Matthew 2:13-23 | Sovereignty and The Son

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Good morning.

Please take your Bible with me to Matthew.

Matthew chapter 2.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

If you are visiting with us, we are glad to have you.

We welcome you.

We started a study of the Gospel of Matthew a few weeks ago around Christmas time and going to pick that up this morning in Matthew chapter 2, beginning in verse 13.

Matthew 2 · chapter mention

If you have a Bible, I encourage you to open it to that passage.

And if you don't, please take a Bible.

It's in the Pew Rack in front of you.

It'll help you as we walk through this together and see what God has to say to us.

I'd like to read for us Matthew 2, beginning in verse 13, through the end of the chapter, if you would follow along.

Now when they, that is, the Magi from verse 12, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.

And he rose, and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod.

This was to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, out of Egypt I called my son.

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.

A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children.

She refused to be comforted because they are no more.

But when Herod died, behold an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead.

And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled.

He shall be called a Nazarene.

Amen.

Some social media platform recently presented me with a video of an easier way to thread a needle.

Oh, you've seen it?

Good.

The implicit message being sent to me in this video was that I've been threading needles the wrong way my entire life.

Well, I can tell you that social media platforms are not yet omniscient.

Because I can't remember the last time I threaded a needle.

But just in case I do, the internet has shown me an easier way to do it.

I don't thread needles.

At least literally.

I routinely try to fit into a parking space.

And sometimes that feels like trying to thread a needle.

Sometimes we try to squeeze way too many activities into a very small portion of time, don't we?

Maybe you experience what I do, and sometimes you try to squeeze into a freshly washed pair of jeans.

There are all kinds of ways that we seek to fit one thing into another, aren't there?

Sometimes it feels like trying to thread that needle.

Sometimes it feels as though life itself is an attempt at threading the needle, doesn't it?

We attempt to thread that needle of our lives, trying to work out all of the various details of our lives according to our plans and our desires, to have everything work out just the way that we've planned, that we want to have it work out.

And then if God sends something different that we haven't planned, something that is contrary to our expectation, that requires a change in life, it feels as though we've failed to thread the needle.

That can be frustrating, maybe even fearful.

Now, what do you do in those instances?

I know you've been there.

I know you've been there because all of us have those things that come at us that we don't expect.

So when they do, what is it that you do?

How do you react or respond to those situations?

Do you do like me and keep on stabbing the thread at the eye of the needle?

Trying to get things back to where you want them to be?

Do you try to adjust your mindset to this new way, this new direction, either reluctantly or maybe irritably?

Or do you trust the sovereign direction of a loving God who knows what is best for your life?

Who knows that your way of threading the needle is not best?

As we look at this passage together, my hope and prayer is that you will be encouraged to stop trying to thread the needle of your life, to stop stabbing the thread at the eye of that needle that you have in mind, and that you begin now to trust in the sovereign God who providentially directs your life.

We're going to see here God's sovereignty displayed in the life of his son.

And I trust that we will then realize that we can trust that same God to do the same for us.

There are three sections, three parts to this passage.

Each one of them has a connection to Herod and to the fulfillment of Scripture.

We're only going to briefly touch on the middle section today, and we'll look more fully at that next time.

But here in all of this together, we find that God orchestrated the events in the life of his son to ensure the faithful fulfillment of his word.

It shows us a God who is in control of all things in this world so that everything, everything arrives at his intended purpose and plan.

Let me put it another way.

Few of us are living plan A for our lives.

Most of us are on plan B.

C.

D.

Some of you are feeling like you're nearing X, Y, and Z and running out of letters.

Maybe you feel like you are stabbing at the eye of the needle.

We may be struggling to embrace a plan other than the one we dreamed of, but friend, God is still on plan A.

Because he always threads the needle the first time.

This is true in the life of his son.

And it's true in the lives of all of his sons and daughters.

So look with me at this passage and see, first of all, the profound care that God gives to his unique son.

God cares for his children in profound ways, sometimes using normal, everyday methods, and sometimes using means that only belong within his sovereign power.

In caring for his son here in this passage, God used angels and dreams.

But he also used the simple obedience of a righteous man to protect the infant Christ.

There were three warnings given in dreams.

Back in verse 12, we see the first warning where the Magi received a warning about not returning to Herod.

Had they not been warned, they would have returned to Jerusalem and informed Herod as to Mary and Joseph and Jesus' location.

We don't know how much time it took for Herod to realize that he'd been thwarted, but it did give enough time for the second warning to be heeded.

That second warning is in verse 13 given to Joseph.

An angel appeared to him in a dream, telling him to flee south from Bethlehem to Egypt.

And then there's a third warning given to Joseph in verse 22.

Again in a dream.

Each warning served to providentially protect the Son of God.

God's sovereignty over this situation is simply astounding.

Every detail has the attention of the Father.

His care is perfectly placed, and it is precisely timed.

Consider this situation without God's sovereign direction of events.

Without the dream, the Magi return to Herod, who immediately dispatches a squadron of soldiers to end the life of the newborn Jesus.

Mary and Joseph would have been sitting ducks, not knowing what was coming.

There would be no fulfillment of God's promises.

There would be a God instead who would be impotent and untrustworthy.

My friend, I don't care where you are in life, you don't want a God who is powerless to keep his promises.

You do not want a God who cannot care for you.

These warnings here serve to show God's care for his own son when he in his infancy could not care for himself.

What son or daughter does not desire a father who loves them and who cares for them in such profound ways?

We are often most fearful when we're most vulnerable.

You know, anxiety begins to creep in when we lose our sense of control.

When we can't anticipate tomorrow or maintain the control of our lives as we desire them to be, we start stabbing the thread at the eye of the needle in an attempt, feeble attempt most often, to regain what we perceive to be gone.

You know, we are we are not creatures who embrace vulnerability.

We're not creatures who embrace vulnerability.

But we were not always that way.

I can hold my son upside down, and he trusts me not to drop him.

It's getting more difficult, admittedly.

He enjoys, he enjoys being spun around upside down.

And and in that spinning, he trusts me to hold on to him.

He is completely free from anxiety and fear and totally trusting me.

I know that because he's squealing with glee.

He doesn't feel vulnerable because he trusts in the depth of his father's control.

Would that we would see how much our God delights in caring for his children when they are most vulnerable.

That doesn't mean that life is easy or painless or will be free from suffering and anxiety.

It means that our God knows how to care for us.

And he will do perfectly what is perfectly good for our care.

It surely wasn't in Joseph's perfect dream plan for his brand new marriage and brand new family to have to escape as refugees to Egypt in the first few weeks of their marriage.

But that was God's care for them.

God cared for Moses in Egypt.

Pharaoh wanted all of the Jewish baby boys thrown into the river after birth to die by drowning.

And I'm certain that Moses' mother was full of anguish and anxiety as she placed her baby boy into that basket and set him adrift in the river.

But that was God's means of caring for him when he was most vulnerable.

Isn't that what God does for us?

He will often put us into those places, those situations, those circumstances of life where we feel most vulnerable, where the plans for life are shifting day by day.

Sometimes it feels like moment by moment, when we become discouraged and frustrated and fearful at stabbing at the needle.

God does that so that He so that we will come to see His trustworthy care for us.

And be moved to say, like my son, Daddy, spin me around upside down.

Your God is trustworthy.

He cares in profound ways for you.

Consider Israel at the Red Sea, caught between death or return to slavery on the one hand or drowning on the other.

But God cared for them.

Consider Gideon taking an army of 300 into battle instead of an army of 22,000.

22,000 would have been outnumbered by at least six to one.

300 was insane.

But God cares for his children.

Just a few pages over from this passage in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus details the care of a father for his children.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

He says in chapter 6, verse 25, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body what you will put on.

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds in the air.

They don't sow, they don't reap, they don't gather into barns, yet your heavenly father feeds them.

Are you of not more value than they?

He provides all we need.

But it requires being like a child with his father.

Jesus will say later in Matthew 18, become like children.

Rest holy in your father's care.

He is fully sovereign, and he will direct the events of your life.

You have no need to worry, even if you are on plan X of your life.

We see God's profound care in his supernatural warnings, but also in the simple obedience of Joseph.

He was given a very particular directive.

Twice, actually.

Take the child and his mother and go.

Same pattern is repeated in verse 20.

Interestingly, there's nothing about Joseph.

Joseph is sort of a bystander.

It's take the child and his mother.

Those are the important aspects.

Joseph's earthly calling was to protect God's son by obediently heeding God's warnings.

But do you see how God's care for his own son was also his care for Mary and Joseph?

Their lives were not turning out as they dreamed.

Their dream was not to become refugees.

But we also don't see them here in this passage stabbing wildly at the eye of the needle.

We see them trusting in God's sovereign care.

And that care meant in that moment run, flee, leave everything and run, be a refugee in Egypt for a couple of years, eke out an existence in Africa for a while, because that is my gentle care for you.

Really?

Yes.

The directive is particular.

Go to Egypt because the destruction is real.

Herod, it says in verse 13, is out to destroy Jesus.

Herod is a parallel to the ancient Pharaoh who would destroy the boys of Israel.

Satan is out after God's people.

He would rather destroy God's people than have God's plan succeed.

Have you ever thought about the irony in that?

Herod is seeking to destroy the eternal one.

Yeah, good luck with that.

Satan sought to dethrone his creator.

And now he's motivating Herod to try to destroy him.

But Satan cannot overpower God's care for his own when it is God's plan to protect his own from Satan's plans.

Don't fear the Herods of this life.

Remember that when you're fearful of government and politicians.

Do not fear the Herods of this life, for Jesus says, do not fear those who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Again and again and again throughout Matthew's gospel, there are people groups seeking to destroy Jesus.

In the middle passage of this text here, Herod is motivated by his own fears to kill the babies in Bethlehem.

He believed the threat of God's king was real.

And Herod was always about plan A.

There was no plan B for Herod.

And Herod was in a position of power and authority to seek to change circumstances at his will to make sure that plan A happened.

Herod would never trust in another.

Instead, Herod sought to destroy the one who came to keep him from being destroyed in hell.

The directive to Joe was particular.

I like to call him Joe.

The destruction was very real.

And so the departure then was prompt.

He rose and he took and he departed.

Later on in the bottom portion, verse 21, it's repeated.

He rose, he took, and he went.

The righteous character of this adoptive father of the Lord Jesus is evidenced by his prompt obedience.

God didn't need to tell Joseph more than once.

Wouldn't that be nice, parents?

This wasn't a parent frustratingly telling his child multiple times to obey.

Obedience was imperative because the life of God the Son was at stake.

And Joseph obeyed.

You see, Egypt was a common escape hatch for Israel throughout their history.

We see it all the way back to Abraham in the Old Testament times.

At this point in earth history, there was a large Jewish population in Egypt.

In fact, historians tell us that just in Alexandria, Egypt, at the time, there may have been as many as one million Jewish people.

But what mattered here in God's care was that Egypt was outside of Herod's sovereignty.

Not outside.

Outside of God's sovereignty, but beyond the reach of Herod's murderous power.

Joseph obeyed.

He took his family, his new family, to a foreign country.

We find in life that obedience is a means of safekeeping in many areas of life, don't we?

Parents seek to instill obedience in children as a means of keeping them safe.

Don't touch the stove.

Don't run into the street.

Right?

We try to get them to obey immediately as a means of safekeeping in some instances.

Speaking of streets, we we obey traffic laws in order to be kept safe.

We we seek to obey the tax laws in order to be kept safe from the IRS.

Sorry, Lowell.

Thanks for doing taxes.

You keep us safe.

See, God uses our obedience within his providence to care for us.

That's just a normal way of God working.

He did this with his son, and he will with all of his children.

The Son of God was perfectly safe in the sovereignty of God.

From the divine point of view, the infant Jesus was never in danger.

Oh, the perception of danger was very real.

In verse 22, we are told that Joseph was full of fear.

If we look at life solely from our own eyes, from our own perspective, we will drown in the fears, anxieties, and worries of life.

Maybe you felt that.

The perception of danger was real.

But from the Father's eyes, the reality of danger did not exist.

There was no danger in the Father's eyes.

If we truly grasp the truth of John 10.28 and Romans 8.28, we will be challenged in our perceptions of reality.

Consider John 10.28.

If Jesus gives me eternal life and I will never perish, that's what John 3.16 says.

If that's true, if Jesus gives me eternal life and I will never perish, and in John 10, I will never be snatched out of Jesus' hand and never be snatched out of the Father's hand, is there ever a time in which I will truly be in danger?

No.

I may have the perception of danger because of my vision being limited to the present.

I may have the perception of danger because what I'm experiencing is not going according to my plans and desires.

I may feel desperately that the threat has come out of the needle and I have the urge to get it back in again.

But will I truly be in danger?

If it is true, as Scripture says, that for those who love God all things work together for good, are you ever truly in danger?

Do you ever slip out of his goodness?

Yes, yes, we will cry out to him, how long, O Lord?

We will wonder how in the magnificently kind and good will of our Lord, the troubling circumstances of life can be good.

I mean, really, how could those kinds of thoughts not been going on loop in Joseph and Mary's minds as they walked that dusty road to Egypt?

But my friends, our vision is too dim.

May God give us a view of life that puts his sovereign, providential working in our lives at the forefront of our sight.

Not to push out the fears and the feelings.

That would make us subhuman.

But instead to see first and foremost that our God is powerful and our God, as our Father, cares for us.

As long as he holds on to us, we are not in danger of missing his purpose and his plan for us.

As long as he holds on to me, which is forever, I am not truly in danger in the eyes of heaven, and that's where it matters.

Hebrews 10 34 contains in my mind one of the strangest statements in Scripture.

Talking of some believers enduring persecution and suffering at that time, it says, You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.

I'll be honest with you.

I'm not sure I could joyfully accept the plundering of my property by those who hate Jesus.

Just being real.

I hope, if that happened to me, that in that moment it would be true of me.

Joyfully.

Joyfully.

They saw the loss of their belongings as the goodness of God to them.

That statement by the author of Hebrews can only describe a trusting rest in the truth of God's sovereign care.

A resting in the truth of what God says, not what I feel.

Beloved, what we feel to be true must always submit to what God says is true.

General Thomas Stonewall Jackson wrote to an officer in the Civil War.

Captain, my religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed.

God has fixed the time for my death.

I do not concern myself about that, but to always be ready, no matter when it may overtake me.

Captain, that is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.

That's what enabled those first Christians in the book of Acts to bravely proclaim eternal life in a crucified and risen Lord, no matter what life brought them.

May we have that perspective?

Well, we have to move on here.

Let's direct our attention now to the sovereign placement of the Son.

The angel returned to Joseph in verse 19.

Joseph was told in verse 12, or verse 13, I'm sorry, remain there, that is in Egypt, until I tell you.

Until I tell you.

So he comes back in verse 19 and tells him.

When our current calendar was established, it was based on an inaccurate dating of Herod's death.

We know today, based on our current calendar, that Herod died in March or April of 4 B.C., according to our current calendar.

That places the Lord Jesus' birth in 6 B.C.

or maybe 7.

So the royal family fled to Egypt, perhaps as few as six weeks after the Lord's birth.

They lived in Egypt for around two years.

Over the course of those two years, Herod would perhaps have come to a settled place of belief that he'd taken care of that rival born in Bethlehem with that sweep, military sweep in the city.

Herod would have had no idea his rival escaped until he died.

Then he knew.

But Joseph, Joseph obediently waited for the angel to return.

They didn't know how long they would be in Egypt.

Go.

Go and wait until I come and see you.

How long?

Go.

They didn't know.

But when Herod died, the angel appeared again.

And again, Joseph rose and took and went.

I love seeing the obedience of Joseph.

Go back to chapter 1, verse 24.

After Joseph had had an appearance of an angel before, telling him to go ahead and marry Mary.

Joseph woke from sleep in chapter 1, verse 24, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and he took his wife.

He obeyed immediately.

But can you imagine the relief in Mary and Joseph being told they can now go home?

Spend two years.

Two years living as a refugee in a foreign land.

But there's probably some nervousness too.

What kind of things would go through your mind?

What would things be like?

You know, things are not always the same when you're away from a place and you go home after that.

It's always a little different.

Would people remember that Mary was pregnant before they were married?

Would anyone believe the truth?

Joseph heard, perhaps through other travelers, about Archelaus.

Herod's rule was divided between his two sons at his death.

One of them, Archelaus, followed in his father's footsteps.

He was a cruel despot.

That made Joseph naturally fearful of returning to Bethlehem or anywhere in Judea.

But Antipas, Archelaus' brother, ruled over Galilee.

Antipas was a lesser threat.

So warned by the angel, they turned away from Bethlehem.

And it seems as though they were not told where to go or where to live.

Just told that danger exists in Judea.

So they returned to where they began.

Nazareth.

Nazareth was a small town, probably about 500 people.

A much larger community, though, was nearby.

Now remember, they were returning to Judea and to Galilee sometime around 4 BC.

That's when Herod died, so sometime shortly after that.

Interestingly, history tells us that Herod's rival came into Galilee and destroyed that nearby city the year that Herod died.

So Herod's son Antipas was seeking to rebuild it.

And according to the historian Josephus, Josephus tells us that Antipas was seeking qualified carpenters from the surrounding areas to come and help rebuild this city.

Well, guess what Joseph is?

He's a carpenter.

Thinking about his safety of his family and provision for his family.

He settles his family, including the Lord Jesus, in the backwoods small town of Nazareth.

Now it appears as though that's Joseph's choice of the place to live.

We don't see the angel directing them there.

Nothing tells us that he was told where to go.

It's an illustration of Proverbs 16, 9.

The heart of human beings plans their way, but Yahweh establishes their steps.

To truly fulfill God's promises, Jesus would need to be called a Nazarene.

What does that mean?

Well, it foreshadows Jesus' ministry.

He would reach not only his own people, but non-Jews, Gentiles as well.

Look over at chapter 4.

Chapter 4 and verse 13.

Speaking of Jesus, it says, leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.

The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light.

And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them a light has dawned.

That's a reference to Isaiah 9, where God promised that a light would dawn on Galilee of the Gentiles.

God didn't tell Joseph where to settle down.

But God directed his steps and providentially took them to Nazareth.

Because in the care of his son, God would not leave his placement to mere chance.

And he doesn't do that with his other sons and daughters.

The protection, the care, and the placement of the Son of God points quite clearly to the providential outworking of the plan of God.

Here's what we know no one can thwart God's plans.

Even powerful Herod's.

You cannot have the biblical portrait of Christ without the sovereign providence of God.

And this is seen most clearly in God's work of orchestrating events in the life of his son to ensure that Scripture would be fulfilled.

Do you know there are more than 60 direct references to the Old Testament in Matthew?

Actual quotations, more than 60.

That doesn't count all of the multitudes of allusions to other passages.

Matthew quotes the Old Testament more than twice as much as the other Gospels.

Twelve times Matthew specifically refers to a fulfillment.

Three of those twelve are right here.

Verse 15, this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken.

Verse 17, that was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.

And verse 23, what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled.

God directed Joseph's steps to Nazareth to fulfill his word.

Next time we're going to look at the fulfillment of Jeremiah with the murder of the innocents.

The flight into Egypt and the return from Egypt was planned by God in ages past.

These fulfillments are Matthew's way of saying that God planned for every detail in the life of Jesus.

Not only that, but he worked in all of the situations and circumstances throughout his creation, throughout his world, so that his plan would be fully and particularly accomplished.

All, all of the schemes of Herod were impotent against the sovereign one.

God controls all things and he orchestrates events to fulfill his purpose.

He showed it in his son.

And he does it with all of his sons and daughters.

Someone has well said, although each story is different, Scripture offers us the same enduring truth.

Every detour involves God's presence, God's purpose, and his redeeming power.

In other words, our plan B is still God's plan A.

Silver Star recipient Lance Corporal Ron York was a Marine serving in Korea in 1950 when he wrote these words.

I revel in the knowledge that God threads the needle in my life.

I revel in the knowledge that God threads the needle in my life.

With all of life's twists and turns, he makes no mistakes.

He is absolutely faithful, and we live in complete assurance of his love for us.

We can totally rest our past, our present, and our future with him.

If his eye is on the sparrow, do you think he will ever take his eye off of his child?

Resist trying to stab the thread of your life with the eye of the needle and let him thread it instead.

Let's pray together.

Our Lord Jesus, we confess that so often we seek to wrestle control for our lives out of your hands and into ours.

That just stirs us up.

That just frustrates us.

It brings us into terrible places.

Would you do a sovereign work of your grace and enable us to see that like those saints in the New Testament joyfully?

That can't come from us.

Do that within us.

Fill us with your spirit and make us into people who trust you.

Who say to you, Daddy, will you spin me around?

Because we rest holy in you.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

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