We are going to close out the year by looking at 25 posts on Mary and Joseph for Advent. Part 12: The Wise men and the escape to Egypt.
Matthew 2:1-15 (NLT)
2 Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, 2 “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”
3 King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. 4 He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”
5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they said, “for this is what the prophet wrote:
6 ‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah,for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. 8 Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”
9 After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! 11 They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
12 When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.
13 After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, 15 and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
Dear God,
Here is a question that I think is not asked enough, but has a simple answer: Why did you pick someone like Joseph? Why not a person of prominence to be Jesus’s dad? Why not a religious leader? Why not a king? Why was the Messiah born to a young poor girl engaged to a carpenter?
I think there are several answers. The obvious ones are that those fathers would have been a bad influence on him. We have seen how the sons of kings turn out (well, maybe except for Saul’s son Jonathan). We have seen how the sons of religious leaders like Eli and Samuel turn out. We’ve seen how Abraham’s, Isaac’s and Jacob’s sons turned out. No, there is certainly no guarantee that someone will turn out well based on who their parents are. All of us are fallible.
In this case, I think you both picked the parents based on their character, regardless of what their status was, and it actually did matter because a person of position would have had much more to lose than Joseph and Mary did. Speaking of Joseph, I think it was probably easier to obey you and take Mary as his wife and then do all this moving around because he did not have a lot of encumbrances based upon his position in life. He had less to lose by taking Mary as his wife. Then he had less to lose by waking up and choosing to obey and take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.
To relate this to myself, I have often wondered how much I allow myself to not obey something you called me to do because of the things I have achieved and/or acquired. I have a lovely wife. Do I want to drag her just anywhere? I have a nice home in a safe town. Am I ready to trade that security in for physical insecurity? I have a job that pays me a nice middle-class wage. Am I ready to jeopardize that for uncertainty and a life of truly living on my daily bread? No, I would never have made a good father for Jesus for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one is that I would not have been prepared to pay the price that Joseph had to pay. I wonder what it would look like if I were ready to pay that kind of price now, and what would you possibly call me to do if I were willing to completely open myself up to any possibilities you might have for me?
Father, even now, I want to pray and tell you that I am willing to go wherever you want me to go and do whatever you want me to do, but I am scared. I am scared of what you might call me to do. But I am going to say it anyway. Father, I am willing to go, I am willing to do whatever you are calling me to do. I am just going to tell you that you are going to have to make it very obvious because my natural inclination will be to miss anything you call me to do that is out of my comfort zone. So make your plan for me John-proof. Help me to make each decision correctly in the moment and then have these decisions and choices add up to your will.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
