Sunday Morning 12122021

Introduction:

Last week we began looking at the journey of the wise men. God started their journey to find the Messiah by showing them a star in the heavens that they followed all the way to Herod’s palace. Herod got news of the magi’s journey and sought to find out from them the approximate time that the star had appeared in order to get a better idea of how old this child was that they were searching for. He used the false pretense of wanting to worship the child to attempt to trick the wise men into finding Jesus and reporting back to them what they had found out. Herod’s true intentions were to kill the child and eliminate his rival to the throne of Israel.

This is story that is played out on the level of humanity, but there is a spiritual equivalent that has played on on earth and in heaven for generations. Satan has always sought to thwart the arrival of the Messiah by corrupting and destroying God’s people. In Genesis 6, every thought and intention of man was evil. Satan was behind corrupting mankind and God flooded the earth and started over. If he could cause God to wipe out all of mankind, he could stop the seed of the woman (the promise given in Genesis) from ever being born.

God, however, had a different plan and saved mankind through Noah and his family and started the human race all over again.

Next came Abraham, and Satan tried to corrupt the line of Abraham, eventually enslaving them in Egypt. Pharaoh even tried to have all of the male babies killed by having them thrown into the Nile, but God thwarted his plans at the hands of two midwives and Israel grew into a mighty nation.

Fast forward to Queen Esther and Haman and you have another example of an attempted genocide to stop the Messiah from coming. Haman wanted to have his archenemy eliminated, but God elevated Esther to queen and Mordecai to second in command, while Haman and his family were killed on their own gallows.

Even in the modern era, we have seen attempt at genocide of God’s people. Hitler and the Germans in WWII tried to send the Jews to the gas chambers and concentration camps.

You see, all throughout history Satan has been trying to stop God’s plan, but God has an unstoppable plan. We are going to look at one chapter in the plan this morning as we go back in time to the time of Herod and the Magi.

Let’s take a look at Matthew. 2:13-23.

Matthew 2:13–23 ESV

13 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.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 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.” 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. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 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.” 19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 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.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 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. 23 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.

Pray.

1. God Warns (v.13)

God warns people of danger on a regular basis. The Bible itself is a warning to mankind that we are not ok and are in danger.

God appeared to the magi in a dream and warned them not to go back to Herod.

Now, we talked last week about the fact that these men were not really “kings.” They were most likely a high class of astrologers that were wealthy and prominent, but it would also have not been unlikely for them to be attacked by Herod either. The Romans probably wouldn’t have done anything to Herod, and they had come into Herod’s territory. Remember that our laws of justice were not the laws that were followed at the time.

God warned these magi and protected them from the danger that they could have been in with Herod. Herod might have killed them to keep them quiet as to what he had done.

God also warned Joseph. Joseph and Mary had no idea what was going on around them. They are living in a house in Bethlehem and just trying to raise Jesus. They have no idea there is a caravan of astrologers from the east looking for them. They have no idea they could soon be on Herod’s radar. Even with the wise men being warned in a dream and not returning to Herod, that only would make him even madder. it wouldn’t be hard for him to send some of his spies to start asking around and they would soon find out about these foreign men that were asking around town for where a couple with a new baby had been living.

God warns us often of the consequences of our actions and He also protects us from danger if we will follow His will for our lives. Now, don’t get me wrong. That doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble or be harmed. We could be called to give our lives for the gospel, but that cannot and will not happen unless it’s part of God’s will for you.

But normally, we can find that if we will obey the Lord, God will protect us from the consequences that our sins bring. We make all kinds of mistakes that hurt us and those we love around us. We can save ourselves an awful lot of heart ache if we will be obedient to what God says in His word.

2. God Protects (vv. 14-18)

One thing the Christmas story shows us is that God is sovereign. If Scripture teaches us anything, it teaches us that God is in control of all of human history. Nothing can happen to anyone outside of the will of God.

God protected Mary and Joseph and the wise men as they obeyed his instructions. The wise men are able to escape to their country by another way. Mary and Joseph don’t have time to form a caravan to travel to Egypt. They have to pack up and leave immediately and time is of the essence.

Herod is furious when he finds out the magi have tricked him. But, he has what he thinks is enough information to still get his rival eliminated. Herod goes for a total war policy.

Total war is defined this way according to Wikipedia:

Total war is warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combatant needs.

In other words it is total destruction and pulling out all of the stops, even disregarding the rules of warfare to accomplish an objective.

Illustration:

Most of us here in Georgia are well aware of Sherman’s march to the sea. During the American Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman marched from Atlanta to Savannah and left a massive wave of destruction in his wake. It shocked not only the Southerners who were victims of it, but also the people who fought on the same side as Sherman.

Sherman wrote to the Union Army Chief of staff,

"[we are] not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war, as well as their organized armies.”

Total war has been practiced by armies throughout many generations, including the Nazis and even in the modern era of the first Iraq war when fleeing Iraqis burned the oil fields after the United States began driving them out of Kuwait.

Herod’s total war was not against adults. It was against children. It was against babies that were male and two years old and younger. He didn’t care what it took, but he was going to kill his rival to the throne. Anyone standing in his way was disposable!

This plot is the plot of a major action movie with an evil villain and a hero who seems to just escape in the nick of time. The difference is that God is directing the action. He is not the one who is behind the evil, but he is the one who limits its reach.

Mary and Joseph not only are protected on their journey to Egypt, but on the journey back from Egypt. After Herod dies, his kingdom is divided into four regions and his son Archelaus, who was as evil as Herod, is now over the region of Judea. Once again, God warns Joseph in a dream and directs the couple with Jesus to the region of Nazareth, once again fulfilling Scripture that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.

Application:

What would you think if you knew all of the many ways that God has stuck his staying hand of protection out and stopped you from making a critical mistake in your life or kept something terrible from happening to you?

We are unaware of the many ways God protects us. But the one that is most glaring to us today is that God has proclaimed the gospel to us. We can be protected from the greatest harm known to mankind - the destruction of our souls because of sin. God has declared the warning to us that we must flee from sin. Get out of Bethlehem. Get out of Egypt. Go to Jesus and we can be saved. The question is will you listen to the warning.

What is God warning you of today? How is God sovereignly guiding your life so that you are steered clear of the danger and led into His righteous paths?

3. God Provides (vv.19-23)

The last thing we will look at this morning is that God provides. God has provided for Mary and Joseph the whole time. It started with the gifts the magi brought. These gifts probably financed the journey to Egypt and back to Nazareth. God knew they would need the money from these gifts. They didn’t need the frankincense and the myrrh. They needed the income from them along with the gold to move their family and take this journey and God provided it for them.

God did the same thing with the Israelites when they looted the Egyptians on their way out of Egypt after the plagues. God will always provide for us. We don’t have to fear the uncertainty of the future, because we know who holds the future in His hand.

But God also provided for Mary and Joseph to go and live in Nazareth. The Bible doesn’t speak must about them settling back in Nazareth or Joseph opening up a business. But these are assumed. These are the ordinary means that God uses to take care of them.

If we were to list a few of the basic necessities we need, we would find things like:

food

shelter

clothing

All of these God takes care of. But the greatest thing God provided was Jesus himself. God is providing the world with a Messiah. Messiah could not be cut off until the divinely appointed time on the cross. Messiah could not be harmed as a baby, or as a boy. One thing Satan got right when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness was that the Scriptures did indeed promise that God would send His angels concerning Jesus so that he did not even strike His foot against a stone. This doesn’t mean God supernaturally intervened every time Jesus was about to skin his knee. I’m sure Jesus had many of those.

You might even think, “Well, Jesus is the Son of God and can heal His own knee?” I mean think about it. Did Jesus need a band-aide? The answer is yes! Jesus didn’t get a pass just because He was God’s Son. His miracles were not for selfish reasons or to keep Himself from pain. His miracles didn’t even come until after the wedding at Cana. Remember that Jesus said to His mother, Mary, that His time had not yet come.

Some of the ancient gnostic gospels try to tell the story of Jesus’ childhood and paint a picture of Jesus as a young boy doing all kinds of tricks and miracles with His divine power, but that isn’t true. His power was to show that the Kingdom of God had arrived and it had a certain time to be revealed.

Application:

God had a plan for Jesus. He has a plan for salvation. He also has a plan for you and me and He will provide. Remember God provided a ram for Abraham on the mountain when he offered up his son Isaac. He provided when He gave the true Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He is constantly providing for us all we ever need. We just have to trust Him.

Conclusion:

God’s plan is unstoppable. He has a plan that is also not complete. We are still in a part of that plan and right now God is in the process of taking the gospel to the nations. We are to be declaring this gospel to our families and friends and anyone who will listen. We are also headed towards a collision where the evil villain will finally get what is coming to him. God will finally once and for all bring His own total war. No one who is innocent will be destroyed, but only those who are in Jesus are innocent. This world will have served its purpose and God will destroy it and everyone in it with fire in His judgment. He will sort the wheat from the chaff and send those who are not His into everlasting punishment in Hell. To the righteous in Christ, He will send them to everlasting joy and peace in a new heaven and new earth. That is God’s Unstoppable Plan!