War Of The Star Pt. 3 (The Escape) - Matthew 2
Introduction
I have a Christmas confession to make. Don’t let the ugly Christmas sweater fool you. For over fifteen years, I actively disliked Christmas. It is fair to say that I hated it. From the awkward years of middle school to the birth of my first child, the holiday season was anything but enjoyable. It wasn't an adamant rejection, but a deep-seated unease, a subtle aversion to the forced cheer and prescribed merriment. With her unwavering Christmas spirit, my wife gradually chipped away at my cynicism, revealing the beauty and joy I had been blind to.
Around the age of ten, my grandfather's unexpected hospitalization and near-death experience cast a dark cloud over Christmas for me. While my grandfather was in the hospital, we carried on with the traditions, but the weight of his absence fell heavy on my heart. While no one had malicious intent, the persistent routines felt jarringly out of sync with the profound pain in my heart. I didn’t want presents; I wanted my grandfather. This experience planted the seeds of a deeper, unresolved conflict: the gap between my expectations of a joyful, perfect Christmas and the harsh reality of suffering and loss. This gap would become a recurring trap in my faith journey, triggering doubts and challenging my ability to trust God in times of hardship.
For many, Christmas unveils a similar tapestry of pain. The ache of missing loved ones, the sting of broken relationships, the burden of unmet expectations—these experiences sow seeds of doubt and unbelief. Are the holidays really wonderful? The pain becomes a spiritual chasm, a gap between our idealized vision of God and our lived experience. Unaddressed, this gap becomes a trap, ensnaring faith and hindering trust. Belief and commitment struggle to escape the suffocating grip of pain.
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.
Big Idea: Zooming out keeps gaps from becoming traps. Matthew is both honest and helpful. He presents the unaltered cruel facts and offers a perspective that helps us see beyond the present tragedy. Adopting this larger perspective will help us avoid getting trapped in the “gap of pain.”
Escape from Bethlehem
Matthew 2:13-15, “13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Matthew's narrative introduces a divine intervention, a miraculous escape orchestrated by God Himself. A dream saved the Wise Men from Herod's plot, and now God is saving His Son in the same way. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream, instructing him to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to escape Herod's murderous intent. Fleeing to Egypt for safety was not uncommon among the Jewish people. We see several examples of this in the Old Testament (1 Kings 11:40; 2 Kings 25:26; Zechariah 10:10). Egypt had a large Jewish community due to this common practice. Alexandria had a population of around a million Jews, and Leontopolis even had a Jewish temple. A journey to the nearest part of Egypt would have taken them at least a week.
Matthew depicts a loving God, powerfully intervening to prevent the death of an innocent child. This is the image most often evoked during Christmas, an image of hope and protection. This is precisely how I would expect a loving God to act. However, the narrative doesn't end here. The story's stark beauty is juxtaposed with brutal reality. This contrast creates a powerful tension, a gap between our desire for a triumphant narrative and the messy realities of human suffering. We feel the pain keenly, and this pain raises a critical question: if God could save Jesus, why didn’t He save others?
The Evil of Herod
Matthew 2:16-18, “16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: 18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
Herod, consumed by fear and paranoia, unleashes his wrath upon Bethlehem. The massacre of innocent children, the murder of approximately twenty baby boys, according to Bethlehem’s population, is a chilling reminder of the depths of human depravity. The pain created by this event is immense, leaving us to question God’s compassion and power. Some may attempt to escape this painful gap by diminishing God’s power, questioning whether He knew this evil was coming or if He could have prevented the massacre. Matthew answers both of those questions for us.
Yes, God could have stopped it—He did for His Son. And yes, He knew it was coming, as indicated by the angel’s message in Joseph’s dream and the massacre being prophesied. Knowing an event is coming does not make God the author of evil; the origin of evil remains squarely with human choice. The crucifixion is a powerful parallel; it was prophesied and still horrifying. We are confronted with the unsettling truth that God’s plan doesn’t erase the suffering caused by evil. This massacre isn’t the only horrendous evil we are faced with in this chapter.
The Evil of Archelaus
Matthew 2:19-23, “19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.”
After Herod's death, his kingdom was divided into four parts. Archelaus took over the southern part of his father’s kingdom. Like his father, he was cruel and oppressive. Soon after his father’s death, he, too, ordered a massacre, killing 3,000 Jews celebrating Passover. His half brother, Herod Antipas, ruled Galilee, which was a safer place for Jews to live. Upon learning of Herod’s death and the cruelty of Archelaus’ reign, Joseph receives two dreams that instruct him to relocate his family to the city of Nazareth in the land of Israel. The unexplained evils surrounding the birth of Christ and His relocation to Nazareth—the massacre of the innocent and the subsequent violence under Archelaus—create a deep sense of unease. Why did God intervene to save one child but not countless others?
Matthew honestly presents the facts surrounding the birth of Christ and His early years. He is not afraid to leave his readers with a “gap.” We face the unsettling question of why God intervened for one and not for so many others. How will Matthew help us handle this problem? He won’t give us specific answers, but he provides a perspective that helps us not get trapped in the “pain gap.” That perspective comes from his use of the prophecy in Jeremiah, which allows us to zoom out and see the larger story God is writing.
Relief in the Prophecy of Jeremiah 31
The original context of this prophecy is a message of hope delivered to those mourning their sons going away into Babylonian exile. Rachel is used symbolically to represent the mothers of Israel who are grieving their children's exile. Rachel, the wife of the patriarch Israel (Jacob), faced being separated from her sons Joseph and Benjamin, like the mothers in the days of the exile and the Bethlehem massacre. The two verses after Matthew’s quoted portion provide comfort.
Jeremiah 31:17-18, “17 There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country. 18 I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God.”
God comforted the weeping mothers by promising a future restoration, a return from exile, a temporary relief from their sorrow. This promise reminded them that the larger story transcends the immediate pain. God consoled them by zooming out and letting them see the bigger story.
Jeremiah also mentions the new covenant in verses 31-34 later in this chapter. This was another act of zooming out beyond the return from exile. God would bring about internal transformation in His people, destroying the root cause of evil.
Jeremiah 31:31-34, “31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
The escape of the Christ child, viewed through this prophetic lens, isn't merely a rescue of one child; it is the rescue of all people. It is an essential step in God’s larger plan, securing the ultimate fulfillment of the new covenant, the promise of eternal life. Saving Jesus secures salvation for humanity, and the sacrifice of Jesus addresses the root cause of the pain. God did not save the twenty boys of Bethlehem or the 3,000 victims of the Passover massacre from physical death, but through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ, He saved them from the second death, permanent and eternal separation from God in hell.
Conclusion
Zooming out keeps gaps from becoming traps. The Christmas story, as told by Matthew, is not a comforting bedtime read. It’s a story of miraculous intervention and heartbreaking tragedy. It presents the gap between our hopes and the reality of suffering. But Matthew’s inclusion of prophecy enables us to “zoom out,” to see the larger narrative, the overarching plan of God that transcends the immediate pain. This doesn’t erase the pain, but it offers a different perspective. It doesn’t completely resolve the tension, but it does help us handle the hurt in a healthier way. Zooming out shows us that the origin of evil is not with God, but with humanity's choices. It also reveals the ultimate triumph of good over evil, the promise of a future free from suffering.
Steps
As followers of Christ, we must understand that answers are not always the things that ease our pain. Understanding why specific events occur is not always the pathway to peace. This is not what God offers us. Instead, trusting in His presence and His ultimate plan—a plan we may not fully comprehend—is the source of our strength and hope. This is what He offers. Ultimately, I don’t need to know “why” to worship. Worship comes when we recognize He is with us and working all things out for His glory and our good.
Maybe you are here, and you wouldn’t yet call yourself a follower of Christ. I want to be as open and honest as Matthew is in his account of the birth of Christ. Gaps are coming. I don’t want you to have the false expectation that if you start following Jesus, you will be given all the reasons why you and those you love experience pain. I can’t promise you that, but I can promise you that He will be with you and bring humanity's story to a glorious and good end.
Life Level Application
Head: Read Psalm 73:1-14. How does the writer of this psalm portray the prosperity of the wicked? How does his perspective affect his emotions? Have you ever felt like this?
Heart: Read Psalm 73:15-22. Where was the author when his perspective changed, and why is that significant? How does he describe “the end” of the wicked? How does his new perspective relate to his previous one—are they in conflict, or do they complement each other?
Hand: Read Psalm 73:23-28. How does the author’s new outlook affect his personal relationship with God—how he acts toward God and how God acts toward him?
Habit: How has the experience of pain affected your faith?