel failed God, Jesus would never fail

And what we are actually going to see in the coming weeks and months as we walk through Matthew is that Jesus is going to relive the history of Israel over the course of his life.

He will use signs and wonders to show God’s power, like Moses did with Pharoah

He will spend 40 days in the wilderness being tempted and tested, like the 40 years of wandering and testing of Israel after the exodus event

He will protect his people from the wrath of God through the shedding of his blood, just like in the passover event in Exodus.

We could go on and on… But the point is this:

His life will show that everything about Israel was ultimately pointing to Jesus and what he would do.

And the prophecy of being called out of Egypt, while it refers back to the deliverance of Israel from slavery, Matthew is telling the reader that it is ultimately fulfilled in the deliverance that Jesus brings.

But we must not miss this fact:

For Jesus to fulfill this prophecy in Hosea… For him to be the fullness of everything Israel was called to be

His life had to be threatened so that his parents would flee with him to Egypt.

If Herod had never sought to kill Jesus, they would never have had a reason to flee to Egypt, and there would never have been this fulfillment of Hosea’s words.

And Jesus could not have said to the disciples - I have come to fulfill the law.

Paul could never have said that the end goal of the Old Testament is Christ

The author of Hebrews could not have said that Jesus was greater than Moses.

It was actually the evil intent of Herod to kill Jesus that ultimately brought about the fulfillment of Hosea’s words.

Do you see that?

Through this dangerous, sinful situation, God was providentially working to bring about his purposes

Herod thought he was going to kill the messiah…

And that real and dangerous threat was actually the means by which God showed us what kind of Messiah he would be

One who leads a greater exodus from slavery to freedom.

Delivering his people from their sins

And listen: This is not just a truth about this one time and place.

This is how God works through all time in the dangers that his people face

In the threatening circumstances they encounter

In fact, listen to the way Grant Osbourne puts it:

Jesus’ return from Egypt is a promise to the church down through the ages that God ultimately delivers his people… It was true with Jesus, it has been true throughout church history, and it is true now.

Sometimes God allows his people to endure trials and suffering of various kinds…

Precisely because he will use them in their lives to accomplish his good purposes.

There are many forms that danger can take, but the common denominator is the upheaval and chaos that it brings.

But do not think that that means that God is no longer in control

When things appear to be going wrong, we should trust that God is working in the background and that he is actually using this situation to lead to my protection and my deliverance

[Summary] The threat of murder was the means by which God fulfilled his purposes in Scripture.

That is providence

When God uses danger to display his deliverance of his people.

Second… God uses:

Loss to highlight his love (2:16-18) [20:00]

About two years passed from when the wise men saw the star and when they came to Herod…

We know that right? Those wise men in your nativity scene weren’t there yet.

In fact, if you really want the wise men in your nativity scene to be accurate you need to do one of two things:

While baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds are in the living room, put the wise men in a different room on the other side of the house, having just started their journey

Swap baby Jesus out for toddler Jesus and move the shepherds back with their sheep out in the grass…

Anyways…

We read in v. 16: “Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.”

Herod simply does the math, remembers that the wise men saw the star about two years prior and remembers the prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem

And so has every male child killed in Bethlehem and the surrounding region who were two years old or younger

Essentially, if he can't kill only Jesus, he'll kill everyone who fits the description in order to ensure that he kills Jesus in the process.

And this evil action, enacted by Herod’s own murderous desires, Matthew says fulfills the words of Jeremiah from Jeremiah 31:15

Matthew 2:18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

To understand what Matthew is doing here, we need to get some bearings on this prophecy and terms used.

Ramah is near Bethlehem and was the burial place of Rachel, Jacob’s wife from the book of Genesis and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin

Rachel is being symbolized here as the mother of Israel

This prophecy in Jeremiah was referring to the deportation of the Jews into captivity and depicts Rachel crying out from the grave as her children are marched past her grave into captivity.

And just like the prophecy from Hosea in v. 15, Matthew is saying that the past event is being fulfilled here in these events in Jesus’ day.

Wherein the children of Israel were carried away to captivity by evil people in Jeremiah’s day, the children of Israel are being killed by evil people in Jesus’ day.

And since we aren’t as familiar with the promises in Jeremiah like the people in Jesus’s day were, we might miss the bigger picture here.

So I want you to turn in your Bible’s to Jeremiah 31.

We were actually in Jeremiah 31 a few weeks ago when we talked about Jesus as a son of Exile and looked at the new covenant

And Jeremiah 31 is filled with promises that relate to the exile and what God will do.

The prophecy that Matthew mentions is Jer. 31:15.

You see it there?

But it doesn’t end with Rachel weeping for her children who are no more.

It continues…

Jeremiah 31:16–17 “Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

In the original context, he is saying that though the children of Israel are marched into captivity, there is a future hope the will rise from the ashes.

And look down at v. 20

Jeremiah 31:20 “Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord.”

God is saying - “You will experience loss, but it will lead to you knowing my love.”

And Matthew is linking this mass murder to the same prophecy to make the same point

That though there is a great evil that is done in Bethlehem, God will bring hope from the ashes through Jesus.

The loss that God’s people experience will result in highlighting his love

So the question before us then is: How will he do that?

Well, remember: Jesus is reliving the history of Israel as the fulfillment of everything about Israel in the Old Testament.

And he isn’t doing it abstractly or philosophically - he is doing it personally.

He is living in the midst of it

Truly he became like us in EVERY WAY.

And so he can understand the pain of his people, not only because he is the all-knowing God, but because he is the God who became a man and walked among them.

Through this text, God is revealing that he called his son not just to identify with his people in God’s expectations for them, but also to identify with his people in their suffering

While Jesus was not among the children killed, his family no doubt knew, and mourned, and Jesus no doubt grew up knowing the lives lost because Herod was trying to kill him

And it was no doubt a story that people recounted years later

And its retelling no doubt brought back the pain of that loss.

And that loss highlights God’s love precisely because he does not stand far off, unable to sympathize with our sufferings, but he joined us in them.

Listen to the way that theologian Craig Keener puts it:

The painful events of Jesus’ persecuted childhood are the anvil on which God will forge the fulfillment of his promises to his people.

He goes on…

God feels our human pain as deeply as we do. While philosophers and theologians must address the problem of evil intellectually, many grieving people inside and outside our churches face it existentially. To broken people wounded by this world’s evil, Jesus’ sharing our pain offers a consolation deeper than reasoned arguments: God truly understands and cares—and paid an awful price to begin to make things better

That awful price is not just that Jesus lived in the midst of the evil and suffering of the world

That evil and suffering was most obvious and painful at the cross of Christ where he suffered and died at the hands of lawless men.

If you want proof that evil and loss can be used by God to highlight his love, look no further than the cross of Christ

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was the most evil thing the world has ever seen

Jesus was the only sinless person to ever live

He healed the sick

Fed the hungry

Cared for women and children, orphans and widows

He called out hypocrisy and called for love of God and love of neighbor

Yet he died the death of a criminal because people lied about him, despised him, and saw him as a rival

That is evil…

But while it is the greatest evil the world has ever seen

It is the greatest act of love the world would ever know.

His sinless life earned the righteousness that we could never earn

His death paid the price we could never pay

His resurrection secured the restoration to God we could never achieve

And he offers it freely because of the great love with which he loved us

In love, Jesus suffered with his people.

In love, Jesus died for his people.

And so the loss that his people experience in this world, as evil as it truly is, ultimately highlights God’s love, because he has lived in it too

He did not sit far off, but entered into it with us and conquered it for us, because God’s purposes are more powerful than any evil in this world.

[Summary] And so He uses loss to highlight his love.

and third, God uses:

Confusion to reveal his calling (2:19-23) [30:00]

The angel told Joseph back in verse 13 to remain in Egypt until he was told to come back and in verse 20 he is told by the angel to return because Herod has died.

And again, we see Joseph obey immediately and fully.

But then we have in verse 22 uncertainty that influences the movement of the story.

Matthew 2:22 “But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.”

Archelaus was one of Herod’s sons. He was so brutal, in fact, that he was actually deposed by Rome and removed from power by Caesar himself just a few years after coming to power.

You have to be a pretty evil ruler for first century Rome to say "You're a little too extreme for us.”

But as a reader, we should find this very confusing: the one who was seeking the life of Jesus is dead so go ahead and go home where there is an even more violent and brutal ruler waiting for you.

and Joseph, in his uncertainty, is warned by an angel not to go there.

And the warning seems to be about not going to Judea - It isn’t direction to go live in Nazareth.

Joseph withdraws from Judea and ultimately settles in Nazareth

You see that?

The uncertainty and confusion over Archelaus results in the angel telling him to withdraw and Joseph ends up settling in Nazareth.

And it would be very easy to see this as chance - There were lots of towns in the region of Galilee

And he picked Nazareth, Luke tells us in Luke 2, because he and Mary were from there.

Doesn’t seem like a super spiritual decision… Just seems, expedient.

But Matthew says in v. 23 that this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophets that he would be called a Nazarene.

Now I want you to notice something:

He does not quote any specific prophecy and instead says what was “spoken by the prophets”, plural.

This is because there is not one single prophecy that says that Jesus would be called a Nazarene, but there are a few prophecies that use the Hebrew word for “Nazareth”.

It is the Hebrew “Natzar”

Why does this matter?

In Isaiah 11:1, God is speaking to his people that though they will be cut down and taken into captivity, there shall come forth a “branch” from the stump of what is left and that “branch” will produce new growth that will bear fruit.

And the Hebrew word for branch is “Natzar” the same word as the name of Nazareth.

So what is Matthew saying?

That Joseph choosing Nazareth actually fulfills passage like Isaiah 11:1 and reveals that Jesus is that branch that will bring new life to God's people.

Joseph didn’t that God was doing all of that in the background, but God used the uncertainty and confusion to reveal the calling that was on Jesus life

to ensure that he fulfilled the prophecies like Isaiah 11:1…

As the branch who would bring new life to God’s people.

And I want to highlight for just a moment what Joseph did that cooperated with God’s providence.

I mentioned last weekend that every time Joseph is mentioned in these first 2 chapters, what is highlighted is his obedience.

He is called a “just man” in Ch. 1, v. 19 when he is introduced.

And then from there on, every time the angel of the Lord tells him to do something, he obeys.

But we would be wrong to think that Joseph is called a just man because he obeyed the angel every time.

No, he obeys the angel every time because he is already living a life of devotion to God.

Here is what I want us to see: Joseph was committed to obeying God with his life, so God ensured that Joseph and his family ended up where they needed to be for Jesus to fulfill his calling.

When I live a life of devotion to God and desire to obey him in my daily life, I can simply make decisions each day and be confident that God will lead me in specific things to a place of clarity down the road.

[Example of students asking where to go to college - “Pick a school”]

[Example of choosing NAU]

The point is that if I am living to honor God, even in the midst of confusion I can be confident that God will lead me directly to where I need to be

Are you living in confusion right now?

Devote yourself to God in your daily life

And trust him to lead you

Maybe not by an angelic messenger…

But by his Spirit he will ensure you get where you need to go for the calling he has on your life.

You haven’t lost the plot because God’s providence has never lost control.

[Conclusion]

Matthew shows us through these three events that God is always working to accomplish his purposes.

Even when people seek to do evil, God is active in using it to bring about the good that he has purposed.

Herod tried to kill Jesus and God used that evil to bring about the fulfillment of multiple prophecies.

It might feel like you have lost the plot in life right now

It might feel like evil is winning

It might seem like things are not going how they should

But God’s purposes are more powerful than any evil in the world

He will use danger to display deliverance

He will use loss to highlight love

He will use confusion to reveal clarity

And his purposes will be done in your life.

For your good.

For his glory.

Amen.

[COMMUNION]

Bread and cup - Reminder of Jesus’ body and blood

This does not save you and there is nothing special about the bread and cup, but it is the Spirit’s presence in us that makes this a significant means of God’s grace in us.

For believers (visitors, guests) - If not a believer…

We must be careful how we take this

Do not mock the cross by taking the bread and cup while living in conflict with God or one another

Repent of ongoing sin

Reconcile with one another

Then take the bread and the cup as a reminder of what Christ paid to purchase our forgiveness and reconciliation.

Two cups - Gluten Free Option

Lower sections - Back sections

1 Cor. 11