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.