Joseph warned to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14)

n our last study of the Life and Heart of Jesus, we found that God had warned the magi not to go back to Jerusalem and visit King Herod but to go home a different way. These magi must have believed God to have followed the star, to have worshipped Jesus, and then to have obeyed God and returned home a different way. Many of us want to know God’s will for our lives, and many desire to know God’s will day-to-day. God helped these men find Jesus, and He hid the location of Jesus from Herod. God showed His love and compassion to the magi and revealed His will through a dream, but concealed His will from King Herod, as we will see in this study. Our God is a revealer of secrets, and yet He hides Himself from us (Matt. 6:6; Isa. 45:15). He reveals Himself to those who seek Him and hides things from those who hate Him. The magi were seekers who found God. King Herod sought to kill Jesus, and God denied him even a brief look at our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This entire study is about those who seek God’s will and those who do not care. Herod was silver tongued pretending to want to worship Jesus, but the magi truly wanted to worship and they did.

Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” (NASB) Matt. 2:13

Just imagine yourself asleep in your bed and then you have a dream. We do not know what Joseph saw in his dream, but we are told that he heard a voice, “Get up!” The voice was probably very loud and forceful. “Get up! Take Jesus and Mary to Egypt immediately.”

So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. (NASB) Matt. 2:14