3-Day Bible Reading Plan: “The Escape”
Matthew’s account of Jesus' birth, while celebrating the miraculous incarnation, is remarkably honest about the presence of great evil. It's not a sanitized narrative of peaceful shepherds and adoring Wise Men. It’s a story punctuated by paranoia, deception, and the chilling brutality of Herod’s actions. Matthew presents this pain, creating a gap between our expectations of divine intervention and the reality of suffering. This leaves us disoriented and confused, questioning God's actions and struggling to reconcile the beauty of the Christmas message with the stark reality of human evil. The story shocks us because we expect more from God—a swift, decisive end to Herod’s cruelty. We are left with the painful gap that calls God’s power and compassion into question. Thankfully, Matthew gives us insight into how this gap can not become a trap, where unbelief overtakes faith and trust is destroyed by doubt. - Pastor Paul Crandell, 12/15/24
Day 1
Featured Verse: Matthew 2:13-15 - “Out of Egypt I Called My Son”
Cross References:
Hosea 11:1 - “Out of Egypt I Called My Son”
Why do you think God hearkened back to the Exodus when counseling Joseph to flee and then return from Egypt with the baby Jesus?
Deuteronomy 7:8 - “The LORD Has Brought You Out With a Mighty Hand and Redeemed You From the House of Slavery”
In what ways can “Egypt” from Scripture become a metaphor for God calling us out of the world?
Hosea 2:15 - “I Will…Make the Valley of Achor a Door of Hope”
How does God often turn our painful tragedies into a “door of hope”? Where have you found doors of hope in your darkest moments?
“Bethlehem’s star is the morning star of hope to believers. Now, man is nearest to God of all his creatures; now, between poor puny man that is born of a woman, and the infinite God, there is a bond of union of the most wonderful kind. The Lord Jesus Christ is God and man in one person.” - Charles Spurgeon
Day 2
Featured Verse: Matthew 2:19-23 - “He Would Be Called a Nazarene”
Cross References:
Luke 2:39 - “They Returned to Galilee, to Their Own Town of Nazareth”
God allowed Joseph and Mary to raise Jesus in their hometown. What do you think Christ’s home life was like growing up?
John 1:46 - “Can Anything Good Come Out of Nazareth?”
Nazareth was not a city of renown. Even one of Christ’s own disciples scoffed at it. Why do you think God chose Nazareth as the community that would most influence the growing Christ?
Luke 4:16 - “And He Came to Nazareth, Where He Had Been Brought Up”
Ultimately, Jesus was not welcome in His hometown. They even tried to hurl Him off a cliff. Why didn’t they accept Him as Messiah? How can familiarity make one blind to the truth?
“He did not come to earth just to pay us a passing visit, but he dwelt among us in this world of sin and sorrow. This great prince entered our abode—what if I call it this hut and hovel?—wherein our poor humanity finds its home for a season. This little planet of ours was made to burn with a superior light among its sister stars while the Creator sojourned here in human form.” - Charles Spurgeon
Day 3
Featured Verse: Jeremiah 31:31-34 - “I Will Put My Law Within Them, and I Will Write It On Their Hearts”
Cross References:
Hebrews 10:16 - “I Will Put My Laws On Their Hearts, and Write Them On Their Minds”
Take a moment to think about these words. What does it mean that God puts His laws on our hearts and writes them on our minds?
Jeremiah 32:40 - “I Will Put the Fear of Me In Their Hearts”
Notice this is all God’s doing, which suggests fearing God is not the natural bent of our hearts. Have you ever considered God’s grace as a miracle before? Why or why not?
2 Corinthians 3:3 - “...Not On Tablets of Stone But on Tablets of Human Hearts”
The Apostle Paul continues with the metaphor of the human heart being a tablet upon which God writes a living epistle. How does God do this?
“Since God has visited us, not in the form of a judge executing vengeance, nor as an angel with a flaming sword, but in the gentle person of that lowliest of the lowly, who said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me,’ we are herein made to see the tender mercy of our God.” - Charles Spurgeon