And being divinely instructed in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.
The wise men had worshipped the child and given their gifts. Now God speaks to them in a dream — do not go back to Herod — and their road home changes.
The order of events matters. They gave their gifts and bowed first; God's direction came after. One writer sees the same pattern for believers today.
"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." This is all the Word has to say about how these strangers left. After their worship and their gifts, God's guidance instructs them. We have guidance too as believers, but ours comes through the Spirit in the Word.
Older translations read "divinely instructed" rather than "warned", which points to more than a caution. Notice too that this was not God's first approach to these men.
In a dream God instructs them not to return to Herod. Once again He meets them in their own particular way, and they go back by another road to the place they came from.
Jerusalem had a history of hearing from God. Something had changed.
God spoke to the wise men first by a star and then by a dream. To the religious men in Jerusalem He did not speak at all. Yet there had been days when the high priest among them had been in touch with God by means of the Urim and Thummim. Now God was silent to them.
This was not a one-off. One writer draws a general rule from it.
We will find this true in our own experience: when we act in simple obedience, we find everything we need. God always takes special care of those who are true to the light, however small that light may be. And nothing disgusts Him more than big claims about light in someone who has no heart for the true light, which is Christ.
Herod was waiting for the wise men to come back to him. One dream ended that.
God also sent word to these men from the east, and they went home by another way. So they defeated the plan of the treacherous heart and cruel mind of the Edomite king, even though he still slaughtered the innocent children.
Behind Herod's flattering words the commentators see a familiar pattern of evil, exposed the moment God's warning strips away the pretence.
The unbelief that refused God's word is now left to show how completely it lay under Satan's power. Satan shows himself, as he has from the beginning, first a liar and then a murderer. But God revealed Herod's purpose.
Their part in the story ends here. Look back over the chapter, though, and God's hand is on every move.
God's supernatural guidance beautifully marks every detail of this history in chapter 2. God warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod, so they took another route home. They made this great journey only for a brief sight of the young child born King of Israel. What a lesson for Jews in the land, who had no interest in seeing Him! But Scripture keeps the wisdom and faith of these wise men on record for ever!
- Guided. God's direction came after their worship, not before it. Believers get the same guidance today through the Spirit in the Word.
- Personal. A star drew them; a dream now warns them. God met them in a way that fitted them.
- Silent. The travellers got a star and a dream; the religious men of Jerusalem got nothing. Light obeyed brings more light; light only owned brings none.
- Defeated. One dream unravels Herod's whole scheme, exposing the liar who was already a murderer at heart.
- Remembered. They made a long journey for one brief sight of the child, and Scripture keeps their faith on record for ever.
Now, they having departed, behold, an angel of [the] Lord appears in a dream to Joseph, saying, Arise, take to [thee] the little child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee; for Herod will seek the little child to destroy it.
The wise men have just left when an angel wakes Joseph with an urgent order: get up and run. Why must the newborn King escape a king? And why does God save Him by flight, not by force?
Commentators trace the plot against a baby past Herod to an older enemy, whose methods have not changed.
The unbelief that refused the word of God is now allowed to show how completely it was under the power of Satan. He proves himself, as from the beginning, to be a liar first, then a murderer. But God revealed Herod's purpose; and Joseph, in obedience to His word, takes the young child and His mother by night and departs into Egypt.
Another writer names the devil behind Herod's cruelty, and says how the plan ended:
No doubt it was the devil who, knowing well Who it was that had been born, moved Herod to commit such an atrocity (Revelation 12:4). Its purpose fails.
God's purpose for Him and man's treatment of Him stand side by side.
God had appointed Him to be a King in Judea; man makes Him an exile in Egypt.
That refusal is not left in the past tense:
It is an intensely solemn fact that Christ is not wanted by the very people who need Him most, unless the Holy Spirit has raised the question of sin in their souls. At the very outset of His course He was rejected. That is why we read in the opening chapter of John's Gospel: "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him" (John 1:10-11).
The angel names the child before His mother. One writer treats that order as deliberate.
In the record inspired by the Holy Spirit, "the young child" always takes precedence over His mother. Five times in chapter 2 we read of "the young child and His mother," in striking contrast to that blasphemous system, Rome, which paints its pictures of "Madonna and Child." But if He had not been greater than the mother who bore Him, the Spirit of God would not have given Him this precedence. It was He who established the law that said, "Honor your father and your mother."
God warns Joseph, but He does not overpower Herod. The rescue comes through ordinary hardship.
How simple the story is here in Matthew. The child is dependent upon Joseph, who is now mentioned, and in poverty, under great danger, at night, they had to flee.
Egypt had a mixed record in Israel's history.
God would not use supernatural power to defeat Herod's wicked scheming. Instead He would do it through the humbling experience of Joseph and Mary fleeing to another country. It was lack of faith that led Abram to Egypt (Gen. 12:10), and stubborn rebellion against God's word that led the remnant of Judah there in Jeremiah's day (Jer. 43:1-7). But in Gen. 46:2-4 God told Jacob to go there, and here Joseph goes by the word of God. This is our one safe guide at all times.
Egypt is where Israel's story began. One writer sees Christ placed there to walk that road again without failing.
Just think: the Son of God came here to save man, yet He had to flee the land of His birth to escape man's murderous intent... Christ retraces in His own Person the pathway of Israel, and He begins that history in Egypt, out of which He comes when Herod was dead. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail.
The order comes with no return date — stay "until I tell you."
As Joseph began, so he continued. Look at the journey into Egypt with the young Child and His mother, their stay there, and their return to the land. In each we see the same simple obedience and trust. He did what he was told to do, never going ahead of the heavenly vision nor lagging behind it.
- Threat — Behind Herod stands Satan, "a liar first, then a murderer." He moved a king against a baby, and failed.
- Warning — God does not crush the plot with power. He speaks, and one dream to Joseph guards the Son of God.
- Word — Egypt meant unbelief for Abram and rebellion for Judah's remnant. It is safe here only because God said go. The word, not the place, is the guide.
- Precedence — Five times the chapter names the child before His mother. He is greater than the one who carried Him.
- Path — Called out of Egypt, He starts where Israel started. He walks the same road — Egypt, Jordan, wilderness — and never fails.
And, having arisen, he took to [him] the little child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt.
Herod plots against the newborn King. God answers with no thunder from heaven — only a father waking in the dark and starting the long road south. Why Egypt, of all places? And why does God shelter His Son as a refugee instead of striking the tyrant down?
The King of the Jews leaves the land of His birth because another man sits on the throne. The country that takes Him in is the one where Israel had once been slaves.
Christ Himself is carried into the very place that had been the furnace of Israel. There it is that He finds His refuge from the false king of Judea. What a picture! Because of the false king then reigning in Jerusalem, the true King must flee, and flee into Egypt.
Another writer states the same reversal plainly. God gave Him one place; men forced Him into another.
God had appointed Him to be a King in Judea; man makes Him an exile in Egypt.
In Scripture, going down to Egypt is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. What settles it here is that God directed it. One writer lines up the earlier journeys to Egypt to show the difference.
God would not use supernatural power to defeat Herod's wicked scheming. He would defeat it instead by the humbling experience of Joseph and Mary fleeing to another country. It was lack of faith that led Abram to Egypt (Gen. 12:10). It was stubborn rebellion against God's word that led the remnant of Judah there in Jeremiah's day (Jer. 43:1-7). But in Gen. 46:2-4 God told Jacob to go there, and here Joseph goes by the word of God. This is our one safe guide at all times.
Joseph hears the warning in a dream and acts the same night.
When he is warned of danger to the holy Child, he takes the Child and mother to Egypt at once. He shelters and protects them through the long, dangerous journeys. He puts all his own interests below their care and safety. It was a manly and honourable charge to protect a woman and child. When it involved great and unceasing danger, it was quite as honourable as leading the front of an army — though it may receive neither notice nor applause.
Both the angel's command and Joseph's action name the Child first and the mother second. One writer treats that sequence as deliberate.
Note how the angel too is careful to put the words in that special order. It emphasizes the wonder of our Lord's incarnation. By night Joseph took the young Child and His mother, and departed into Egypt.
Matthew tells the escape without any display of power. That plainness is the point.
How simple the story is here in Matthew. The child depends on Joseph, who is now mentioned. They were poor, in great danger, and had to flee at night. God could have transported His Son by a miracle. But the Son of God had become man, and now it was for Him to enter into all. He has to go the long, weary road.
Commentators differ on how to describe the move. Most call it a flight. One writer says it was "in no sense a flight", but the revealed will of God — a planned withdrawal from hostile power (J. A. Trench).
Egypt is where the nation's story began. Matthew shows Christ walking that same road. The next chapters keep the parallel going.
In the darkness of night, to avoid being seen, they set out for Egypt. But why Egypt? So that what the Lord had spoken by the prophet might be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I called my son." Christ retraces the pathway of Israel in His own Person. He begins that history in Egypt, and He comes out of it when Herod was dead. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail.
The reason such words can move from the nation to one Child is that the Spirit's subject throughout Scripture is Christ:
It matters not what may be the place of His people: in all their troubles or deliverances, Christ must enter into all… Christ goes through the history of His people, and on that principle such scriptures as these are applied to Him.
- Rejected — A false king pushes the true King out at His birth. God appointed Him to reign in Judea; man made Him an exile.
- Directed — Abram went to Egypt in unbelief, Judah's remnant in rebellion. Jacob went at God's word, and so does Joseph. The word of God makes the difference.
- Obeyed — Joseph rises the same night and asks nothing. Guarding the Child is as honourable as leading an army, and far less noticed.
- Humbled — God could have moved His Son by a miracle. Instead: a poor family, a dark road, real danger, and a Child depending on Joseph.
- Restarted — In Egypt, at the Jordan, in the wilderness, Christ walks Israel's whole path again. Where the nation failed, He did not.
And he was there until the death of Herod, that that might be fulfilled which was spoken by [the] Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
Matthew ends the flight into Egypt with a reason. The journey happened so that Hosea's words would come true. But Hosea wrote about the whole nation of Israel leaving Egypt. So why does Matthew apply his words to one child carried away by night?
Matthew does not just say the prophet's words came true. He names the One who spoke them. One commentator makes this point about the quotation in Matthew's first chapter, then points ahead to our verse.
Notice: it is not only that the prophet's saying was "fulfilled," which shows how divinely true it was. It was "spoken by the Lord." Could anything show more clearly that the prophet Isaiah spoke it by inspiration? In the next chapter we find the same expression (v. 15): "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet" — the prophet Hosea.
H. H. Snell (the ESV reads "what the Lord had spoken by the prophet")
God called Israel His son and His firstborn in Egypt. Matthew now gives that same title to Jesus.
It had been said that Israel was God's son, God's firstborn, in Egypt... How is it that God's taking Israel out of the land of Egypt should be so illustrated in Christ's history? Because Christ is the object of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. It does not matter what the situation of His people is: in all their troubles or deliverances, Christ must enter into all... Christ goes through the history of His people, and that is why scriptures like these apply to Him. Christ Himself is carried into the very place that had been Israel's furnace. There He finds His refuge from the false king of Judea. Because of that false king reigning in Jerusalem, the true King must flee into Egypt. Christ was the true Israel.
Is this only a resemblance between two stories? One writer says Matthew's wording rules that out.
And yet the application of the first verse to the Lord is no mere application... The way it is quoted is far too precise for that: the Lord goes down into Egypt definitely to fulfil what Hosea spoke. Clearly there is something deeper in the way of fulfilment here than we are used to. People often say this is an example of typical prophecy. But we must understand what we mean if we say that.
The route matters. Christ begins where Israel began, and He keeps walking the same ground they walked.
Christ retraces in His own Person the pathway of Israel, and He begins that history in Egypt, out of which He comes when Herod was dead. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail.
The contrast reaches back to the first man.
The first man in the garden of Eden had every sign of God's care around him, and he showed his perfect independence. The second Man in the wilderness, with no support at all, is perfect in dependence... They were in the wilderness; He was in the wilderness: only they broke down and failed everywhere — He was perfect in it all. Christ recovered everything for God and secured every blessing for His own.
The land that once cost God's people their lives now keeps God's Son alive.
But God works in His providential ways, and He is carrying out His purpose to deliver His people. So the very scene of forfeited life became the place where the deliverer of His people was sheltered and cared for... How powerless the enemy is! For all his boasted power and authority, he cannot frustrate God's kind intentions toward His people. The enemy is never so completely defeated as in the moment of apparent victory.
Christ does not just repeat Israel's story. He becomes the new starting point for a people who had failed.
Hosea's prophecy, "Out of Egypt I called my son", applies to this true beginning of Israel in grace, as the beloved of God, and according to God's counsels. The people had failed completely, so without this God must have cut them off... Christ is morally the new stock from which they spring.
- Called. The words come from the Lord Himself, speaking through Hosea. This is more than a prediction that came true.
- Carried. The child goes into the very land that was once Israel's furnace. There He finds shelter from the king who wanted Him dead.
- Retracing. Out of Egypt, then Jordan, then the wilderness — Christ walks the nation's whole route in His own Person.
- Contrast. Israel broke down at every stage of that road. He was perfect through it all, dependent where the first man was independent.
- Recommenced. The nation failed completely. So God starts its history again in His Son, the new stock from which blessing grows.
Then Herod, seeing that he had been mocked by the magi, was greatly enraged; and sent and slew all the boys which [were] in Bethlehem, and in all its borders, from two years and under, according to the time which he had accurately inquired from the magi.
The king who asked the wise men to find the child now kills every boy of that age. Why did God let the sword fall, and why did the decree reach so wide?
Herod's rage came from being outwitted. One writer weighs the pride of a man who was himself dying.
Herod, however, angry because the wise men did not return to him, gave orders for the murder of every boy up to two years of age in Bethlehem and the surrounding area... One might ask why he even included newborn babies. No doubt he was determined to allow no margin of error at all. How foolish, ignorant and empty is the enmity of man against God! History from that period also reports that Herod was a dying man at this time. Yet his self-centred pride could tolerate no thought of a rival, though only a child!
The age limit is not random. It reflects what Herod had learned earlier when he questioned the wise men about the star.
The king questioned the wise men closely, and from that he settled in his own mind when the Child must have been born. God warned them, so they kept away instead of returning to Herod. Then he sent out his cruel command: kill the children in Bethlehem and all the region around it, "two years old or under." He naturally concluded that a long stretch of time had passed between the birth of Christ and his wicked order.
Older versions read "coasts" where the ESV has "in all that region." One writer traces those borders.
Bethlehem belonged to the tribe of Judah, and Benjamin lay right next to it. A strip of land belonging to the tribe of Benjamin dipped down into the land of Judah. Herod was so determined to sweep the whole area clear that he killed the children not only in Bethlehem, but in "the region around it" — the parts of Benjamin just mentioned.
Herod's hand did the killing. One writer points to another will behind it, and to how fast Herod's own end came.
Herod's cruelty was calculated. By aiming his blow at the children he meant to put an end to the One who threatened his throne. No doubt the devil moved Herod to carry out such an atrocity, and the devil knew well who it was that had been born (Revelation 12:4). Its purpose fails. Joseph is warned of the danger and takes the young child and His mother and flees into Egypt. Still the blow falls, and who can tell the sorrow it must have brought? ... The very next verse in Matthew 2 records the death of Herod. He was soon called from his seat. He will stand before the great white throne for judgment, as Revelation 20:11-15 describes.
God did not shield His Son with a display of power. A warning and a road out were enough.
Herod had claimed to be a worshipper, yet his heart was full of enmity. It worked in him so strongly that after a time he issued a decree. He ordered all the children from two years old and under in the land of Israel to be killed, and he thought this would include the infant Saviour. However, he did not succeed... So God overrules man's wickedness to carry out His own purposes. If we do not see that, my Christian friends, we shall be at a loss to understand much of the Scriptures... Did He not do so at the cross? There man put to death the Son of His love, and God overruled that wickedness to carry out His own blessed purpose of eternal redemption.
The killing is the world's first reply to the newborn King. Herod holds a throne he will not surrender, whatever the cost to others.
Nothing can exceed the wickedness of Herod. He held the throne at Jerusalem at that time, and he will not part with it, even though another's claim is divine. If he can keep it, he will not give it up even to God Himself. That is the language of his actions. And like ruler, like people. Jerusalem is troubled at the word of the men of the East, just as Herod is. At his command, men stand ready to do the work of death... the children of Bethlehem shall die now, because David's Lord may be among them.
- Threatened. A king with a claim greater than his own drove Herod to fury; pride would not share a throne, even with an infant.
- Calculated. The two-year limit came from his own questions about the star. The reach into the countryside shows he meant to leave no gap.
- Directed. Writers see the devil behind the decree. Herod himself dies in the very next verse.
- Overruled. No miracle guarded the child. A warning and a journey were enough. God turns man's worst acts to His own ends, above all at the cross.
- Refused. Bethlehem's grief is the world's first answer to Christ. Herod defends his throne with blood instead of bowing to the true King.
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken through Jeremias the prophet, saying,
Matthew pauses the story of Herod's massacre and quotes the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote long before. The words he uses to introduce that quotation — "then was fulfilled" — are not the words he uses elsewhere, and that difference shapes how we read the verse.
Matthew has several ways of tying an event to a prophecy, and the Greek keeps them apart:
"In order that it might be" — hina (see Matt. 1:22); "so that it might be" — hupos (Matt. 2:23); and "then ... was fulfilled" — tote (Matt. 2:17) — are never confused in the quotations from the Old Testament. The first is the object of the prophecy. The second is not simply its object, but an event that fell within the scope and intention of the prophecy. The third is only a case in point, where what happened was an illustration of what the prophecy said.
Jeremiah wrote his lament long before Herod's day. Nobody would have expected those words here:
Nothing shows more clearly how Christ is always before the Holy Spirit than the way our inspired writer applies Jeremiah 31:15 here. A pagan, or certainly a Jew, might admire the picture for its beauty, its boldness, and its grandeur. But who except God would have thought just then of the mourning prophet's words? They brought His Son before Him in Herod the Edomite's slaughter of the babies of Bethlehem. Matthew does not say that this was the object of the prophecy, as he does in other cases.
Rachel was Jacob's wife, and she had died centuries earlier. Her name surfaces here because of where she was buried and which tribe held the land:
Why Rachel's voice? Bethlehem belonged to the tribe of Judah, but Benjamin was next to them; and you will remember Benjamin was Rachel's son. Bethlehem is first mentioned in connection with Rachel's death (Gen. 35:16-20), and her tomb was "in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah" (1 Sam. 10:2). This piece of land belonged to Benjamin, but it dipped down into the land of Judah. A little building marks the site of her tomb to this day, about a mile north of Bethlehem, on the main road from Jerusalem and Bethel. Herod was so determined to sweep the whole area clear that he killed the children not only in Bethlehem but in "all that region" — the parts of Benjamin just mentioned.
God guarded His Son without any display of power, and left Him among His people in their grief:
We see from this that God puts forth no miraculous power to preserve Emmanuel. It was carrying out the prophecies — filling in the picture of ruin, both moral and national, that the Holy Spirit had sketched long years before. God was showing how precious every footstep of His Son was to Him… Wherever Christ was, His place was with His people in their sorrow, and He will not let them feel a pang without sharing it. … If Christ has the smallest connection with Israel, they become the object of Satan's hatred. Herod, led on by Satan, gave the order to kill their little ones, but the Messiah is taken away from the scene of his rage.
Jeremiah 31 does not end in tears. The next verse promises reward and return — and Matthew stops before it:
It is beautiful to see that the Holy Spirit (Matt. 2:17-18) applies to that event the passage about sorrow but not the passage about joy. Here is what follows: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy" (verse 16).
The withheld half of the prophecy is not lost. Another writer sees it answered by the one Child Herod failed to kill:
When Bethlehem mourned the babies Herod had killed, it was as if Rachel were repeating her lament from her grave nearby. But Rachel must find comfort here too, in a deeper way than in the prophet. The One who had escaped would in time offer Himself freely. He would redeem the heirs of death from the power of the grave and bring them back to a better life.
- Then, not that. "Then was fulfilled" marks a case in point: the event illustrates the prophecy; it is not the prophecy's stated object.
- Seen. The Spirit reached for an old lament because Christ is always before Him. God did not overlook the grief of Bethlehem.
- Shared. No miracle shielded the Child from His people's sorrow. Where Christ touches His people, Satan rages — and Christ feels every pang with them.
- Withheld. The quotation stops at the weeping and passes over Jeremiah's promised reward and return.
- Answered. Comfort still comes through the one Child who escaped. He would give Himself to redeem the heirs of death from the grave.
A voice has been heard in Rama, weeping, and great lamentation Rachel weeping [for] her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
Matthew closes his account of Herod's slaughter at Bethlehem with a borrowed lament from Jeremiah. In it a mother of Israel, dead for centuries, weeps for children who are gone. Why does Matthew apply an old prophecy about exile to a massacre? And why does God allow such grief at all, when He has just rescued His own Son from it?
Matthew uses three different phrases when he quotes the Old Testament. Here he uses the loosest of them. One writer set out the difference:
Three phrases are never confused in the quotations of the Old Testament: "in order that it might be" (see Matt. 1:22); "so that it might be" (Matt. 2:23); and "then… was fulfilled" (Matt. 2:17). The first is the object of the prophecy. The second is not simply its object, but an event that fell within the scope and intention of the prophecy. The third is only a case in point, where what happened illustrated what the prophecy said.
Another writer draws out what that means for the scene itself:
The next quotation we find here is from Jeremiah, and it speaks of Rachel weeping over her dead. Matthew introduces it in a very different way — "then was fulfilled," not "that it might be." This is only an application. When Bethlehem mourned her babies slaughtered by Herod, it was then as if Rachel from her grave close by were repeating her lamentation.
Rachel died near Bethlehem, centuries before Herod's soldiers came.
Rachel had been dead for centuries and centuries. But the Spirit of God puts it in this remarkable way, as if her spirit had risen from the dead. This dreadful slaughter took so many of her own children, along with the murdered infants of the tribe of Judah. So Rachel's voice is lifted up in weeping, and her cries of sorrow reach even Ramah, the chief town of Benjamin… Bethlehem was the place where she died. Her children died there too, just because it was the spot where her Saviour and theirs was born.
There is a pattern in Rachel's family, and one writer reads the nation's whole story in it.
Like Jacob's, the nation's way to the glory runs through trial and trouble. The reference to Rachel's anguish shows this too (Jer. 31:15). "Benoni," the son of her sorrow, becomes "Benjamin," the son of the right hand. The nation's story is hidden like a riddle in the stories of Jacob, Rachel and her children.
Matthew stops the quotation before Jeremiah's answer to the weeping.
It is beautiful to see that the Holy Spirit (Matt. 2:17-18) applies to that event the passage about sorrow, but not the passage about joy. Here is what comes next in Jeremiah: "Thus says the LORD: 'Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy'" (verse 16).
The rest of Jeremiah's words were still there for the mothers who mourned.
But there was bitter sorrow for the mothers of Bethlehem… What comfort they would have found, if only they had turned to the Scripture that spoke of their sorrow! There we read: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you… There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country" (Jer. 31).
A deeper comfort rests on the Child who escaped.
But Rachel must be comforted here also, in a deeper way than in Jeremiah. The One who escaped would later freely offer Himself, to redeem people from the power of the grave and bring the heirs of death back to a better life.
Herod struck at the children. Another hand moved him.
No doubt it was the devil who, knowing well Who had been born, moved Herod to commit such an atrocity (Revelation 12:4). Its purpose fails… Yet the blow falls, and who can tell the sorrow it must have caused?
The sorrow did not stop at Bethlehem.
The wicked deed is only a beginning of the sorrows of Israel, because they rejected the King… The worst is still to come, in the time of Jacob's trouble, when the false Messiah will be like Herod, shedding their blood… What greater crying and lamentation there will be in the land in the future!
- Applied, not predicted. "Then was fulfilled" marks a case in point — an old lament fitting a new grief — not a prophecy aimed at this event.
- A voice from the grave. Rachel lies buried near Bethlehem. Her weeping sounds in the place where her Saviour was born and her children died.
- Sorrow named, then renamed. She called her baby "son of my sorrow"; his father called him "son of the right hand." The nation's road to glory runs through trouble.
- Half a verse quoted. Matthew takes Jeremiah's weeping and leaves out his joy. The comfort still stands in the next verse, waiting to be read.
- A beginning, not an end. The devil moved Herod, and the blow missed the Child. He escaped death then, to offer Himself later — and Israel's greater sorrows still lie ahead.
But Herod having died, behold, an angel of [the] Lord appears in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying,
Joseph had taken the Child and His mother to Egypt to escape a king who wanted Him dead. Now word comes that the danger is over. The verse turns on two small facts: a king dies, and God speaks. Commentators see in that pair how easily God deals with those who fight Him, and how surely He guides those who obey Him.
Herod was not fighting Joseph. He was fighting God. One writer shows how quickly that ended.
Herod, however, was fighting against God, who defeated his purpose by sending His angel to Joseph in a dream for the second time... God frustrated Herod's wicked plan with ease, and not long after He dealt with Herod himself just as easily. Matthew does not waste words on his end. He simply tells us that "when Herod died," the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream for the third time. The angel told him to return to the land, because death had removed the would-be murderer.
Herod was no son of Israel. One writer traces his line, and the old hatred that ran in it.
He was an Idumean, a descendant of Edom — that is, of Esau. Esau struggled against Israel before they were born, and tried to kill him when they were grown men. Esau's descendants tried to stop the march of the Israelites through the wilderness, and attacked them again and again in the land. Now they were making a last desperate effort to destroy the Messiah, the true Israel. This Herod ordered the murder of his own wives and sons. He planned a general massacre of the nobles "to make the people mourn," and he slaughtered the poor little infants of Bethlehem. All the while he advertised his piety and patriotism by making the people build the most splendid temple in the world.
He kept killing to the end, and named his heir with his last breath.
He died under the unmistakable judgment of God, like his grandson Herod Agrippa. As he lay dying, he raised himself up in his bed. He gave the order for the execution of Antipater, named Archelaus as his successor to the throne, then fell back and died.
The angel comes to Joseph, not to Mary. One writer shows what hung on Joseph's legal place in the family.
Notice that only Matthew records the appearances of Jehovah's angel to Joseph (Matthew 1:20; Matthew 2:19). In Luke 1:26-38 God sent the angel Gabriel not to Joseph but to Mary... Joseph's legal position as His reputed father was far from unimportant. Until Joseph passed away, no one could view Him beyond dispute as the promised Son and Heir of David's throne.
Egypt was not a detour. One writer sees the Lord walking Israel's own road again, stage by stage.
Christ retraces in His own Person the pathway of Israel, and He begins that history in Egypt, out of which He comes when Herod was dead. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail. In all this pathway of Jesus you are on truly historic ground.
Herod dies; the angel speaks; Joseph moves. One writer points to the hand behind that order.
But he dies, called away to face the righteous judgment seat of the God he has defied. Then once more an angel directs Joseph to return to Israel. The calm, measured control of God's hand shows beautifully in every step.
Not everyone who went down to Egypt went at God's bidding. The same writer sets three earlier journeys beside Joseph's.
Lack of faith led Abram to Egypt (Genesis 12:10). Stubborn rebellion against God's word led the remnant of Judah there in Jeremiah's day (Jeremiah 43:1-7). But in Genesis 46:2-4 God told Jacob to go there, and here Joseph goes by the word of God. This is our one safe guide at all times.
- Threat. Herod came from Edom's line. One writer calls his attack on the Messiah the last desperate move in a family feud that goes back to Esau.
- Removal. God broke Herod's plan with ease, and dealt with Herod himself just as easily. Matthew gives his end in a phrase: "when Herod died."
- Word. With the threat gone, the angel speaks a third time — and speaks to Joseph. Joseph's legal fatherhood secured the Child's claim to David's throne.
- Path. Herod's death brings the Lord up out of Egypt. There He starts retracing Israel's history — Egypt, Jordan, wilderness — and does not fail where Israel failed.
- Guide. Abram went to Egypt through lack of faith, and Judah's remnant through rebellion. Joseph moves only at God's word — the one safe guide at all times.
Arise, take to [thee] the little child and its mother, and go into the land of Israel for they who sought the life of the little child are dead.
God's word to Joseph in Egypt does more than clear the way home: the men who wanted the Child dead are gone, and the Child lives. Three questions follow — how God guards His Son, why the angel words the message this way, and what "the land of Israel" means while foreign rulers hold the country.
Herod plotted to destroy one Child, and God stopped him. Matthew spends only a few words on the death of the king who filled the earlier verses with fear.
Herod, however, was fighting against God, who defeated his purpose by sending His angel to Joseph in a dream for the second time. How easily God frustrated Herod's wicked design! And just as easily, not long after, He dealt with Herod himself. Matthew does not waste words in describing his end. He simply tells us that "when Herod died," the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream for the third time. The angel told him to return to the land, for death had removed the would-be murderer.
The angel speaks of "those who sought the child's life," in the plural. God had used almost the same words once before, when He sent Moses back to Egypt.
Moses now returns to ask permission to go back into Egypt, and God had prepared the way. The Lord watches over His servant. He notes the feelings of his heart. He even anticipates his fears by saying, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead." (Compare Matt. 2:20.)
The angel does not name the country the way people around them named it. Kelly shows how much that title carries.
It is sweet to find the words "the land of Israel" here. It was not just the country as people knew it, where poor Jews lived by the permission of their Gentile rulers. How few look on it as "the land of Israel" now! But God's thoughts are toward His people in connection with the glory of His Son. If Jesus had His earthly link there, if Emmanuel had now been born of the virgin, why not call it the land of Israel? God's purpose was to drive out completely the Gentile power that was now trampling it down.
The call home is also a call out of Egypt. Jesus walks His people's road in His own Person, and here He leaves Egypt as they did.
Christ retraces the pathway of Israel in His own Person. He begins that history in Egypt, and He comes out of it when Herod died. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail. In all this pathway of Jesus you are on truly historic ground. He was the true Israel.
The angel names the Child before His mother, and Joseph keeps that order when he obeys. Commentators treat this as deliberate, and trace God's calm hand through each step.
God's calm, measured control shows beautifully in every step. So Joseph takes the young child and his mother (notice that the child is again mentioned first), and returns to the land.
That order is not a small detail.
Does not inspiration shine brightly on the sacred page? Is it not beautiful to see the careful way in which Scripture guards the honour of Jesus? Here we see the reverence of heaven's messengers. We also see the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the sacred record, and that is so very striking.
Joseph waits in Egypt until the word comes, then moves the moment it does.
He did what he was told to do. He never ran ahead of the heavenly vision, and he never lagged behind it. So he fulfilled his great mission, and he glorified God and justified Him in His choice and training of him.
- Dead. The men who hunted the Child are in the grave; the Child they hunted is on His way home. God dealt with Herod as easily as He had defeated his plan.
- Called. The same words once sent Moses back to Egypt. Here they call the Son out of it, so He walks Israel's road as the true Israel who does not fail.
- Land. God sends Joseph not to a country named by its rulers but to "the land of Israel." He names it by His promise, not by who occupies it.
- Guarded. In the angel's word and in Joseph's act, the Child comes before His mother. Scripture's careful order guards the honour of Jesus.
- Obeyed. Joseph neither runs ahead of the word nor drags behind it — at every step his guide is what God has said.
And he arose and took to [him] the little child and its mother, and came into the land of Israel;
Herod is dead, and the same angel who sent the family into Egypt now sends them back. It is one short line of obedience, but it carries the promised King home — and it raises the question of what welcome waits for Him.
The verse records no debate and no delay. Joseph hears the word and moves, as he had from the first.
As Joseph began, so he continued. Consider the carrying of the Young Child and His mother into Egypt, their stay there, and their return to the land. In each we see the same simple obedience and trust. He did what he was told to do. He never went ahead of the heavenly vision, and he never lagged behind it. So he fulfilled his great mission, and he glorified and justified God in His choice and training of him.
The angel names the Child before His mother. Joseph keeps the same order when he obeys.
Note how the angel, too, is careful to put the words in that special order. It emphasises the wonder of our Lord's incarnation. By night Joseph took the young Child and His mother, and departed into Egypt.
Matthew does not say Judea or Galilee. He uses the name that ties the country to God's own people and His promises. It fits, because the King has come.
It is sweet to find "the land of Israel" occurring here. It was not just the country as men knew it, a place where poor Jews lived by permission of their Gentile masters. How few look on it as "the land of Israel" now! But God's thoughts are toward His people in connection with the glory of His Son. If Jesus had His earthly tie there, if Emmanuel was now born of the virgin, then why not call it the land of Israel? God's purpose was to drive out completely the Gentile foot that was now treading it down.
The journey out of Egypt is more than an escape reversed. Writers see a whole nation's history repeated in one Person.
Christ retraces in His own Person the pathway of Israel. He begins that history in Egypt, and He comes out of it when Herod died. You then find Him at the Jordan, which Israel also crossed. And in the fourth chapter of Matthew we find Him in the wilderness, where Israel utterly failed, but He did not fail. In all this pathway of Jesus you are on truly historic ground. He was the true Israel.
The reason the family can return is that the men who wanted the Child dead are gone. God never had to struggle with Herod.
How easily God defeated Herod's wicked plan! And just as easily, not long after, He dealt with Herod himself. Matthew does not waste words in describing his end. He simply tells us that "when Herod died," the angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream for the third time. The angel told him to return to the land, for death had removed the would-be murderer.
One steady hand runs through each move of the family — the going, the staying, the coming back.
Then again an angel directs Joseph, by God's power, to return to Israel. Every step beautifully shows the calm, measured control of God's hand.
He comes back to His own land, yet no throne waits for Him. The next verses turn Him aside to Galilee.
Can the Son of David, in entering it, approach the throne of His fathers? No: He must take the place of a stranger among the despised of His people. God directs Joseph in a dream, and Joseph carries Him into Galilee. The Jews looked on the people of Galilee with deep contempt.
The homecoming happens in silence, unmarked by the nation it concerned most.
And Israel sent no swift messenger to bring Him back from Egypt. But God called His Son out of Egypt. As none had noticed when He fled, so no one seems to have noticed His return.
- Word. God speaks, and Joseph moves — no questions, no delay, never ahead of the guidance and never behind it.
- Care. The angel names the Child before His mother — word order that marks the wonder of who He is.
- Control. Death removes Herod, not a battle. God's calm hand shows in every step — the going and the returning.
- Land. He comes back to "the land of Israel." That name recalls God's promises, and it fits because His Son has an earthly tie there.
- Welcome. None. He returns unnoticed and takes the place of a stranger among a despised people. He walks Israel's own road as the true Israel who did not fail.
but having heard that 'Archelaus reigns over Judaea, instead of Herod his father,' he was afraid to go there; and having been divinely instructed in a dream, he went away into the parts of Galilee,
Joseph brings the child back to the land of Israel, but Herod's death has not made it safe — his son Archelaus now rules Judea. So God sends the family north instead, into the region the Jews looked down on.
The throne changes hands, but nothing changes for the King. Archelaus was no better than his father. Joseph's own fear ran in the same direction as God's warning.
He no doubt meant to live in Judea again. But he is troubled by news that Herod's son Archelaus had taken the throne, and his character was no better than his father's. So he was afraid to live anywhere in Judea. Again God stepped in through a dream, with a warning that matched Joseph's fears; and they go to Galilee instead.
The deeper issue is not one dangerous man but a nation with no room for its own Messiah.
If the people would only bow and receive Him to take His place as their King, how blessed their lot! But would Israel receive Jehovah-Jesus now returning from Egypt? — There was no readiness for Him yet. One Herod passed away; another followed.
This dream was not the first. God had already guided this family, and by more than one method.
Then for the fourth time God instructed him by a dream. So he, Mary and the young child were shepherded back to Nazareth, where he had first come from, as Luke tells us. It is instructive to see how God guided all these early movements. He used circumstances, such as the decree of Augustus and the news about Archelaus. He also used dreams. So the schemes of the enemy came to nothing. The "porter" held the door of the "sheepfold" open so that the true Shepherd might enter, despite all that he could do.
Joseph was afraid, and the verse says so. One writer sees God answering that fear instead of scolding it, and finds the same kindness in ordinary lives.
There may be fear and weakness in Joseph. But the Lord will meet this with His provisions, as He met the decisive, victorious faith of the men from the East with His comfort... And I think many of us, in our small histories, have known the same tenderness toward our weakness. When, through lack of faith, or lack of heart for Jesus, we could not reach His height, He has met us on our level by His providence.
The land they return to has a name full of promise. Yet the Son of David gets no throne in it.
We should notice that the land is named here by the name that recalls the privileges God gave. It is neither Judea nor Galilee; it is "the land of Israel." But can the Son of David, entering it, approach the throne of His fathers? No: He must take the place of a stranger among the despised of His people. God directs Joseph in a dream, and he carries Him into Galilee. The Jews held its people in complete contempt, because they were not in regular contact with Jerusalem and Judea.
Within Galilee, the town they settle in stood lowest of all.
Nazareth was the most scorned of places. The men of Judea itself looked down on Nazareth, and the Galileans despised it too, though it was part of their own district. Later we read of an honest Israelite who, when he heard that Jesus was there, exclaimed, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" So one place in Palestine fitted the rejection that was Christ's portion more than any other. That place was Nazareth.
The move to Nazareth adds a second mark to the first.
But when they returned they found another usurper filling the throne, and Joseph, with the holy Child Jesus, turned aside to live at Nazareth. At the very beginning of His pathway He had been the rejected One; now He becomes the despised One.
- Threat. Herod died, but the danger lived on. Archelaus had his father's character, so Judea stayed closed to the child.
- Fear. Joseph's dread of Judea was real weakness. God did not scold him for it. He met him on his level.
- Guidance. God led this family two ways at once: through news and events, and through dreams. The warning matched what Joseph already feared.
- Place. Galilee meant contempt, and even Galileans despised Nazareth. God settled the Son of David among the people His own nation looked down on.
- Purpose. Rejected at His birth, despised where He grew up: this detour set the road He walked all His life.