Sound The Trumpet : Matthew 2:13-23 PT.2

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“Matthew 2:13-23 PT.2”
by Art Sadlier
June 20th, 2010

The Flight into Eygpt

We have looked at the reason for the flight, now we will look at;

The Instructions for the Flight

And 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. Verse 13

Satan is crafty, satan is powerful and satan is cunning and deceitful. Joseph was no match for satan and neither are you and I. However God knew what Satan was doing! In this situation God intervened, "Behold the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream saying..." This was no ordinary dream, this was evidently a semi-concious state in which there was a confrontation with an angel.

This kind of dream was unique to Bible periods of revelation. It was experienced by men like Daniel, Peter, Jacob, Joseph and Pharoah among others.

There is an element of mystery in scripture. Why God reveals Himself in so many different ways we are not certain. Why does God allow Satan to drive Joseph, Mary and Jesus down into Eygpt? The answer is only partially given in the fact that scripture says, out of Eygpt have I called My Son. Why does God tolerate Satan's attacks? There is great mystery about the conflict of the ages. There is a great mystery about evil.

Paul said, "For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way." Why did God allow sin in the first place? Why does God deal with it in the way He does? Why does God allow it to continue? We know some of the answers to those questions, but there is much we do not understand about the purposes of God! We do know that every evil thing in the universe will ultimately bring glory to God!

We know that the man in an eternal hell will bring glory to God, he will be to the glory of God's holiness and justice. The man in heaven for eternity will bring glory to the praise of God's mercy and grace.

The instructions were given to depart. "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt" Often throughout the troubled centuries the Jews found refuge in Egypt. At this time there were more than a million Jews in Alexandria. They had control over portions of the city, they would find a welcome sanctuary among fellow Jews.

The Duration

"And be thou there until I bring thee word." To be in the will of God is a wonderful thing! The enemies of God's children plot, scheme and rant and rave, but God's children are safe in the hollow of His hand when they are in His will.

We do not know how long they were in Egypt, except to know that they weren't there very long. Then the Lord just blew out the candle of Herod's life. Multitudes of men and women down thriugh the ages have defied God and persecuted His children. The question is where are they today? They are in hell and they are there forever!

Men like Hitler, Mussolini, Nero, Diacletian and many, many others. They have made the earth seem to shake with their hatred of God and His people, but they are in hell today! Christian do not fear the mighty of this world.

The Provision for the Flight

Where did they get the provisions for the journey? They were poor according to Mary's offering for her purification. (Luke 2:24) Matthew 2:11 tells us where the money came from, it came from the gifts of the wise men. I like that, God could have dropped it out of the sky, but He didn't! He moved upon the hearts of some men who loved Him. Latter, some wealthy women would seem to finance Christ's ministry. A rich man would give Him a grave!

All down through the church age God has been moving on the hearts of men and women to finance what He wants done! If we can discover what the Lord wants done, the Lord will move upon the hearts of His people to finance it.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13