Get Up and Go

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

GET UP AND GO

Matt 2:13-15

13 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."

14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son."  

NIV

Again, we have two stories here, but they cannot be investigated without each other. First, we have the story of Joseph and the angel, second, we have the story of God and Hosea. It is interesting that now Jesus has been born, that God honors Joseph as the head of the family although Joseph has no biological claim in this family. The angel could have appeared to Mary or both Joseph and Mary, but God honored Joseph and gave him the dream, giving him specific instructions and the reason for them. It is also interesting that the messenger of God told Joseph, “Get up”, or “Wake up and get out of here now”. This is the Greek word that means to arise, wake up from sleep. Dreams can be so real sometimes, and they remain in our dream world, but here it was more than just a dream, it was God intervening and made Joseph wake up, get up and take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt in the middle of the night. It is interesting whether Joseph told Mary about his dream, as he woke her up in the middle of the night, telling her to get dressed, get all the presents packed up, get Jesus wrapped up, we are leaving for Egypt right now because Herod is going to search for Jesus to kill him. What was the response of Mary? How did she react to this news in the middle of the night? We know she did everything according to the instructions of Joseph. She has had a messenger of God visit her and she knows when that happens, it means truth, and thus we must believe she was more than ready to get up take Jesus and run far away, right away. It is also interesting that God makes it clear as to where they were to go. This is our story as well. We should not assume that where we go, what we do, is our choice, that “free will” covers the whole of our lives. We certainly have been given the freedom to choose to follow Jesus or to not follow him. Each person must make the choice. But once we have decided to follow Jesus then we must also believe that He leads us, and not just in paths of righteousness, but he gives us instructions and the reason to go to a place, to live in a particular city, or town, even the very neighborhood, and personally speaking, even the very house, and he has done that twice now. It is as he said, “Get up and flee to here”. Joseph did exactly as the Lord told him and left and stayed in Egypt until Herod died. The best guess by our scholars is just a guess. We know that Herod died in the thirty-seventh year of his reign, but no one knows when he began that reign, so the number of years they spent in Egypt is unknown. Nevertheless, it was all in accordance with God's plan as the prophet Hosea was given those words hundreds of years before. Again, we come down to the sovereignty of God. Again, we conclude that we must always be aware of the voice of God giving us instructions and yes, even the reason for them. What we learn here is that God does not expect mindless obedience, but he wants us to know the fullness of his truth, His reasoning, and His divine plan for us so that we can act with complete confidence in accordance with His will. When we hear from God, we get up and go, but not before we hear from Him.