Introduction
The Apostle James asks us one of the most painful questions to confront (Jas. 4:1-5). Where does such enmity arise from? It arises from our delusional beastliness that “ye can be as god.” You want the whole world to fall down to worship and serve you. And when they don’t murderous cannibalism arises within you. Not only do we desire the whole world to serve us, but we desire to have the whole world bound by the chains of our desires. This is the sad state of mankind without Christ: war against the true God, and war with our brother. It was this war which Jesus came to decisively end.
Having been brought into the temple and consecrated in His holy war against the empire of Satan, the first move of our Champion is…to flee?
The Text
And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
Matthew 2:13-15
And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Luke 2:39-40
Joseph’s Dream
Like his namesake, Joseph has a dream that results in him ending up in Egypt. The angel of the Lord warns Joseph that Herod the Great, in his envy, would have no rival to his title: King of the Jews. But that was not a title that belonged to him. The branch (the “neser”) that had been foretold would arise from the ruined stump of Jesse was to be the King, not only of Israel but of all the Earth. Herod, having heard the rumors, heaving understood the prophet’s hints, resolved to burn the stump to ash.
But the Lord of Angel armies was not to be stymied in His purpose to redeem the world through the promised Seed, through the branch arising from David’s line. Thus, the heir to the throne, Joseph, is commanded to flee immediately with Mary and the Christ-child from Bethlehem and far from Jerusalem, into Egypt.
Herod the Edomite
We’ve repeatedly seen how those who have given themselves over to the lies of the serpent hunt for the blood of righteous. Herod shows the ugly face of satanic pride. When you serve the dragon, you are driven to dragonish actions. Herod holds up a mirror to us all. When our vanity is insulted and challenged, the sinful instinct is to extinguish all threats to our self-esteem. This is what drives the abortion industry in our own day. It is a society-wide agreement that babies are an inconvenient blockade to the worship and service we think should be rendered unto us.
This pretender King of the Jews, upon hearing the rumors of a prophesied king being born as prophet bards foretold in Bethlehem, and receiving this news from the mouth of mysterious eastern star-gazers, does not take the news well. The Angel’s message to Joseph is all too familiar: Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. Where have we heard this before? Pharaoh feared the Hebrews, and ordered their sons to be slain. Saul roiled with envy that the anointing as king had been given to that Giant-slaying, shepherd boy, David; the King of Israel, Saul, exerts all his military might, not to drive out the Philistines, but to hunt down David. David, in his old age, described it this way: “The wicked watcheth the righteous, and seeketh to slay him (Ps. 37:32); […] When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell (Ps. 27:2).”
The wicked hunt down the righteous. The souls perverted and polluted with guilt and shame, flail with rage to cut down the innocent. We see it over and over. Esau hunting his brother Jacob. Ahab hunting Elijah. The usurper queen Athaliah ordering all her grandson’s to be slaughtered. Haman, riddled with seething envy, coaxes Darius to order the destruction of the Jews. Herod stands at the end of a long and inglorious tradition of those who despise the promise God gave in Eden: the Seed of the Woman would crush the head of the serpent’s seed.
But though Herod thought that by destroying all the Bethlehem boys under 2 years old, he had removed the threat, the Lord was one step ahead. All Herod had done was heap greater condemnation upon his own head, for (likely around 1BC) he died a miserable death of fever & gangrene.
Which Egypt?
Matthew informs us that this was done in order to fulfill the bard’s oracle: Out of Egypt I’ve called my Son (Hos. 11:1). On the surface it seems plain that this was in reference to Jesus living in Egypt for a time and then returning to Nazareth. Certainly, Jesus went down to Egypt and then back into Israel. Check that box, literally. Now, think a little deeper and you see that this has a bit of a double meaning. Consider that Jesus, by Joseph’s paternal care, fled from Jerusalem. A Jerusalem with a fox as a king, a Jerusalem full of Pharisees who strained at gnats and swallow camels, a Jerusalem full of Roman idolators, a Jerusalem full of Sadducees who denied the resurrection, a Jerusalem with a temple full of thieves. Instead of a city full of faith, we find it to be a city full of filth. A city for slaves, for these citizens of the holy city were anything but holy. They were slaves to their sin. Unbelieving Jews, idolatrous gentiles.
This is a horrific reality. Jerusalem has been inverted. It has become Egypt. Out of that Egypt, Jesus, the new Israel is delivered. His flight is aided by angels (Ex. 12:23), it took place at night (12:29–31), accompanied by a Joseph (Ex. 13:19), and with a Mariam (Ex. 15:20-21). Instead of being the city which God revealed His name and character in, it had become a city of lies in servitude to the Serpent. Thus, the Lord fled out of that Spiritual Egypt, in order to remake a New Jerusalem by His life, death, resurrection, and ascension.
The Boy Who Was the Branch
Luke leaves out the flight to Egypt. But he emphasizes that after Joseph and Mary had fulfilled the required legal ceremonies, they returned to Nazareth. This was, of course, after the few years in Egypt. Having symbolically fled Spiritual Egypt, the little boy, who was the legal heir to the throne of David returns to the town in which He was first conceived by the overshadowing New Creation work of the Holy Spirit. He grew up in the town which means branch. Poised and ready, when, in due time, He would commence His conquest.
Luke tells us what sort of boy He was: And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him. Christ was not a little chubby baby to be adored, as we do with any common child. This child had come to make war. Luke informs us that as He grew, like the mighty men of old, every fibre of His being was nerved and made ready to break the jaws of lions, and bears, and dragons. He was come to be a better Samson, pulling down the temple of demon worship down. He was come to be a better David, not to defeat a Giant and unclean Philistines, but to defeat the Accuser of the Brethren, and casting down all his wicked war-machines. He was come to be a better Solomon, ruling the world with the Wisdom of His Word, cleansing the world with the Water of the Spirit’s rebirth, and feeding the world with the bread and wine of His body and blood.
The Story of Christmas
The story of Christmas brings three things home to us. First, the strife between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent comes to a decisive culmination. This is a comfort to you, for Christ’s coming was intended to bring you out of the darkness and death of Satan’s kingdom, and make a way for you to partake of the Tree of Life, the very body and blood of Christ Jesus. You do not need to be god anymore. You do not need to envy your brother anymore. You do not need to try to hold it all together anymore. You need only to look in faith to the Prince of peace, and all that enmity with God and man comes to an end.
Second, this story is our story. It is the history of the human race. It is the true myth. When Adam sinned, we sinned in him, and this should cause us to hang our head in shame; but the coming of Jesus is glad tidings, which should lift your face to see in His coming the redemption of your entire humanity.
Third, the dividing line is always in the heart. You either receive all this as good news by faith, or you choose to live in the lies. Jesus fled out of Egypt, leading a new exodus, and it was an exodus out of both Jewish hypocrisy and Gentile idolatry, and the unbelief at the heart of each. It was an exodus out of our murder, and lust, and fear, and envy. Christ came to deliver you, every last aspect of you, out of sin’s misery and into the blazing holiness of His love. This alone is what makes Christmas merry.
Charge and Benediction
Very simply, the charge is to have a very merry Christmas. It will not be a merry Christmas if you try to hold on to the delusion that you are god and everyone should serve you. Instead, look to the champion of our salvation, Jesus Christ, and then let all your bitter striving cease. Love God and love your neighbor (whether enemy or friend) as yourself. And this is all possible because Christ, like a mightier David, has crushed the skull of the dragon.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, And to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
Jude 1:24-25
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