Matthew 2:13-23
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and dee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the child to destroy Him.”
Joseph obeyed the word of the angel, and started at night, so none would see them. It is thought that they rode a donkey, as only the rich rode horses or camels, and they must have had a long, hard journey to Egypt.
After they had gone from Bethlehem, the dreadful cominand came from the jealous King Herod that the children, two years old or younger, in the town and country around, should be killed. By that cruel order, he thought the new King, the wise men told of, would be killed. But the little Child Jesus was safe in Egypt.
This sad thing was told of long before: “In Ramah...great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.” Jeremiah 31: 15. Ramah was a small place near Bethlehem, where the mothers wept at Herod’s awful command. It was in a corner of the land of the tribe of Benjamin; Rachel was his mother, so the mothers were written of as “Rachel” (Matt. 2:18).
After a time, an angel told Joseph they could return to the land of Israel, as Herod had died. Joseph left Egypt with the Child Jesus and Mary. But he heard that a son of Herod ruled, and he feared to live near him, so he went north to the town of Nazareth in Galilee, where he had before lived, and they made their home there.
No more is told by Matthew about, Jesus when young. But do you remember the story of Jesus going with His mother and Joseph to a feast at Jerusalem? He talked with the men in the Temple, and surprised, them by His wise words (Luke 2:42-52).
They went home again to Nazareth, and Jesus obeyed Joseph and Mary in all things. It was because Jesus’ home was at Nazareth that He was called “a Nazarene”. Matthew wrote that the prophets had said He would be called that, ahough those words are not in the writings we now have Nazareth was built in the hills of Galilee, about sixty miles north of Jerusalem, and seems not to have been well thought of by other people. So it was a humble place that Jesus lived on earth. There is still a town Nazareth; if we could go there, we would see the same hills, but few or none of the same houses.
“Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9.
ML 01/17/1943