Transcript

The full Christmas story is more than a quiet nativity scene with starlight, shepherds, animals, and a manger. It also includes a raving-mad ruler, a fugitive family, and thousands of slaughtered babies.

We tend to avoid this part of the story of the Lord’s entering this world, because it’s violent, sad, and tragic. It goes against the way we want the Christmas story to be.

The Bible, however, is always truthful. When it tells the story of Christ’s birth, it tells the whole story of what really happened and includes Herod’s jealous hatred and the atrocity of killing little children.

Christ did not come into a G-rated world. He came into the real world of sin, darkness, and unrelenting evil. But Christ did not come into the world to avoid sin and death; He came to confront it by dying for our sins and abolishing death through His cross and resurrection.

Matthew 2:13-15: “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.

“When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And 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.”

The story before us begs for context. When the wise men from the East arrived in Jerusalem, they went around Jerusalem asking, “Where is He that is born King of the Jews?” (2:2).

When Herod “the Great,” the paranoid ruler over Israel at that time, caught wind of this, he was greatly troubled.

After all, he believed himself to be king over the Jews. Herod therefore demanded of the chief priests and scribes to tell him where the King, the Messiah, was to be born. They answered him: Bethlehem of Judea, according to Micah 5:2.

Herod subsequently met with the wise men in secret and asked them to tell him exactly when they had first seen the star. Based on the ages of the young boys slaughtered in Bethlehem, we know their answer was sometime in the two years previous.

Herod then told them to go to Bethlehem to search for the Messiah and bring back word of His exact location so that he, Herod, might come and worship Him too. Of course, this was a lie.

Herod employed all possible means to obtain accurate information about this young Child: the time of His birth, the place where He would be born, and His exact location. All of this was so that Herod might be led right to Him and be sure of killing this threat to his throne.

From the beginning of His earthly life, the threat of death hung over our Lord. Satan sought to destroy Him from the very time of His birth and used Herod to do so.

As the wise men headed for Bethlehem after leaving Herod and Jerusalem, the star that appeared at Christ’s birth about two years earlier reappeared. It led them to Joseph and Mary’s house (Matt. 2:9-11).

After worshipping the young Christ and presenting Him their gifts, the wise men were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod as commanded.

They obeyed the warning of the dream and returned to their home in the east without reporting back to Herod in Jerusalem (2:12).

So the words “when they were departed” in verse 13 refers to when the wise men departed from Joseph and Mary’s house. Joseph and Mary’s joy, wonder, and excitement from the magi’s visit was cut short by a divine message to Joseph.

Either that same night or shortly thereafter, as Joseph was sleeping, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, telling him to “Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into Egypt,” and stay in Egypt with Mary and the Child until the angel brought him word.

The angelic being explained that the reason for the sudden warning was that Herod was going to search for the young Child to destroy Him.

Herod’s threat was no surprise and no problem for God. God’s plan had been in His mind from eternity past. And no human plot can ever stop a divine plan. We see God’s plan spelled out by the angel.

The first word of the angelic warning was “Arise!” There was no time for delay. In obedience to the angel’s warning, verse 14 records that Joseph “arose” and got up in the middle of the night.

We can imagine Joseph waking Mary, and then both of them scrambling around their home trying to decide what was essential to take and what could be left behind.

“Flee” (v. 13) means to seek safety by flight, to escape safely out of danger. And the Greek word is in the present imperative meaning that it is to be continued. We might paraphrase it, “Flee, and don’t stop moving, until you get to Egypt.”

Because of the immediate danger, Joseph took Jesus and Mary and left “by night,” that same night, and “departed into Egypt” under cover of darkness, making their way south.

So in verse 13, the Magi “departed” for the East, and in verse 14, this young family “departed” south for Egypt.

The flight into Egypt was not an easy trip. It was 300 miles or more. Their method of travel was not like our modern means of travel whereby we can knock out 300 miles in a day without a problem.

Traveling by foot or by donkey, it would have taken a while to get there. In His providential care for His Son, God provided the treasures received through the magi to pay this young family’s expenses for traveling to Egypt and living there.

We know little of their stay in Egypt. We don’t know how long they stayed nor where. Historical records tell us that there was a Jewish population in and around Alexandria, Egypt at that time.

For example, in the Book of Acts, we learn that, some 35 years after the birth of Christ, there was a “Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria” (Acts 18:24).

Fellow Jews in Alexandria likely would have welcomed this family, so it’s possible they stayed in Alexandria, but we don’t know for certain.

Matthew 2:16-18: “Then 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 enquired of the wise men.

Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In 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.”

Herod has been referred to as the “Jewish Nero” because of his jealousy for power and uncontrollable suspicion of everyone in his life. He married nine times, killing his first wife and one of his brothers-in-law.

In guarding his position as king of the Jews, he did not hesitate to execute at least three of his own sons whom he suspected of plotting against him, as well as 300 military leaders.

The Roman Emperor Augustus has been quoted as saying that it was better to be Herod’s pig than his son, for his pig had a better chance of surviving.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, called Herod “A man…of great barbarity towards all men equally.” He was a dangerous, evil man.

The wise men’s decision to return home without reporting the young King’s exact location infuriated Herod. As soon as he learned that the wise men had not complied with his request, his murderous heart was stirred.

He put into action a plan to kill all the male children in Bethlehem, ages two and under. Herod knew that the Christ had been born in Bethlehem and assumed He was still living there.

Herod had no idea which of the young boys in Bethlehem was the One, so in senseless rage, to make sure of killing Him, Herod handed down a death sentence to all of them: “all the children that were in Bethlehem…from two years old and under” (v. 16).

Not only was this done in Bethlehem, but also “in all the coasts thereof,” or in the area around it, so it was Bethlehem and beyond. The soldiers were dispatched.

The deed was done. This was a crime so unspeakable and heinous that historians have given it a name: the massacre of the innocents. The details are hard even to contemplate, much less to describe.

Author and speaker Philip Yancey writes the following: “…after Christmas, I accepted perhaps the hardest assignment of all—not in terms of quantity of suffering (can it ever be quantified?) but in the sheer intensity of horror.

“I addressed the New England town of Newtown, Connecticut, a community reeling from the murder of 20 schoolchildren and 6 teachers and staff just days prior.

An ambulance driver captured the mood in Newtown well. ‘All of us on the fire and ambulance corps are volunteers,’ he told me. ‘We don’t train for something like this—nobody does. And my wife is a teacher at Sandy Hook.

‘She knew all 20 children by name as well as the staff. After hiding out during the carnage, she had to walk past the bodies of her colleagues in the hallway.’

“He paused to control his voice, then continued: ‘Everyone experiences grief—in the worst case the terrible grief of losing a child. Usually, though, you bear grief as if in a bubble. You go to the grocery store. You go back to work.

Eventually that outer world takes over more of you, and the grief begins to shrink. Here in Newtown, we go to the store and see memorials to the victims. We walk down the street and see markers on the porches of those who lost a child.

It’s like a bell jar has been placed over the town, with all the oxygen pumped out. We can’t breathe for the grief.’”

The grief of the parents, family members, and residents of Bethlehem would have been much the same. Very few think of Bethlehem as a burial place.

They think of it as a birthplace. But the biblical account reminds us of the whole story. The Newtown shooting and this massacre of the innocents remind us of the desperate wickedness of man’s heart (Jer. 17:9) and the cruel, sin-cursed world of pain, grief, and sorrow that the Savior entered in order to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

It reminds us of the love of Christ, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world” (Gal. 1:4). The One born in Bethlehem’s manger is the world’s hope. He is One who came to defeat sin by His Cross. In Him, we find hope and light in the midst of the world’s evils and darkness.

This account also reminds us of the spiritual battle behind the scenes. Satan was a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), and we see his influence here in his first attempt to kill the Messiah.

Herod’s chilling crime and the weeping which followed were a fulfillment of the words of Jeremiah the prophet:

Jeremiah 31:15 reads, “Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel [Rachel] weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.”

Ramah was the staging area for the Jews to be carried away captive to Babylon in 586 B.C. As a result of their disobedience and idolatry, God permitted His people to be conquered by the Babylonians.

The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, the land pillaged and burned, and practically the entire population was carried off into exile.

Ramah is the place where King Nebuchadnezzar’s soldiers organized the Jews into caravans, put them in chains, and marched them off to Babylon (Jer. 40:1).

Because Rachel died near Bethlehem after giving birth to Benjamin (Gen. 35:16-19), Jeremiah refers to Rachel, representing the mothers of Israel, weeping as they saw their sons going into captivity, refusing to be comforted because their grief was so great.

Israel’s mourning at the time of the captivity is correlated to the weeping brought on by Herod.

The wailing that came from the mourning at the captivity prefigured the wailing of the mothers at Herod’s massacre, mothers who also, as would be expected, refused to be comforted because their grief was so great in losing their little boys.

Matthew 2:19-23: “But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, 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.

And he arose, and took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea 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: And 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.”

Joseph, Mary, and the young Jesus stayed in Egypt until the death of Herod. As the angel had promised, he let Joseph know when it was safe for them to return. With the death of Herod, the coast was now clear to return to Israel.

The angel assured Joseph of this in a dream, and like the previous dream, the angel told him to “Arise” when it was time to leave.

We can’t say for certain how long they were in Egypt, but the Lord was still a “young Child” when they came back, so they weren’t there very long.

Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in verse 15 Matthew wrote that the return to Israel from Egypt was fulfillment of Hosea 11:1: “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.”

Thus, this prophecy, given hundreds of years earlier, became clothed with new meaning. In its original context, the prophecy referred to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt at the time of the Exodus.

But Matthew revealed its twofold interpretation and meaning, as the prophecy was fulfilled ultimately in the life of Christ by His return to Israel from Egypt.

As if to retrace the steps of the Exodus, Christ left Egypt for the land that God promised to Israel. It is impossible to fail to notice the parallel between Christ and Moses.

Both Moses and Christ came out of Egypt, and God protected both of His chosen deliverers under similar circumstances. About 1400 years before Christ, there was an evil ruler, Pharaoh, who ordered the death of Israelite baby boys (Ex. 1:22).

But God protected a little baby, Moses, who would escape that attempted genocide and deliver the nation. At the time of Herod, the baby who would deliver the nation was Jesus Christ.

In a twist, Moses was hidden from the Egyptians by the Jews, whereas the Lord was hidden from the Jews by the Egyptians.

As Israel’s deliverer, Moses had a great mission to lead the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt and bring them to the Promised Land.

As Israel’s deliverer, Jesus Christ had an even greater mission in front of Him: to lead Israel out of bondage to sin and death, by His Cross and resurrection, and He will also one day lead Israel into the Promised Land of His earthly Kingdom.

On the return trip, when Joseph, Mary, and the young Jesus reached the land of Israel, Joseph heard that Herod’s son Archelaus had succeeded his father as ruler over Judea. Thus, Joseph was reluctant to venture any farther.

History records that Archelaus was as wicked and brutal as his father. He was so brutal that he was deposed by Rome after a short reign and replaced with a governor appointed by Rome. And later Pontius Pilate was appointed to this same position.

Discovering Archelaus was ruling over Judea, Joseph knew that he, Mary, and the Christ Child were no safer under Archelaus than they had been under Herod the Great. Common sense told them to be careful and to wait.

Joseph’s fears were confirmed by God in a dream, and God warned him to divert his path and go to Galilee. Thus, Joseph took his wife and God’s Son and traveled north to Nazareth in Galilee. The Lord grew up in Nazareth and became identified with that city, as in Scripture our Savior is often called “Jesus of Nazareth.”

A missionary once arrived in a small Chinese town just after a gang of bandits had destroyed the little town and everything in it.

A native Christian showed the missionary the ruins of his home, showing her how they burned everything and turned all his belongings to ashes.

Then, what was the last straw, the native Christian pointed to his burnt hymnbook and Bible. He said, “They even burned my Bible and my hymnbook!”

From those ruins, the native picked a single page of his Chinese hymnbook that had escaped the flames.

The missionary took the piece of paper and it read “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” “What an apparent contradiction,” said the missionary, “a note of joy in the midst of total destruction.”

But the missionary went on to say, that if you could have gone to that little chapel and seen the light on the faces of those native Christians that evening and heard how they sang that hymn to God.

Those who had lost nearly everything still praised God and spoke of the home that Jesus has prepared for those who love Him and have trusted Him. “Yes,” the missionary claimed, “There is joy to the world, but only because the Lord is come!”

We rejoice each Christmas season to be reminded that Christ came willingly to this earth to be obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8), in order to save sinners.

Coming to this dark and dangerous world of destruction and death, Christ demonstrated His perfect love and the infinite value He places on each person’s life.

The wickedness we see in this account, and that we see incessantly in the world today, reminds us how desperately the world needs Christ and His saving gospel of grace.

And that gospel is to simply trust that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again, and we are saved by God’s grace through our faith.

The Salvation Army bell-ringers we see around us at Christmas time should remind us how the Church needs to be God’s salvation army and take Christ’s good news to the unbelieving so that souls might be saved, that hearts might be won, that Christ might transform lives, and that God might be glorified.

This is the answer to the world’s wickedness. Christ is the Answer. Christ is always the Answer.