Last night at Crave we continued our series in Matthew, finishing up at the end of chapter 2. In this section, we saw God’s hand at work in the early details of the life of Jesus. In a dream, God told Joseph to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt in order to protect Jesus from Herod (he wanted to destroy Jesus). Outraged, Herod had all of the male children under the age of two slaughtered. Later when Herod had died, Joseph took his family to the district of Galilee, the city called Nazareth.
In this passage we saw God fulfill 3 prophecies made about Jesus long before He was born:
- Verse 15 references Hosea 11:1 which states, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
- Verse 18 quotes Jeremiah 31:15 which foretells the slaughter of the children of Israel.
- Verse 23 sees the fulfillment of Jesus being called a Nazarene.
Matthew shows us that God not only knew what was going to happen, but He made plans to make sure His will was carried out.
Sometimes when things don’t go our way, we tend to feel that God is either surprised by our circumstances or powerless to handle things on our behalf. During this Christmas season, let us remember how sovereign and good our God is. Ephesians 1 assures us that God is just as active now in the lives of His adopted children as He was in the early life of Jesus. Remember to celebrate that this year.
