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Wednesday 17 November 2010

Matthew 2:19-24 - The return to Israel

Yet another angel helped Mary & Joseph, appearing in a dream to Joseph while he was still in Egypt. The angel tells him to take his family back to Israel "for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead". This is actually reminiscent of Exodus 4:19 where God tells Moses that those who wanted him dead have now died, except that in that case Moses was returning to Egypt.
On the way Joseph learnt that Archelaus was now reigning in Egypt. Archelaus was the son of Herod. Yet again Joseph was warned in a dream, and he withdrew to Galilee. Why did God not warn him in the first place? Possibly because if he had Joseph might have been too afraid to return at all. God does not tell us everything, and sometimes does not tell us of dangers until the last minute. This is not an oversight on God's part, He tells us everything at the right time.
So they went to Galilee, and Matthew sees yet another fulfilment of what the prophets said, "he will be called a Nazarene".

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