October 4, 2012
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 2:13-18
OBSERVATIONS
1. By connecting Jesus with God’s love for Israel while in Egypt (Hosea 11:1) Matthew is stressing that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is on behalf of, in place of, God’s whole family. Jesus is walking the path that Israel walked, and His eventual victory will be for all.
2. The quote from Jeremiah 31:15 is part of a bigger prophecy where God says He will restore His children to the land. Rachel’s (Jacob/Israel’s wife) weeping is the beginning of the birth pangs for God’s rescue operation. For the moment, this world is filled with terrible sorrow and horrific injustice, but Jesus is the one through Whom God will address this.
3. Horrible, terrible, wrong. Herod was a jerk! But he is to alone, this kind of horrific cruelty has been going on through history. I remember seeing a Jewish school in Holland with a sign in the window from WW2, ‘the children are no more’. Such holocausts have occurred throughout history (in Syria now?) We need Jesus to turn our world right side up, or we will all end up weeping without hope.
What do you notice in this passage?
APPLICATION
1. I sense the Lord reminding me that this kind of brutality and heartless cruelty is still going on, and that Jesus is the only hope for breaking the cycle and restoring God’s kingdom, the world we all long for. This is about both weeping with those who weep, but also rejoicing with those who rejoice, and pointing people to Jesus as the hope of the world.
2. I sense God challenging me to pray for refugees (like Jesus and His family), abusers (like Herod, though this seems an extreme understatement) and victims of injustice (like these families whose sons are killed. It still happens today!!!
3. I sense God challenging me to feel His pain too. This past week we put our dog down, and we grieved because we loved her. Think of all these families in this passage, how terrible their grief would be (inconsolable). Think of God, who knows and loves each person as His child. God hates suffering, injustice, death. He is not their cause, we are. Every day He still sees every child that suffers, every mother that weeps, every person that anguishes. He also sees those who cause it…
4. Yesterday someone spoke to me about children used and abused in the sex trade. We should all be weeping! I do believe that Jesus is the hope of the world, but I do wish He would intervene sooner! Lord have mercy, especially upon Rachel and her children.
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Two main things struck me about this passage. The first was how in tune Joseph was with God. He was first of all able to discern that his dream was from God, and secondly, he acted upon it immediately. We are told that he left for Egypt before morning. I wish that I could apply such action upon receiving God’s will. I would spend a long time trying to verify what I had heard, and looking at all the pros and cons.
Secondly, there are three references to Old Testament prophecy. Wow, these guys really knew their Bible of the time. I went and looked up the Hosea and the Jeremiah verses, to see if I would have picked this up as prophecy. The Jeremiah one, perhaps, but the Hosea vers about my child shall come out of Egypt talks about Israel as the child of God. Is this a bit of a streatch for Matthew to refer to this verse as prophecy? It is like a type, as is used over and over in scripture.
I pray that I can be attentive to God’s leading, as Joseph was, and that I will be obedient to his will.
Observations:
Oops I cut and ‘cutted’ all of it :-0
Let’s see if I remember what I did write.
Once again the family listened to God’s Word. Must have been difficult to flee to a land that had persecuted His people before. Must have been a trying start for this new married couple.
And Herod trying to establish his kingdom. Persecution already of the people but also of those on Jesus’ side.
Both instances came to pass as God’s Word would be fulfilled – the prophets had foretold.
Application:
Do I hear His voice so that this day I am doing His will? Am I too, standing on the promises of God doing His will which may also seem going against the flow? Yet God gives His people strength to do His will. His Kingdom will come and I need to continue to be a Kingdom builder.
Prayer:
Open my ears Lord so I may know where You desire me to go as we finish our work in Haiti. What’s the next step since no one can ‘retire’ from Kingdom building.
Lord, speak to me that I may speak
In living echoes of Thy tone;
As Thou has sought, so let me seek
Thine erring children lost and lone.
O lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.
O strengthen me, that while I stand
Firm on the rock, and strong in Thee,
I may stretch out a loving hand
To wrestlers with the troubled sea.
O teach me, Lord, that I may teach
The precious things Thou dost impart;
And wing my words, that they may reach
The hidden depths of many a heart.
O fill me with Thy fullness, Lord,
Until my very heart overflow
In kindling thought and glowing word,
Thy love to tell, Thy praise to show.
O use me, Lord, use even me,
Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where,
Until Thy blessèd face I see,
Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.