SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/19/2019
12:50 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Escape to Egypt”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matt.
2:12-15
Message of the verses: “13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of
the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and 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." 14 And he arose and took
the Child and His mother by night, and departed for Egypt; 15 and was there until the
death of Herod, that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be
fulfilled, saying “OUT OF EGYPT DID I CALL MY SON.’”
I mentioned in our last SD that we would be moving on to
the next chapter from John MacArthur’s commentary on Matthew “The King Fulfills
Prophecy.” Usually I do an introduction
to the chapter, but in this particular chapter there is only one short
paragraph which I will quote at this time.
“The first
of four Old Testament passages around which Matthew presents the events of
chapter 2 is that of the Messiah’s being born in Bethlehem (2:6; cf. Mic. 5:2),
which has been discussed in relation to the coming of the magi. The other three
are given in the present text (Matt. 2:13-23).
One refers to the escape to Egypt, another to the slaughter at Ramah,
and the other to the return to Nazareth.”
We begin with PT-1 “The Escape to Egypt,” and once again
I want to remind those who read these SD’s that the book of Matthew was
primarily written to Jews, and the main focus is on the subject of the Messiah
is the King.
I realize that those of us who read their Bibles a lot
and especially read about the birth of the Messiah realize all the things that
have happened on how He was born.
However perhaps we need, at this time, to look at through the eyes of
Joseph and Mary as this was all happening to them a newly married couple where
one was given a visit from an angel and the other had a dream. How strong was their faith? Well in my opinion it was strong, but when
the magi came and worshiped the baby Jesus when they were living at a house,
and when the magi gave gifts to the Messiah I have to believe that their faith
grew even stronger. There has been many
things going on with this young couple as we have seen, and as we look at the
gospel of Luke we see that other things happened too. There was an angel who visited Zacharias
(Luke 1:11-20), and also to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-14). I also confirmed the testimonies of Elizabeth
(Luke 1:39-45) and of Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-38) as this Mary and Joseph
lived through and as stated will strengthen their faith. I think that it is different is we put
ourselves into their lives to better understand what they were going through. It is easy to say that God was in control,
which He surely was, but to live through all that they lived through must have
been at times difficult. I believe that
there was much rejoicing in their hearts; however that rejoicing will stop as
we move into the verses that are seen as we close out chapter two. We read the following in verse 13 ““13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared
to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise and 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.’”
Joseph has another dream and now he Mary, and Jesus have to get out of
town in a hurry and flee to Egypt because Herod wants to destroy the
Child.
With that said we will continue to study the rest of this
passage in our next SD, Lord willing.
Spiritual meaning
for my life: I have heard that God
controls time; however He does not wear a watch. Just as the lives of Joseph, Mary, and the
Child (Jesus) were in the hands of God so is mine along with all believers.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is truly humbling
to know that God is perfectly in control of my life.
Today’s quotation from “Love
in Action” comes from Luke 24:32, 33.
And they said to one
another; ‘Did not our hearts burn within us
While He talked with us
on the road, and while He opened
the Scriptures to us?’
So they rose up that very hour
and returned to
Jerusalem, and found the
Eleven and those who
were with
them gathered together.
12/19/2019 1:24 PM
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