Matthew 2:13-23 Promises
Matthew 2:13-23 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
13After the Wise Men were gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream. He said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod will search for the child in order to kill him.”
14Joseph got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and left for Egypt. 15He stayed there until the death of Herod. This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Wise Men, he was furious. He issued orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under. This was in keeping with the exact time he had learned from the Wise Men. 17Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled:
18A voice was heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
and she refused to be comforted,
because they are no more.
19After Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. The angel said, 20“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
21Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, had succeeded his father as ruler in Judea, he was afraid to go there. Since he had been warned in a dream, he went to the region of Galilee. 23When he arrived there, he settled in a city called Nazareth. So what was spoken through the prophets was fulfilled: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Promises
I.
Promises, promises.
Everything had been carefully considered. The big purchase could be made, or the epic trip planned, or finally your financial picture was coming together and the last of your loans could be paid off. Because everything had been so carefully considered, you made some promises.
Then...everything changed. Something broke at your house and there was an unexpected repair. Your vacation got cancelled when the company insisted that due to unforseen circumstances everyone needed to be there to take care of a crisis. Maybe it was a much shorter issue: you were supposed to do something special for your child’s birthday, or get to a special performance or game, but you ran late at work and missed the whole thing.
“But you promised!” Every parent has probably heard the refrain from the children. Sometimes children hear it from their elderly parents; they had promised to get there to help them in some way, but things went awry. I seem to remember using phrases like: “Things change,” or “Get over it,” or “Sorry—that just isn’t going to be possible anymore.”
Even when you are old enough to understand that things just had to change, you can’t help but be disappointed. You moped around and felt sorry for yourself for a few days.
Things change. Things are beyond our control. The ability to keep a promise can be hindered by all sorts of things.
People are clever. We build some wiggle room into our promises. “I’ll buy you that special something you want or need when we have enough money in the budget.” “We’ll go on that special vacation when our lives settle down a little bit.” Definitions of “enough money” or “settled down” are left intentionally vague. The promise can easily remain unfulfilled because things never settle down—life is always changing.
II.
God’s promises are stunning. To be sure, in the Old Testament, he never gave a specific timetable, but he leaves himself absolutely no wiggle room in any of his promises.
There are literally hundreds of prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the Savior. Some of them give very specific details about something that would happen. When you start cataloguing all of them, an incredible number of things had to happen in very specific ways for all of God’s promises to be fulfilled without wiggle room.
Both Mary and Joseph had heard promises from angels before Jesus was born. Each was given some specific details, all coinciding with things God had promised in the past. The Wise Men somehow learned details about the coming Savior and watched for him. We aren’t told specifically what they studied, but God led them to see the signs in the stars and make the journey from the East somewhere.
Logically, the Wise Men came to Jerusalem and asked about the King to be born. Herod asked the chief priests and the experts of the law. “They said to him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, because this was written through the prophet: “6You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are certainly not least among the rulers of Judah: because out of you will come a ruler, who will shepherd my people, Israel”’” (Matthew 2:5-6, EHV). They knew of the prophecies and could point to the right town to look for the Savior who had been promised.
The Wise Men came. They saw and worshiped Jesus. They listened to the angel, who told them not to go back through Jerusalem and report to Herod all that they had heard and seen in Bethlehem.
“After the Wise Men were gone, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Joseph in a dream. He said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, because Herod will search for the child in order to kill him’” (Matthew 2:13, EHV). Suddenly. It makes you think of Christmas Eve. “Suddenly” more angels appeared in the sky with the angel that first made the announcement to the shepherds. Now, “suddenly” an angel appears to Joseph.
Had the promises changed? Had God had to build in a little wiggle room? As commanded, off go Mary and Joseph and the Baby to Egypt.
But it wasn’t a change of promise. “He stayed there until the death of Herod. This happened to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son’” (Matthew 2:15, EHV, quoting Hosea 11:1). Promise fulfilled, unlikely though it might have seemed.
The other day I heard the news about another murder. “How sad,” I thought; “and just before Christmas.” But murder isn’t sad only at Christmas, it’s always sad. So is every single sin.
Herod’s murder of all the baby boys in Bethlehem is sad, too. Even in such a great tragedy and injustice, God made sure that a prophecy was fulfilled. Matthew reports: “Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: ‘18A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she refused to be comforted, because they are no more’” (Matthew 2:17-18, EHV, quoting Jeremiah 31:15).
God’s prophecy is so detailed that Joseph’s own fears and concerns were used to fulfill prophecy. “But when [Joseph] heard that Archelaus, Herod’s son, had succeeded his father as ruler in Judea, he was afraid to go there. Since he had been warned in a dream, he went to the region of Galilee. 23When he arrived there, he settled in a city called Nazareth. So what was spoken through the prophets was fulfilled: ‘He will be called a Nazarene’” (Matthew 2:22-23, EHV).
Usually Matthew quotes a specific prophet and says something like: “this is what the Lord said through the prophet.” This time he doesn’t do that. He says prophets, plural. Nazara refers to a twig or branch or tender shoot. Matthew is pointing to prophecies like this one from Isaiah: “A shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1, EHV). But he’s not pointing to just that one, but a bunch of prophecies about the tender shoot or branch.
One thing is for certain, Matthew is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, so the prophecies are there. Jesus was called a Nazarene in fulfillment of God’s promises.
III.
Whenever people make promises the one hearing the promise and the one making the promise often have different time frames in mind. Parents might point to a mysterious “someday,” but refuse to define “someday,” other than to assert that it will be “soon.” Children run on a different clock. More than just a few minutes seems to be an eternity.
God didn’t define “someday,” either. Adam and Eve thought the promised Seed would come quickly—to be sure, they thought it would be in their lifetime. By the time the Savior actually appeared, many seemed to think it was probably still a long way off. Most Jews still believe God’s fulfillment of his promise to send the Messiah is in the future. It’s built right in to their celebration of Passover, with Elijah’s empty place at the table; Elijah, who would point to the Savior.
Paul said in today’s Second Reading: “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law, 5in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5, EHV). Humanly speaking, God’s timing was lousy. The “glory days” of Israel under King David and King Solomon were long gone. There was no unity in the land. The leading theologians had split into several sects; they vigorously disagreed on what Scripture actually said, or meant. Israel was a conquered nation, subject to foreign powers and evil rulers. Everything seemed wrong in the timing for God’s promised Savior to come.
Isaiah once wrote: “Certainly my plans are not your plans, and your ways are not my ways, declares the LORD. 9Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my plans are higher than your plans” (Isaiah 55:8-9, EHV). God is greater than we are; he is smarter; he knows the right timing.
IV.
The Psalmist says of God: “Long ago you laid a foundation for the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (Psalm 102:25, EHV).
When God promised: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (Matthew 2:15, EHV, quoting Hosea 11:1), the people probably thought God was talking about the Exodus of Israel from their slavery there. But God’s promise had more detail than people living in the Old Testament realized. In directing Joseph to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, God was bringing a more complete meaning to Hosea’s prophecy. By causing Joseph to take his little family to Nazareth to live, God was insuring the fulfilment of the most minor of details in prophecies which no one before had ever realized.
When people make promises to each other, things get in the way or thwart our plans. Unpredictable schedules, rising prices, tightening budgets, illnesses or injuries—all kinds of things. Rather than those things thwarting God’s will, he uses these “obstacles” to fulfill his promises.
The census of a corrupt Roman ruler was used by God to make sure Jesus was born in exactly the right place. Isaiah wrote: “Nations will walk to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isaiah 60:3, EHV), and along came the Wise Men following the light of a star to find the Baby Jesus. Herod attacking children in Bethlehem was used by God to make the flight to Egypt necessary. Joseph feared for the safety of his family, so he didn’t go back to Judea when the family finally left Egypt, but to Nazareth, instead. God’s promises never, ever fail.
How about the promises people make to God? How well do those do? Adam and Eve heard the one command God gave in the Garden of Eden not to eat fruit from one of the trees there. They promised, but they didn’t keep their promise; they picked a fruit and ate it. Those of you who are confirmed, you made a promise to be faithful to the Lord until death. How many times have you turned aside and taken a few steps on the wide road that leads away from God?
God wanted you to be in heaven. He made Adam and Eve—and you and me—promise to be perfect so we could join him there. But we’ve broken our promise. We haven’t been perfect.
God’s promises far exceed yours and mine. God did not want the promises you were incapable of fulfilling keeping you from the special place Jesus has prepared for you in heaven. God’s promises to make sure every promise concerning his plan of salvation for us was fulfilled, down to the tiniest detail, is a great comfort for us.
God knew that we could not be perfect, so he promised a Savior to be perfect for us. God knew that we would have insecurities and doubts in our lives of faith, so he gave us detail in his promises and evidence to show how carefully he fulfilled everything for us.
God cares for you so much that he has made everything—even you—perfect again. The Baby in a manger grew into adulthood, until the God-Man hung on the cross to cover the guilt of every one of us. God kept his promises. He kept them all for you. Amen.
