See Your Savior

Well if you have your Bibles I would ask that you would turn with me this morning to Matthew Chapter 2. We will be looking at verses 13-23 this morning. We will actually be looking at three short narratives that Matthew gives us that together paint one picture. It is in some ways like a phenomenon we have in modern writing. A collection of Short stories that all tell one big story. and that is what we will be looking at today, the big picture in the “flight to Egypt” “Herod killing the children” what is often referred to as the slaughter of the innocents and finally the return of Jesus and his family to Isreal, specifically to Nazareth.

But before we dive into these, lets begin with a word of Prayer.

PRAY

As I said we will be looking at three narratives, and a Apologize that this week I do not a have cute/fun story like we often start with. so instead we will just look at each of these narratives in turn, and see what each of them teaches us about out savior and about our God. And we start with what is called the “flight to Egypt. Found in verse 13-15

Matthew 2:13–15 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.”

In this short narrative I would push us to see that ultimately these are about Jesus. and you might be thinking of course, every passage is about Jesus. To which I would say, yes, you are right, but yet I still feel the need to push. because even if we say that we know that, sometimes in a passage like this we can start to loose sight of that fact. So to emphasize, why I would say that THIS passage is about Jesus: Why should we not emphasize some of the other things that happen here, the dreams, don't’ get caught up looking at Joseph and his faithfulness, though he is faithful, this is a narrative designed to cause us to look to the child, the son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

What proof do I offer? verse 13. “rise take the child and his mother” this is backwards from how we would normally say it which would be “mother and child”. the deference is usually given to the mother with a position of honor and thus said first. therefore it is no accident that , because this CHILD is Jesus, he is given the position of honor and spoken of first. verse 14 same thing. finally and I would argue most importantly, Matthew 2:15

Matthew 2:15 ESV

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.”

here the first place the child, Jesus, our lord, is referred to as the son of God. and so the goal of Matthew is to cause us to look to our savior to look to the child and here in the flight to Egypt what we should see is OUR SYMPATHETIC SAVIOR

In the flight to Egypt see your SYMPATHETIC Savior

Now there is a lot of prophecy going on here, and we will get to that NEXT week. but there are some important things that are going o here that we need to see and need to understand when we hear about our savior going to Egypt. Really there are two main thoughts that kind of flow together that flow together to show Jesus being a sympathetic savior.

One: Jesus being forced because of persecution and hatred down to Egypt becomes a sort of picture for us of life, of savior who understands. Even as an infant Jesus faced trial and troubles. He is therefore no stranger to heartache, to calamity, to pain and even dare I say to suffering. For what Jesus faces here is greater than any trial that we have faced. None of us have faced anything quite like this: that the most powerful man in tier corner of the world is out to destroy (that's the language of the angel to Joseph) that Herod seeks to destroy this child. he is hated, despised before he is even old enough to do anything, he is outcast, rejected. and so he must pick up everything, Matthew 2:14

Matthew 2:14 ESV

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

There are two thought in regards to why they would leave at night, and neither is comforting. on one hand they might have left by night because Joseph had this dream, woke up, and they left that very night. there was no time to plan, to make sure that you had everything together, you get up and leave. Thus Joseph felt the desperation in the voice and message of the angel and he knew therefore that they could not tarry or wait. that's one option. and that's bad, and the second option is no better. The second option is this: because they knew how violently and how passionately Herod would seek to destroy them, Joseph Mary and Jesus were forced to leave under the cover of darkness so that no one could know that they were leaving. the picture her is of fear and trepidation that causes you to leave under the cover of darkness. Either way the picture painted is one of fear, of trouble is of a BAD situation.

And what we get to realize is that the passage RIGHT before this was of the wise men. The wise men from afar bring to King Jesus, opulent and wonderful gifts so that they could worship, they could bow down before him. and immediately, as soon as they depart an angel of the Lord appears. and SO for Mary and Joseph, and therefore also for the child. you go from this great high of “man these wise men form afar have come” immediately to this low: Herod is seeking to destroy this child you must leave!

And so here we have a picture, a picture that our savior must go through and endure just like we must go through and endure. Though Jesus is king, clearly established up to this point in Matthew. Established in his geology, clearly established in the visit of the wise men, though Jesus is KING he does not reside in some palatial palace, instead he is close and near. Theologically speaking we could look to Paul where he said Philippians 2:6

Philippians 2:6 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

he humbled himself. and so here our Humble king is dealing with real tangible powerful and even painful issues. Forced to abandon home, forced to abandon comfort and forced to flee to, of all places, Egypt! Egypt, where God’s people once labored as slaves under the rule of Pharaoh until God saw fit to hear their cries, see their tears and he sent MOSES to deliver them. Egypt the quintessential old testament long bad guy villain, person/country to flee from, to not trifle with, here our savior is in such desperate need that Egypt is looking like a good (and really the only) option. And so as we face trials, as w face difficulties, what Matthew is telling us in this short story is that we have a savior that is sympathetic. Who, because he faced trial though he was perfect his life was far from that, he is not separated from the trials and struggles that we go through. and so he is, our perfect, sympathetic savior. the first way we see this is as he faces trials he endures difficulties so he can relate, but there is also something else going on here.

the second main thought here is this: even as I described this situation, it is almost impossible to describe the pain of fleeing TO Egypt without seeing the pain of the time that God’s people spent IN Egypt. And so what is being introduced here is a theme that Matthew will develop, will deal with for the rest of the book: and that is Jesus as what we would call the “new moses”. Moses was one of God’s people, called by God to deliver his people. and Moses loved his people, he cared for his people. And so even as we are introduced to Jesus here, what Matthew is getting us to see is that as the “new moses” he will also save and deliver his people. there is a lot of things we can say about the new moses theme, more than will fit in any one sermon. If it interests you I would encourage you to look at Quarles book back there on the book table that is not a table but instead a shelf. But he deals extensively with this theme, and that book is back there as a tool for you to use. But I would like to say this today: that Jesu, being the new moses, becomes for us an important thought. Because as we begin to look at the life of Moses he interceded on behalf of his people. Right? there was a time when God said: I'm done, I'm going to destroy them all and start over and moses pleaded with God and God, hearing the prayer and cry of moses, relented. Moses was the one who would go and talk to God and then bring the message back to his people. And so Jesus serves that role, but he does so perfectly.

Not only do we say that Jesus is the New moses, but he is also the better moses. Because Jesus, being God and man, is able to perfectly intercede for us. Because though moses, though he wasn’t allowed to look directly upon God’s Glory. WE know he was not allowed to look directly upon God in his glory, for no one may see God and live, so instead he was allowed to see just the tail and of the train of the robe of God’s glory and he was forever changed. Moses, was still a sinful man, and so there were issues with Moses’ intercession. whereas Jesus being perfect, being the image of the invisible God, he is our PERFECT intercessor. so we come to him, he relates to us as man but he is God. here is therefore our perfect sympathetic savior.

As we turn to our next narrative we are going to skip. and WHY we are doing that will become apparent, but lets skip briefly to the return to Nazareth. Matthew 2:19-23

Matthew 2:19–23 ESV

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.

So why would we skip? well these two narratives, the flight to Egypt and the return to Nazareth form (here’s your fancy 10 cent word to take home and impress people with at dinner) they form an inclusio. These area two similar, very similar stories that tie together with something in the middle. So they say one thing that flavors and impacts the middle. So why would we say this is an inclusio? well, I am so glad you asked. 1) they both open with Joseph having the angle of the Lord come to him and speak to him in a dream. verse 13 and verse 19. 2) both of these after Joseph hears the words of the angel Joseph does the exact same thing.

Matthew 2:14 ESV

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt

and Matthew 2:21

Matthew 2:21 ESV

And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

this is an exact word for word correspondence Matthew is telling us that these tie together but 3) and most obvious, just thematically, think about it. You leave and Go to Egypt and you return and come back, that is the same story. and so I wanted to tie these together here because we need to see what is going on. and in the first one we see that he is our sympathetic savior and in the return to Nazareth you see that he is our DAVIDIC savior. the savior in the line of David

In the Return to Nazareth see your DAVIDIC savior

Why would we say this? well this little portion is difficult in terms of understanding the prophecy, it is one where our knowledge of the OT will be pushed and stretched to fully understand. but it goes like this: Matthew 2:23

Matthew 2:23 ESV

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.

note the thought prophetS it is plural. this is the only time we see this specific formulation. usually it is the prophet, sometimes it is the prophet and he is named like Jeremiah or Isaiah. but here it is what is was said in the PROPHETS. so this is unique and something different is going on here. and so what Matthew is doing is conglomerating sort of many thoughts from many different prophets to paint for us one story. so here is the prophecy: he shall be called a Nazarene this is not a direct quote. if you were to scour the OT for this quote you will not find it. So three a few option and thoughts that have been said as to wqhat Matthew is talking about here, I will just give the tip of that iceberg with what I see to be the most helpful.

The Hebrew word for branch is “nesser” that's the David non-Hebrew speaking probably butchering of that word. but nesser is the root of Nazareth. and so what Matthew is putting together is a thought from a bunch of prophets that all have to do with David specifically. Most clearly and for example turn with me quickly to Isaiah 11. Specifically Isaiah 11:1

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

so Matthew is looking for the branch of the root of the stump of Jesse the line of David who would be the messiah. that's why we would say here that he is to be the Davidic savior. He is being a little pun-ny and playing on words to get us to see a precious truth. And so in having him come from Nazareth, what god is communicating and what Matthew wants us to see is that this is the long awaited branch of David. This is the branch who will be the savior of the whole world. and this beautifully works in two ways: one: in having the savior come from Nazareth, in being a Nazarene it show us that he is in once sense the davidic savior, he is in the line of David, but in Isaiah we noted this that the vision that God had for his messiah was worldwide and global in scope. and so even in Isaiah the davidic savior was the savior of the whole world. having us look to branch language he wants us to remember what will be said of the branch in Isaiah 11:10

Isaiah 11:10 ESV

In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

but also we could just look to Nazareth and see this.

But just being a NAZARENE speaks to the global reach of the branch of David. If we were to look sociologically at Nazareth it had a bad reputation. How bad? well, if you have read Dan Allen’s book on the Nathaniel project, this should sound familiar, because this is where we hear about Nathaniel. John 1:45

John 1:45 ESV

Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

so philip goes to Nathaniel and says hey we found the Messiah, it is Jesus of Nazareth, and here is Nathaniel response John 1:46

John 1:46 ESV

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Nazareth had a reputation that had a reputation for being the place that NOTHING good has ever come from. To maybe give us a southern New Mexico flavor for this. It would be like saying hey There’s this great guy, he is from ALAMOGORDO and people form Alamo would looks t each other and ask: Wait, can anything good come out of Alamogordo? and the answer is USUALLY no, but every now and again there might be an exception to that rule. And so Jesus, being from Nazareth it begins to tie to our last point that our sympathetic savior comes from this rag-tag place, but pore importantly, part of why Nazareth has this reputation that is different than like say Alamogordo is because there we people from all over in this area. Nazareth did not enjoy a sort of ethnocentrism that a lot of places might have. there were gentiles and Samaritans. and so Jesus begins his life, he returns and calls home a place that from all around people will be there. He begins his life already in a place where the world is already being brought in some sense to the Messiah. And so Matthew shows us here that Jesus was our perfect sympathetic and davidic savior.

there are some really interesting things that are happening here. Joseph being spoken to in dreams, but we can ask why did they even end up in Nazareth. and this is an interesting thought. Herod is dead. we find that in verse 19. When Herod died historically speaking they broke his area he was king over up and divided it between his sons. and so we had antipater later called Herod ruling over Galilee area and over the largest portion, the portion that would include Jerusalem and Bethlehem was his son Archelaus. Archelaus was as bad as his dad, AND no one like him. See Herod at least had some political savvy to keep some people on his side to keep others under his control, this son Archelaus was not even hat good. He was so bad that even before he was ever able to officially be crowned, like after his “probationary time” for lack of a better way to put it, he went to Rome and they stripped him of all power because they were afraid there would be rioting and a loss of all control in the area. He was quickly removed from power he was a bad guy.

and so Archelaus was ruling in power and so the angel ONCE AGAIN comes to Josephs in a dream and tell him don’t go there. But what is most beautiful is that God’s plan is seen. That you will go to Nazareth, to be a Nazarene so that the picture of our Savior being the savior of the world will be complete. so that we will know for sure that this is the branch of the stump of Jesse. He is the savior of the nations, the savior of the world.

In this portion of Scripture we see out savior, the perfect sympathetic savior he can relate to our trials he can relate to our hardships for he too has faced trials and heartache and tragedy. In our savior we see the perfect savior, the one that will take away the sins of the WORLD. John the baptist will proclaim that to us in a few weeks. in our savior we see the perfect davidic savior the one who will sit on the throne forever. But we skipped a portion of scripture. W skipped a brutal portion of Scripture. a portion that is traditionally called “the slaughter of the innocents” the ESV translation committee decided to lessen that blow just a bit with “Herod kills the children” so its not much better… and I want us to see something else here.

Matthew 2:16–18 ESV

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.”

Much can, and probably should be said about the evil of Herod. About how Herod, in his hatred towards God, and his desire for power and glory would be willing to slaughter innocent children. It is telling of the wickedness and evil Herod that this narrative that for us is a great tragedy, historically speaking it does not even register. It is hardly historically noteworthy that Hero would have these infants murdered. how evil was this guy, estimates based on size of region population at the time estimate that the low number of children killed here is 30 the high is 100. but somewhere in there is the truth and as far as evil deeds of Herod this is hardly a blip… This was just his modus operendi. this is what he did. But the focus I would like to look at today is to see that even here God is still sovereign. Even in the wicked evil hatred of Herod that cannot trump or interfere with the perfect plan of God, even in the darkness God is working. and so what i would like us to see in this portion is that even here, in the slaughter of Innocents we can see THE HAND OF GOD, moving and working.

Even in the slaughter of the innocents see THE HAND of God

even here we see the hand of God protecting the messiah. we see God providing for Joseph Mary and jesus. we see the hand of god at work even in the midst of such great evil. Matthew invites us to see and to find reassurance in the thought that no human tragedy no matter how great, that NOTHING no matter how vile or insidious, no matter what the world around us may do or threaten or say, it cannot trump the perfect will of God. Morris in one of my commentaries says this: The history of the People of God is all strewn with blood and tears … The rage of man is unfurled upon the Elect of God… Our own time has seen massacres equally shameless. The testimony of the evangelist is that God nonetheless pursues the purpose of salvation!

Herod desperately wanted to kill the king. Herod holding on to his own power and might desperately wanted to, by any scheme or means possible make sure that HE kept hold to his power. and so he goes and he slaughters innocent children who did nothing wrong he kills them all. Just in case there is the off chance that even ONE of them could be the child he so fears he commits a hideous and heinous act of unspeakable evil. Herod, in his warped sinful evil mind only can see death and murder and yet God’s hand of protection is still on infant Jesus. God’s plan of salvation for the whole world will still rein true because nothing but NOTHING can stop the hand of God.

And so here is the thought that I would like us to take home form all of this. No matter what seems to be going on, no matter how broken and evil the world seems to be, God is still sovereign. No matter what terror or opposition we face, God is still Good. No matter how powerful, how fierce, how much the world feels like a raging tempest around us the hand of God is still sure. Again to read form a commentary, this one from Michael Green, this one again back on the book table, two commercials for the price of One,

but as he began to reflect on this sort of thought this cycle of stories form Jesu childhood he says this:

“Third, Matthew has a word of encouragement about opposition. Opposition is inevitable, but it will never, in the providence of God, be allowed to quench God’s mission. There was every possibility of quenching the Messiah: his mother Mary might have been stoned as an adulteress; he might have been killed by Herod; he might have been lost in Egypt. But No. God’s hand was upon him. Opposition could not extinguish God’s light. What an encouragement that would have been to Matthew’s readers [and therefore by extension to us!]. the church, so frail, so exposed, would not be allowed to sink. however threatening the storms and waves that broke over it.

I said that these passages form an inclusio, the flight and the return with something happening important in the middle. and the important thing that happens in the middle is tragedy and heartbreak. SO why would Matthew call us to look here? It is because he wants to assure us that no matter how bad things might get. and interestingly if we just look at Matthew as a book, as a literary work for just a second, things will get worse. Here we are scared, the fear is that the hero of the story in EVERY sense of that word, well he almost dies. and there is great tragedy surrounding that. but you know what will happen at the end of the story. our hero doesn't almost die, he does die. a vile evil death on the cross. but even that we must see is not God’s plan being trumped. or even God’s plan b c or d. but that is the hand of God at work form the very foundations of the earth. And so the had of God is moving in working even in trial, even in trouble, even in difficulty. I say this not to minimize at all, to the contrary, i know that the trails and trouble you face are great. this passage speaks to that.

just the words of the prophet Jeremiah: A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and LOUD LAMENTATION! sorrowful loud weeping. weeping of the most painful and most visceral type. we are told that the loud weeping is Rachel weeping for her children. the sound of a mother crying refusing to be comforted, I would say rightly so, refusing to be comforted because they, they being her children are no more. this is a horrible horrible tragedy. my intent is not to minimize or put down the wright of any trial or tragedy that we might face, but instead to say: have faith. see the hand of God. thought we might not understand though we might be burdened, though we might struggle see the hand of God. Trust in our sovereign king. he has been good to us, he will continue to be good to us, let us trust in him!