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Ochre Pits of the First Peoples, West Macdonnell Ranges, Central Australia
Gospel according to Matthew 2: 13-23 (NIV)
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 When Herod realised that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
The angel (or angels) of the Lord were certainly busy in the months preceding and following the birth of Jesus. Joseph, Mary and even the Bethlehem shepherds received visitations. The Gospel narratives reference appearances of the angel(s) of the Lord in relation to the birth of John the Baptiser as well. All these appearances confirm the involvement of God the Father in the events associated with the birth of our Lord and also confirm the measures the Father took to ensure the safety and security of his Son during his infant years. Nothing on earth was going to interfere with the rescue mission which God had initiated for his people – not only for the children of Israel but also for Gentiles as well.
To us it is a tragic fact that many innocent and righteous people have lost their lives even as God was outworking his plan for the salvation of his creation. The passage above from Matthew 2 records King Herod’s murdering of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who at the time were two years old or younger. John the Baptiser was later murdered by another Herod (Antipas – Matthew 14: 1-12). Worst of all, however, was the Jewish/Roman execution of God the Son on a cross outside Jerusalem. The One through whom all were created was put to death by his own creatures – and yet this execution was the reason why he had come into the world as an infant. This was the reason why God the Father sent the angels to preserve his infant Son – that at some future time the same Son would become the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of all generations.