December 30, 2007

Lesson: Matthew 2.13-23

Sermon Title: Out of Egypt

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INTRODUCTION

  1. We live in a violent world that impacts our lives each and every day.

    1. If we are not impacted directly, we are indirectly.

      1. Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is killed in a suicide attack at an election rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

      2. El Qaida is still in the news.

      3. There is violence in Afghanistan and Iraq.

      4. We face it in our schools, in our cities, towns, and on our streets.

    2. We see the impact of the violence of our world in real terms.

      1. We see it in the falling housing market,

      2. We see it in increased cost of crude oil, gas, and utility costs.

      3. We see it in the declining value of the dollar.

      4. We see it in increased costs for goods and services.

      5. It is estimated that the war in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost us between 1 and 2 Trillion dollars.

        1. Not to mention the nearly 4,000 American casualties.

        2. The countless Non-American lives that have been lost is almost unimaginable.

      6. No matter how you look at the violence, it is nothing new.

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MAIN BODY

  1. In the story of the birth of Jesus there is the threat of violence, and the carrying out of the threat.

    1. Following the star, The Magi have appeared in Jerusalem at the palace of Herod.

      1. They were told that he was to be born in Bethlehem.

      2. They followed the star found the babe and left their gifts.

      3. Warned in a dream they have returned home by another way.

    2. The threat of violence becomes a reality.

      1. Herod is fearful and furious.

      2. He is not going to let an upstart newborn to stand in the way of his families control of the throne of Judea.

      3. He had all the children two years and younger killed in Bethlehem.

  2. Before this can take place Joseph is told in a dream to get moving, take Mary and the child and get out of the country, go to Egypt.

    1. The writer of Matthew makes a direct connection to the Exodus from Egypt,

"This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, 'Out of Egypt I have called my son,'" (Matthew 2:15, NRSVA)

    1. This statement takes us back to Moses, Aaron, Pharaoh, and the time of the Exodus.

      1. There was a famine in the land of Canaan.

        1. There was grain in Egypt.

        2. Jacob and his sons go down to Egypt.

        3. For a time life is good.

        4. But then a new king arises in Egypt who does not know Joseph.

          1. He is a cruel taskmaster

          2. Life becomes intolerable.

          3. The cry of the people is heard by God.

          4. The time has come.

      2. God calls Moses to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt.

        1. Pharaoh is adamant in his refusal to let the people leave.

        2. In Exodus 4.22-23, God instructs Moses to speak to Pharaoh

22Then you shall say to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the LORD: Israel is my firstborn son. 23I said to you, "Let my son go that he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; now I will kill your firstborn son,'" (Exodus 4:22-23 NRSVA).

      1. You see the pathos of God in all its poignancy in Hosea 11.1

1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son, (Hosea 11:1, NRSVA).

    1. The Exodus is Israel's escape from slavery in Egypt and journey towards the Promised Land under Moses.

      1. It is the most important event in the Old Testament historically and theologically.

      2. More than a hundred times in all parts of the Old Testament except the Wisdom Literature, Yahweh is proclaimed as "the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

        1. Israel remembered the Exodus as God's mighty redemptive act.

        2. Israel celebrated the Exodus in her creeds (Deut. 26:5-9; 1 Sam. 12:6-8).

        3. Israel sang of the Exodus in worship (Ps. 78; 105; 106; 114; 135; 136).

        4. The prophets constantly reminded Israel that election and covenant were closely related to the Exodus (Isa. 11:16; Jer. 2:6; 7:22-25; Ezek. 20:6, 10; Hos. 2:15; 11:1; Amos 2:10; 3:1; Mic. 6:4; Hag. 2:5).

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  1. Now, in a very real sense there is a famine in Judea.

    1. It is not a famine of food,

      1. It is a famine of justice and mercy.

      2. It is a famine of love and compassion.

      3. Life is being lived on the level of the animal instead of the human.

    2. Joseph, Mary and Jesus are embarking on another exodus.

      1. It is different from the first one, but the results are the same.

      2. Matthew here quotes directly from the Hebrew, warily departing from the Septuagint, which renders the words, "From Egypt have I recalled his children," meaning Israel's children.

        1. The Gospel writer is reminding his people how dear Israel was to God in the days of his youth; how Moses was bidden to say to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, My first-born; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born" (Exodus 4:22-23).

        2. When Pharaoh refused, God having slain all his first-born, "called His own son out of Egypt," by a stroke of high-handed power and love.

      3. Viewing Matthew's words in this light, even if our Evangelist had not applied them to the recall from Egypt of God's own beloved, Only-begotten Son, the application would have been irresistibly made by all who have learnt to pierce beneath the surface to the deeper relations which Christ bears to His people, and both to God; and who are accustomed to trace the analogy of God's treatment of each respectively.

  2. The Exodus in the Old Testament was to Israel what the death and resurrection of Christ was to Christians in the New Testament.

    1. Just as Israel commemorated her deliverance from Egyptian bondage in the feast of Passover, Christians celebrate their redemption from sin in the observance of the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:1-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-26).

    2. For there to be a Lord's Supper there had to be another exodus.

      1. There is a famine in the land.

      2. This is not a famine of food for the body, but for the soul.

        1. God leads his people out of Egypt in the Exodus so that they might become his children.

        2. Joseph and Mary are led out of Egypt in a second exodus so that Jesus is identified as the only begotten son.

    3. We live in the midst of a famine in the land.

      1. We live in Egypt.

      2. This is not the promised land.

        1. There are those who would have us believe that this is God's country.

        2. It is God's country, but not in the ways that it is understood by those who believe that God is in control.

      3. Jesus comes to provide for another Exodus.

        1. Read what Jesus has to say in John 14.

1"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also, (John 14:1-3, NRSVA).

        1. Read what Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians.

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. 15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. 16For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call and with the sound of God's trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words, (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NRSVA).

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CONCLUSION:

  1. We will have to await this Exodus, but it will come.

    1. Just as God led his people out of Egypt he will lead us out of Egypt.

    2. Just as God led Joseph, Mary and Jesus out of Egypt, he will lead us out of our own Egypt.

      1. We see the mighty hand of God at work in Egypt in the exodus of Israel.

      2. We see the mighty hand of God at work in Judea in the exodus of the Holy Family.

      3. Do we see and experience the mighty hand of God in our own Egypt?

    3. He is still at work.

  2. We can believe, trust and live in hope.

Amen

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