jesus baby in egypt

The Flight into Egypt

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you 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 for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

—Matthew 2:13–15

Joseph again received a message from God, through a dream instructing him to take the child Jesus and His mother and flee into Egypt. The instruction is very explicit that Herod would seek to take the child’s life and that they were to stay in Egypt until God gave them the next word of direction. Previously, the reference stated that the wise men found Mary and the child in the house, with no reference to Joseph. During the day Joseph may have been at work in Bethlehem at his trade as carpenter. However, the fact that God gives the communication to Joseph in a dream emphasizes the solidarity of the family, the responsible role of Joseph as the husband and head of the family, and the realism in which the birth of Christ is a part of the normal family life experience of Joseph and Mary.

We could develop from the accounts of the nativity an outline on “The Angel-of-Care in God’s Providence”: (1) announcing His sanctity (1:18–25); (2) assuring His safety (2:13–15); and (3) achieving His security (2:19–23).

The flight to Egypt was not especially unusual for a Jewish family. Through the history of Israel, in numerous times of persecution, Jewish people sought refuge in Egypt. In every city in Egypt there was a colony of Jews. As a consequence, Joseph and Mary had no problem finding associations amidst their own people for the brief period of living in Egypt.

In the early church, pagan philosophers such as Celsus attacked Christianity by describing Jesus as both an illegitimate child and as one who lived in Egypt and learned the sorcery and magic of the Egyptians. But Matthew makes clear that Jesus went to Egypt as a little child and that He returned from Egypt as a child.

There are a number of stories, or legends, regarding experiences Joseph, Mary, and the child Jesus had on the flight to Egypt. But these are legends, not documented by the Scriptures, and we exegete here the text itself. Significantly, Matthew again ties the New Covenant with the Old Testament Scripture: “Out of Egypt I called My Son” (Hos. 11:1). In the original statement, Hosea was referring to God’s act of delivering the nation of Israel from their bondage in the land of Egypt. God’s salvation history moves from the people of Israel to faithful Israel, to the remnant and to the servant of God in Jesus of Nazareth; thus Matthew applies this reference to Jesus Himself. The full text says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” (niv). Matthew projects this passage forward to the birth of God’s Son rather than backwards to the Exodus of the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.

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Meanwhile, Herod is scheming to prevent the prophecy of Micah going any further. Having learned that the wise men have returned home, he takes matters into his own hands and slaughters all the infants under two years of age in Bethlehem and round about. This slaughter is another fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy (Jer. 31:15).

The safety of Jesus is guaranteed by God himself. He declares to Joseph by his angel that he must take Jesus to Egypt (2:13). He will be safe there. And he will be identified there with the exodus redemption of the Old Testament, a point made explicit by the citation in 2:15 of Hosea 11:1, where the declaration that God’s Son (Israel) was taken safely out of Egypt finds its ultimate meaning in the historical fact that God’s Son (Jesus) was also taken safely out of Egypt. Matthew wants us to see Jesus’ life and ministry in terms of redemption and salvation, continuing the redemptive history of the Old Testament.²

Hostility against the King (Matt. 2:13–18)

A person is identified not only by his friends, but also by his enemies. Herod pretended that he wanted to worship the newborn King (Matt. 2:8), when in reality he wanted to destroy Him. God warned Joseph to take the Child and Mary and flee to Egypt. Egypt was close. There were many Jews there, and the treasures received from the magi would more than pay the expenses for traveling and living there. But there was also another prophecy to fulfill, Hosea 11:1: “I called My Son out of Egypt.”

Herod’s anger was evidence of his pride; he could not permit anyone to get the best of him, particularly some Gentile scholars! This led him to kill the boy babies two years of age and under who were still in Bethlehem. We must not envision hundreds of little boys being killed, for there were not that many male children of that age in a small village like Bethlehem. Even today only about 20,000 people live there. It is likely that not more than 20 children were slain. But, of course, 1 is too many!

Matthew introduced here the theme of hostility, which he focused on throughout his book. Satan is a liar and a murderer (John 8:44), as was King Herod. He lied to the magi and he murdered the babies. But even this horrendous crime of murder was the fulfillment of prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:15. In order to understand this fulfillment, we must review Jewish history.

The first mention of Bethlehem in Scripture is in connection with the death of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel (Gen. 35:16–20). Rachel died giving birth to a son whom she named Benoni, “son of my sorrow.” Jacob renamed his son Benjamin, “son of my right hand.” Both of these names relate to Jesus Christ, for He was a “man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3), and He is now the Son of God’s right hand (Acts 5:31; Heb. 1:3). Jacob put up a pillar to mark Rachel’s grave which is near Bethlehem.

Jeremiah’s prophecy was given about 600 years before Christ was born. It grew out of the captivity of Jerusalem. Some of the captives were taken to Ramah in Benjamin, near Jerusalem; and this reminded Jeremiah of Jacob’s sorrow when Rachel died. However, now it was Rachel who was weeping. She represented the mothers of Israel weeping as they saw their sons going into captivity. It was as though Rachel said, “I gave my life to bear a son, and now his descendants are no more.”

Jacob saw Bethlehem as a place of death, but the birth of Jesus made it a place of life! Because of His coming, there would be spiritual deliverance for Israel and, in the future, the establishment of David’s throne and kingdom. Israel, “the son of my sorrow,” would one day become “the son of My right hand.” Jeremiah gave a promise to the nation that they would be restored to their land again (Jer. 31:16–17), and this promise was fulfilled. But he gave an even greater promise that the nation would be regathered in the future, and the kingdom established (Jer. 31:27ff). This promise shall also be fulfilled.

Very few people today think of Bethlehem as a burial place; they think of it as the birthplace of Jesus Christ. And because He died for us and rose again, we have a bright future before us. We shall live forever with Him in that glorious city where death is no more and where tears never fall.³

2:13–15 An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. This was the second dream or vision that Joseph received from God (see 1:20–21). An angel of the Lord warned Joseph that Herod is going to try to kill the child. The angel told Joseph exactly what to do: Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother. Joseph obeyed that night, taking Jesus and Mary on the seventy-five mile journey to Egypt, escaping from Bethlehem under cover of darkness. The angel instructed Joseph, “Stay there until I tell you to return” (see 2:20). Going to Egypt was not unusual. Egypt had been a place of refuge for Israelites during times of political upheaval (1 Kings 11:40; 2 Kings 25:26). There were colonies of Jews in several major Egyptian cities. Egypt was a Roman province, but outside Herod’s jurisdiction. They stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” Joseph followed the angel’s instructions and remained in Egypt until the death of Herod (see 2:19–20). Thus, Jesus was kept safe. Even more important, however, this event fulfilled the prophecy of Hosea 11:1.

2:16 Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. When this king became infuriated, his anger knew no bounds. History documents the terrible acts of this evil man. At this point, all Herod knew was that a future king, still a child, lived in Bethlehem. After the wise men explained that the star first appeared to them about two years earlier (2:7), Herod deduced that the child would not be more than two years old. So he sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under.⁴

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THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS

Matthew 2:13–23

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt” (v. 13). The magi, after they had presented their gifts to the Christ Child and were warned not to return to Herod, left the region. Immediately afterward, we read that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream.

In Luke’s history of the birth and infancy of Jesus we see repeated visitations of the archangel Gabriel, who comes in person and speaks audibly to Zacharias and Mary, whereas in Matthew’s version, the angelic visitation typically takes place in a dream. The two accounts are not incompatible by any means; what we see is that the early days of Jesus (and, indeed, His whole life) were bathed in the supernatural and with narratives of angels.

Protected

Because of the many references to angels in the New Testament, modern skeptics continue to discount the events as having any historical reality. They have sought to reconstruct a Christian faith and a New Testament content without any references to angels. That is dangerous business, because in the New Testament there are far more references to angels than to sin. Additionally, the word angelos, which means “angel” or “messenger,” occurs in the New Testament with greater frequency than the word agapē, which means “love.” It is striking to note that in terms of numerical frequency the New Testament says more about angels than it says about love. We cannot have a biblical portrait of Christ apart from the reality of the angelic beings that attended His life. It is the angelic visitation in the midnight dream that warns Joseph to flee into Egypt and later instructs him to return to Israel.

Later on, Satan tempts Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple to prove the biblical passage, that His angels would be given charge over Him, a temptation to which Jesus responded with the Word of God (Matt. 4:5–7). The reality is that at every point in Jesus’ life, He was under the protection of the angelic host. Even at the time of the cross to which He voluntarily submitted, He declared that if He so desired He could call down legions of angels from heaven to fight in His behalf (Matt. 26:53). Surely there was a heavenly host concealed from human vision observing the cross, and they were ready at any second to move in at the bidding of Christ. This is part of biblical truth—that God has appointed from the foundations of the earth that His army, the heavenly host, would observe and protect the life of this Baby. We see Herod’s attempt to do away with the Baby, but we are told in these verses what was going on behind the scenes. In the providence and sovereignty of God, the Baby was in no danger, and Herod was impotent to carry out his schemes.

The angel tells Joseph to take the young Child and His mother and flee to Egypt. The angel places emphasis on the Child here rather than on the mother. At this time in Jewish history, Egypt was a classic place of refuge for Jews fleeing from the oppressive reign of the Romans, particularly under King Herod. At the time that Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child went down into Egypt, there were one million residents in the city of Alexandria alone. If we consider the land of Egypt as a whole, there were surely far more than a million Jews. That means that when Joseph fled from the wrath of Herod, he went to a place of safety where he was not surrounded by aliens but by his own people living there in exile.

Herod’s Mission

“Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him” (v. 13). Those who serve in the military undertake “search and destroy” missions. Such a mission is not simply a matter of being prepared for a defensive struggle in the event of an attack. In these missions the military takes the initiative to go out and find its enemies in order to destroy them. In this case Herod is on a search-and-destroy mission, and he brings all of his resources to carry it out. He is not searching for enemy combatants or military units. He is searching for a baby under two years of age, and his purpose is to destroy that Child.

Extrabiblical history gives us much information about Herod, but it says nothing about the episode that we call the “slaughter of the innocents.” Because secular history does not mention it, some have speculated that the account was a figment of Matthew’s imagination; however, if we look at the scope of this particular mission and indeed at the scope of Herod’s life, we see that this particular mission would not have warranted any kind of mention. Our best guess as to how many such boys were in the Bethlehem region at that time is twelve to fifteen, and given Herod’s history of cruelty, his massacre of twelve to fifteen little boys would hardly warrant a mention against the broader scope of his escapades.

In 40 BC Mark Antony, part of the Second Triumvirate in Rome, together with Octavian, who later became Caesar Augustus, jointly appointed a ruler over the Jewish people, who himself was not Jewish but had been a ruthless chieftain known for his strength and cruelty. Antony and Octavian then appointed Herod to be king over the Jews. This is the man who engendered the slaughter of the innocents, probably thirty-five years after he began his reign.

King Herod had magnificent administrative powers, which he used to appease the Jews, who were hostile toward him because he was not a Jew. He undertook the building of the new temple, which exceeded the temple of Solomon in its grandeur and became known as one of the wonders of the ancient world. The size of the blocks used in the building of the temple was monumental, and extraordinary engineering skill was employed to construct that edifice. Additionally, Herod built his winter palace on the high peak of Masada. The palace had, among other niceties, a working sauna, which was a marvel in itself. Herod enjoyed a widespread reputation for his administrative abilities and his building projects.

His reputation as a builder, however, was far exceeded by his reputation for cruelty. He had ten wives, two of whom he murdered. One of the two was supposedly his favorite wife. He murdered in cold blood three of his own children as well as several other family members. He was so ruthless that in his last months, when he knew that his death was imminent, he issued a decree that on the day of his death principal men of the entire Jewish nation were to be killed. He did it so that there would be widespread mourning. As it turned out, his henchmen did not carry out his decree, but that he ordered it is a matter of historical record. All this gives us a clue as to the character of the man who sought to kill Jesus.

Upon Herod’s death his kingdom was divided in fourths or tetrarchia and given to his sons. The son who was given the region of Jerusalem was Archelaus, who is mentioned here in the text (v. 22). He was no better than his father, although he was far less able to manage, and shortly after becoming a tetrarch, he was removed by Rome.

When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son” (vv. 14–15). It was Hosea who had uttered these words originally, and when he spoke prophetically about God’s calling His Son out of Egypt, he was referring to the exodus, when God acted to bring His people out of slavery and into freedom. However, Matthew tells us that this prophecy did not meet its fullest completion in the exodus but, rather, in this return of Jesus from Egypt to Israel.

This is significant because, in the Old Testament, the whole nation of Israel was called metaphorically the “son of God,” but now that title “Son of God” is reduced to a single person. The text teaches its fullest fulfillment when the only begotten Son is called out of Egypt. This also adds credibility to the fact that the Old Testament uses types and shadows that indicate a deeper fulfillment in later times. In one sense we see that Jesus’ life was a recapitulation of the history of Israel. He is the tabernacle. He is the Passover. We see repeatedly that points of interest and significance in the Old Testament find their striking fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus. We must be careful, however, not to seek a shadow or type behind every bush in the Old Testament, as some are wont to do.

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men (v. 16). The Greek indicates that Herod’s anger was filled with passion. This was no mild displeasure. Herod was enraged when he found out that the magi went their way without coming back to give their report.

Then was fulfilled what was spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (vv. 17–18). When Jeremiah spoke of the weeping and lament of Rachel, it was Rachel’s weeping for her children when they were sent into exile. Of course, Rachel was long since dead when that took place, but the people of Israel were seen as the children of Rachel, the favorite wife of Jacob.

I cannot read this text without thinking of a more recent application of it in the literary history of the United States. My favorite novel is Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, which is a theologically symbolic piece of literature. Throughout the book multitude allusions are made to biblical characters and events; even the infamous captain of the Pequod is named after Ahab, a wicked king of Israel. While Ahab was engaged in a monomaniacal pursuit of the albino whale, he came upon a ship in distress. The rules of the sea in that day required the approaching ship to assist the befallen ship. So when the captain of the distressed ship saw the Pequod approaching, he called to Ahab and implored him to help find a member of his crew who had fallen overboard. Ahab was so obsessed with his desire that he broke all maritime conventions and shut his ears to the pleas of the troubled captain. He was too busy with his mission, so he passed on. The name of the ship was the Rachel, and Melville cited the Old Testament reference of Rachel’s grieving for her lost children (Genesis 30). The story shows us how the Bible has made its way into the literature of the Western world.⁵

1 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

2 Campbell, I. D. (2008). Opening up Matthew (p. 28). Leominster: Day One Publications.

3 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 15). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

4 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 15). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

5 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 33–38). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.