Through many dangers, toils, and snares – Matthew 2:13-23
We
are all familiar with the hymn “Amazing Grace” by John Newton. In the third verse, Newton writes,
Through many dangers,
toils, and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace hath
brought me safe thus far
And grace will bring me home.
Newton
was not simply being poetic when he penned these lines. His journey to faith was fraught with peril
and several near-death experiences. Though
raised in a Christian home, he later renounced religion for free thinking and a
debauched lifestyle. Going to sea, he
became known for his wickedness among men who were not known for their
goodness. He was kicked off his ship for
insubordination, and enslaved by slavers in Africa with little hope of escaping
and little sympathy from his overlords.
When he was rescued, the ship that brought him home was nearly
shipwrecked and he nearly drowned. Yet
through this all, God brought this “African blasphemer” – as he later called
himself – to faith in Christ and to a life of ministry in the gospel.
God
could have saved Newton at an early age and spared him most of his
troubles. Instead, it was “through many
dangers, toils, and snares.” For reasons
ultimately known only to God, Newton was not truly converted until much later
in life when, in a desperate storm at sea, he cried out to God for the first
time in sincere prayer.
Though
it is stupid to think that we can discern all the details of God’s eternal plan
with respect to particular people and events, yet a few things are clear. God did
save John Newton, and the fact that he saved him when he did is a demonstration
that the vilest of men are not beyond the reach of the grace of God. Like Paul.
He wrote to Timothy that this is one of the reasons God saved him when
he did: “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost,
Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were
to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16).
Though
it is always wrong to ascribe sin to God, as if he caused the sins of Newton in
order to put his grace on display, yet Scripture is clear that God certainly
allows bad things to happen within the limits of his sovereign rule over his
universe. And he does so ultimately to
show us his glory – the glory of his grace, his justice, his power, his
love.
What
that means for those of us who believe is that we should not despair when bad
things happen to us or to those we love.
Why should we despair if God is in control and if all that is happening
is happening according to his wise and good and holy plan? Why should we fear when all things work together for the good of those who love God (Rom.
8:28)? God is not just at the beginning
and the end; he is with us in the middle, too.
He is with us in the “dangers, toils, and snares” that we endure before
God by his grace brings us home. They
don’t take him by surprise: “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful
Creator while doing good” (1 Pet. 4:19).
The
bottom line is that God will save his people because nothing can happen to them
that is outside his sovereign plan. And
yet that doesn’t mean that God will always save us from trouble. Sometimes –
many times (most times?) – he saves us through
troubles, troubles that in the end deepen our faith and love for Christ,
strengthen the graces of humility, patience, endurance, and magnify the
greatness of God’s salvation toward broken people in a broken world.
Of
course, the reason we are saved has nothing to do with our goodness or strength
or endurance. We are saved because of
Christ, because of his goodness for us and strength for us and endurance for
us. Our hope that God will bring us
safely through dangers is reliable because God first brought his Son safely through
dangers on our behalf. On the other
hand, because God rescued his Son, we can be confident that he will rescue
those who belong to him.
Which
brings us to our text. This text is all
about God bringing his Son through danger.
When we last left off, the Magi had just departed Bethlehem, being
warned in a dream not to return to Herod in Jerusalem. Now Herod’s wrath will descend upon Bethlehem
as he seeks to destroy Christ. Therefore,
Joseph is warned in a dream that he will have to take his wife and Jesus out of
the country for a time, to Egypt, where they will live until Herod dies and the
danger passes. As Joseph returns to
Judea after Herod’s death (again prompted by a dream), he discovers that his
cruel son Archelaus is ruling in his stead and so instead of settling in
Bethlehem he returns to his hometown of Nazareth (in obedience to a warning in
the final dream of this narrative).
This
text highlights the truths we have been introducing this morning. It highlights the protection God gives his
Son in the face of peril and threats to his life from cruel men. Through dangers God saves his Son in
accordance with his plan. We see this in
the three distressing events that unfold in the narrative, in the three dreams
revealed to Joseph, and in the three Scriptures fulfilled by these events.
Through Dangers: Three Distressing Events
God
does not save us from trials, and we know that because he didn’t save his own
Son from trials. If we claim to follow
Christ, we must follow him through any suffering we are called to go
through. Trials will come. They came for Christ at the very outset of
his life here on earth and followed him all his life to the cross. We see the beginning of them here in the
three events that Matthew records.
The
first event that unfolds in this part of the narrative is the flight of Joseph,
Mary, and the Child to Egypt (2:13-15). Commentators
on this text note that this was the reasonable choice, because it was a
well-ordered Roman province, it was outside of Herod’s jurisdiction, and it was
relatively nearby (roughly 75 miles away).
It was a safe place. Moreover,
this was where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob went in the hard times.
However,
though Egypt was perhaps the best choice among other alternatives, it still
must have been difficult to move the family there. The fact of the matter is that they were
refugees. This was no vacation, nor was
it a pleasant sabbatical for Joseph from the carpenter’s bench. In fact, though the Magi lavished expensive
gifts upon the family (2:11), we know that later in life Jesus was very poor:
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head” (8:20). Where
did all this wealth go? Most likely, it
was spent in these early years to finance the family while in exile.
It
must have been especially hard on Joseph and Mary. They were far from their hometown Nazareth. Especially since they didn’t stay in Egypt
that long (Herod probably died no more than one or two years later), they
didn’t have time to lay down roots. They
were strangers in a strange land. There
were probably no family, little ability to communicate with loved one back
home, and no knowledge of how long they would be there.
Place
is important, a feeling of belonging is important, and every time we are
uprooted from our home and family and move to a place where we are strangers we
feel how important it is to belong, to have a home. It is not easy being strangers and pilgrims
in this world. But that is often what
God calls his people to be. And it is
what God called Joseph and Mary to be, at least for a time.
The
second event in the narrative is the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem
(2:16-18). Just to be thorough, Herod
has all the male children in Bethlehem who were two and under killed. He was taking no chances, and so he orders
this terrible massacre.
Some
people think that Matthew just made this up in order to tie it to Jeremiah
31:15. However, this is very unlikely
for two reasons. First, this act of
brutality is completely compatible with what we know Herod was capable of at
this point in his reign. And though one
does not want to trivialize this terrible tragedy, the population of Bethlehem
was relatively small (from a few hundred to a thousand), so the number of children
killed would have been no more than 20 at most.
“It was a minor incident in a period full of atrocities, and the absence
of clearly independent accounts in secular history is not surprising.”[1] Second, those to whom Matthew was writing
would have been able to verify whether or not this story was true. But if in fact it was made up, then Matthew’s
argument falls to pieces. His whole
point is that this event fulfilled Scripture.
It would hardly convince anyone to argue that an imaginary event
fulfilled prophesy. Thus, this is not
just a made up story by Matthew, it is in fact history that he is recording.
Throughout
the whole of Jesus’ life, people are either trying (like the Magi) to crown him
or (like Herod) to kill him. Now his
parents have to get him out of the land for fear of his life.
Certainly,
this is one of those unspeakable tragedies.
One often wonders why people have to endure this kind of evil. And though Joseph and his family escaped,
others did not. How could God allow
such evil? Yet he did. On the one hand, we must firmly protest any
slight against God. He did not make
Herod kill those children. God is not
evil. God hated what Herod did. (And, according to Josephus, it seems that
his terrible death was a foretaste of God’s judgment upon him for such wicked
acts.) On the other hand, God could have
stopped it, and he didn’t for what must have been good and just reasons. And it is very arrogant for us to assume that
because we cannot see why a holy God
could allow such a thing, therefore that no good and just reason exists.
The
fact of the matter is, because of sin we live in a broken world. We cannot expect that, even though we are
among those upon whom God has set his saving love, we will not have to see or endure
some pretty hard stuff. Even though the
Son of God had come into the world, tragedies did not cease. That day is coming because of what Christ has
accomplished by his death, but for now we must endure in an evil world while we
hope for the age to come.
The
third event in this narrative is the return to Nazareth (2:19-23). Though Matthew does not tell us that Joseph
and Mary were originally from Nazareth, we do know this from Luke’s account
(Luke 1:26). However, it seems that
Joseph at first wanted to resettle in Bethlehem, but could not do so because
Herod’s son Archelaus was on his throne.
When Herod died, he gave Archelaus Judea, Samaria, and Idumea, while his
other sons (Herod Antipas and Herod Philip) got his other territories.[2] Unfortunately, Archelaus was brutal like his
father. Thus, when Joseph heard he was
ruling in his father’s place, he was understandably nervous. He opted to put his family back in the home
town of Nazareth. Though Archelaus was
deposed about ten years later (in A.D. 6) by the Romans and the southern part
of Palestine was ruled by a Roman procurator, by this time Joseph had already
settled north in Galilee.
This
may not seem like a bad thing, but settling in Nazareth when you could have
settled in Bethlehem (a mere 5 miles from Jerusalem) is like buying a house
near the dump when you could have lived in an upscale neighborhood. Evidently, Nazareth didn’t have a great
reputation. Years later, Nathanael would
say when he heard that Jesus was from this town, “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” (Jn. 1:46). Of course not.
Thus,
at the very beginning of his life, Jesus and his family are surrounded by
dangers, by tragedies, and by less than optimal choices. What is amazing about this, though, is that
Jesus chose this. He chose the poverty. He chose the dangers. He chose to endure the enmity and hatred of
wicked men. “For you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became
poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). We can endure the dangers now because we know
that by his poverty he has given us unspeakable wealth forever.
God Saves his Son: Three Dreams revealed to
Joseph
Herod
thought he had it figured out. He would
deceive the Wise Men into thinking he wanted to worship the King of the
Jews. But God intervenes by revealing
his secret plans, first to the Magi, then to Joseph (2:13,19,22). Herod’s plans come to naught because our God
is bigger than any earthly king.
Joseph
and his family didn’t just barely escape.
In some sense, they were never in danger at all. God was always one step ahead of the plans of
wicked men.
Often,
we are too ready to put stock in human technology, power, and wealth. We are liable to think that God’s cause
cannot go forward unless we can negotiate with the powers that be. But that is not necessary. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses,
but we will trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Ps. 20:7). No one – not even the powerful Herods of this
world – can close a door which God has opened.
This
is because God is sovereign. He is not
jockeying for the control of his universe.
“The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom
rules over all” (Ps 103:19). “The LORD
brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the
plans of his heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:10-11). He foresees all that will come to pass and
reveals it to whom he will, not because he is a good predictor, but because
nothing can happen that is outside of his sovereign plan. And in a very real sense, though Matthew
does not quote it, these events are fulfilling the words of Psalm 2:1-6:
Why do the nations rage
and the
peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set
themselves,
and the
rulers take counsel together,
against
the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds
apart
and
cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens
laughs;
the
Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them
in his wrath,
and
terrify them in his fury, saying,
“As for me, I have set my
King
on
Zion, my holy hill.”
And
those who belong to God’s Son can expect the same Fatherly care. This does not mean that God will rescue us
from every pain and trouble and care while here on earth. Jesus was not immune to suffering, and
neither should we expect to be. But it
does means that God will never leave or abandon his children and that they will
come through the trials on the other side as heirs of eternal life. As Paul put it to the Romans: “The Spirit
himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we
suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom.
8:16-17).
According to God’s Plan – Three Scriptures
Fulfilled
In
this part of the narrative, Matthew quotes three Old Testament prophesies that
were fulfilled by the events of the flight to Egypt, the slaughter of the
children, and the return to Nazareth. The
fact that these prophesies were made hundreds of years before demonstrate that
God is sovereign, as we have been saying.
They also demonstrate that Jesus is the Christ, the fulfillment of the
Old Testament hopes and the embodiment of all the typology embedded in the
Jewish religion.
The
first Old Testament prophesy mentioned by Matthew is found in Hosea 11:1, “Out
of Egypt I called my son.” Though Hosea
was primarily referring to the Exodus and the nation of Israel by “my son,” it
was not incorrect of Matthew to use this text to point to Christ. For just as the Exodus pointed to God’s
ultimate salvation of his people by the Messiah, even so the people of Israel
as God’s son pointed to the ultimate Son of God, the Messiah, who would effect
this salvation. Matthew thus shows us
that Christ not only fulfills specific prophesies, but that his life was in
some sense a recapitulation of the history of Israel (like the 40 days Jesus
spent in the wilderness recapitulated the history of Israel in the desert, cf.
chap. 4).
The
next prophesy that Matthew refers to is taken from Jeremiah 31:15 and is
applied to Herod’s massacre of the children in Bethlehem. In the immediate context of Jeremiah’s words,
the passage is a poetic reference to the land of Israel personified (by
“Rachel”) weeping for her children – the Israelites taken into captivity, first
by the Assyrians and then by the Babylonians.
Yet the overall context is one of hope.
This is the chapter where God reveals his New Covenant. The weeping will cease. The exiled ones will come home. And thus, again, in such a context it was
entirely appropriate to refer such a passage to Christ. The weeping that had characterized the people
of Israel since their captivity reaches its climax in the weeping over the
slain children in Bethlehem. But Christ
has come, and thus for God’s people this weeping will turn to rejoicing.
Even
so, such a prophesy teaches us that though we can expect weeping for the
present age, we can still have hope (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13). Christ has come; he has inaugurated a New
Covenant; he will bring his people home – a place where every tear will be
wiped away.
Finally,
Matthew writes with reference to the return to Nazareth, “so that what was
spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene”
(2:23). Many commentators have been
puzzled over this reference, because there is no passage in all the Old
Testament that refers to Nazareth, or to the fact that the Messiah would come
from this specific town in Galilee. However,
note that Matthew’s quotation formula is a bit different here. He does not refer to a specific prophesy, but
refers to “the prophets” in general.
This indicates that he did not have a specific text in mind; rather, he
is summarizing the teaching of many prophets.
But
what teaching is he summarizing? We have
already pointed out that Nazareth was not known for being a great place to call
home. To be from Nazareth was to place
yourself in the sights of the cynical and scornful. In other words, by sending his Son to
Nazareth, God was beginning to fulfill the myriad of prophesies that the
Messiah would have a lowly origin among his people. “Here Jesus grew up, not as ‘Jesus the
Bethlehemite,’ with its Davidic overtones, but as ‘Jesus the Nazarene,’ with
all the opprobrium of the sneer. When
Christians were referred to in Acts as the ‘Nazarene sect’ (24:5), the
expression was meant to hurt. . . . [Matthew] is not saying that a particular
OT prophet foretold that the Messiah would live in Nazareth; he is saying that
the OT prophets foretold that the Messiah would be despised (cf. Pss 22:6-8,
13; 69;8, 20-21; Isa 11:1; 49:7; 53:2-3, 8; Dan 9:26).”[3]
What
can we say to all this? Like Jesus, we
cannot expect to be exempt from hard choices and hard times. We can expect tears and tragedy. But we can know that God will save us because
we belong to his Son. God rescued his
Son, and he will rescue those who belong to him. He gives, not an easy time in this life, but
forgiveness of sins and the expectation of the enjoyment of eternal life in his
presence. And we can be confident in our
hope, not because we are worthy of God’s salvation but because God sees us in
Christ, who has been worthy for those who belong to him. And God is sovereign. His hand is not shortened, that he cannot
save. So let us not weep, as those who
have no hope. Instead, through the
tears, let us rejoice, for we are more than conquerors through Christ who loves
us.
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