Scripture – “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.”
Matthew 2:13, 19-23 NIV
Observation – Joseph and Mary left their home town to go to Bethlehem, then fled to go to Egypt and then they left Egypt and settled in Nazareth. The census took them to Bethlehem and God directed them to Egypt and Nazareth by having angels speak to Joseph through dreams.
Application – Imagine being Joseph in this scenario. We have all seen movies of Joseph frantically running through Bethlehem trying to find a place for Mary so she could give birth to Jesus. The filmmakers do a great job of helping us experience the stress of the situation. After Jesus birth Joseph had to go find a job in a new city, then he moved and had to go find a job in a new city and then he moved and had to go find a job in a new city. Joseph was having these incredible experiences with God, where angels spoke to him in dreams and then he got up in the morning, left his wife and new son in strange place and knocked on doors for work. Isn’t that how our lives feel sometimes. We have this incredible time with the Lord and then we find ourselves trying to figure out how to pay our bills in a hostile environment.
Prayer – Lord, thank you for making us and being with us in times when we hear from you very clearly and for the times when life is unfriendly. Amen.
What are you doing? Do it better 