(Read Matt. 2:13-2313And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. 14When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: 15And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. 17Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, 18In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. 19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. 21And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. 22But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: 23And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2:13‑23).)
YOU remember how King Herod had told the wise men that they must go and search diligently for the young Child, and when they had found Him, bring him word again, that he might come and worship Him also.
Why did they not return to the king?
It was because God took care of them; He did not allow them to go back to Jerusalem. That cruel King Herod never saw them again, for God sent word to them in a dream, telling them not to go him. They went back again to the far country from whence they had come, but they had found Him who was born King of the Jews, and they had seen Him, and laid their treasures at His feet. They had not come in vain, the great wish that God had put into their hearts had been fulfilled, for they had worshipped His King.
King Herod had said just what the wise men had said. They said, “We are come to worship the King of the Jews;” and Herod said, “I wish to come and worship Him, too.”
But God, who knows all the thoughts of our hearts, knew what Herod’s thought about Him who was born King of the Jews was. In the first verse you read, we see that God told Joseph, the husband of Mary, not to stay any longer at Bethlehem.
In the dream which God sent him, Joseph heard these words, “Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”
Then this was why Herod wished to find Jesus; he wanted to kill Him; that was really the thought that was in his heart, though he had spoken such good words about wanting to bow down before Him, and do Him honor.
The land of Egypt was some way off, but Joseph did not wait for the morning to come before he started to go there. It was still night, and the stars were shining down from the sky when the young Child, with Mary, His mother, began the journey, and fled away from the cruel purpose of the King. God watched over the young Child, and no one could hurt Him. There was another reason, too, why, when the Lord Jesus was so very young, He was taken to the land of Egypt. If you read the fifteenth verse again, you will find that reason plainly told. God’s prophet had said, long before this time, that God had called His Son out of Egypt; and all that God’s prophets have spoken must be fulfilled.
When was that word which the prophet Hosea had spoken brought to pass?
We do not know how long it was after the journey by night down into Egypt that God sent Joseph another dream. You may read in the twentieth verse the very words which he heard as he lay asleep in that strange country. An angel of the Lord said to him once more, “Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel; for they are dead which sought the young child’s life.”
Yes, the wicked king was dead. How dreadful to think that, though men called him Herod the Great, what God tells us about him is that he tried to kill His holy Child Jesus!
You have been reading how he tried to kill Him; how, that he might be quite sure of putting Him to death, he killed all the children in Bethlehem, from those who were infants in their mothers’ arms to those who were just able to run about, and call their parents’ names! The poor mothers loved their little children as much as your mothers love you, but they could do nothing to save them; they could only mourn and cry, and no one could comfort them, because their little boys were gone.
Where did Joseph and Mary intend to go, after the word of God’s prophet had come to pass, and His Son come back from Egypt?
The twenty-second verse tells us that he feared to go to Judaea, the country where Jerusalem is. Jerusalem was the royal city of King David, but Christ, the Son of David, did not go there. Herod’s son was king now; he was a cruel man, like his father, and Joseph was afraid of him. Perhaps he might not have known where God wished him to take the young Child and His mother, but once again God told him in a dream just what to do. Joseph was to take Christ, the Son of David to Galilee. Ask someone to show you this country on the map, and then see whether you cannot find for yourself the town of Nazareth.
I am sure you can find it, and you will not forget the name of the place where the Lord Jesus had His home when He was a child. Nazareth is not spoken of once in the Old Testament. The name of the town means a branch, and it was not at all a grand place, but lay far away among the hills, which are green in spring time, with soft grass full of sweet and gay flowers. You remember that this was the town where Joseph and Mary lived before they went to Bethlehem. They came back now to their old home, and the holy Child grew up in a place which was thought so little of that a man of Galilee once wondered that “any good thing” could come from it. It was three days’ journey from Jerusalem, and the poor people who lived there did not even speak so correctly as the people of Judæa.
But it was not because it was Mary’s home that they went to live at this poor place. Look once again at the last words you read, and you will see that the reason is given: “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”
Here we find another name given to the Lord Jesus; not “Emmanuel,” God with us; not “Jesus,” Jehovah, the Saviour; not “Son of David;” but “Nazarene.”
No prophet had spoken exactly these words about Christ: “He shall be called a Nazarene,” but more than one had said He should be despised and thought nothing of, and this is just what the name means. The blessed Son of God grew up in this world a poor Man, among poor people, in a place which everyone despised. He was despised and rejected of men.