NOTES for Mat 2:13-23
13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. |
14 When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: |
15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. |
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. |
17 Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, |
18 In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. |
19 But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, |
20 Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. |
21 And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. |
22 But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: |
23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. |
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The Angel addressed the warning about danger not to Mary, but to Joseph, to the man and head of the family responsible for making the decision. One often hears the question: why were the other parents in Bethlehem not warned about the coming massacre of the infants? We cannot now find a reliable explanation for this. Perhaps, unlike Joseph, the other fathers of families were unable to hear the warning or dismissed it?
Many centuries earlier Joseph, the son of Jacob, after coming to Egypt, was able to save his family, and with it the whole people, from death by famine. And now a new Joseph goes to Egypt in order to save from terror the One who will become the Savior of humanity. As Moses had to leave Egypt, Joseph had to flee hastily into Egypt, saving himself from a likeness of Pharaoh who had come to reign in the Promised Land.
From the very moment of His birth in a world poisoned by cruelty, and then from the flight into Egypt, Jesus had to share the trials of the earthly path of both the people of Israel and all humanity. And from these first days on earth His way of the cross toward Golgotha begins.
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