Hosea 11; Matthew 1-2
Matthew chapter one and two will be our passage and what we’re going to look at in particular as the title says The second exodus of the true son of God now you were probably scratching your head what in the world on Christmas Eve It will make sense. Trust me Promise.
In Matthew chapter one, I’m not gonna read all the names, so don’t worry, but there are 42 generations, 42 generations from Abraham all the way to Jesus. And so Matthew is writing to an audience that needs to know who Jesus is and where Jesus came from. Well, who is he? He is Jesus. meaning Yahweh saves, he’s the Christ, that’s Messiah, anointed one or the king. And then he’s the son of David, so he’s from the line of David, so he’s a king, but he’s also the son of Abraham. And remember the great promise that was given by God to Abraham, Abraham from your offspring will come one who will save people from their sins. That offspring is Jesus and he’s coming on the scene.
So in Matthew chapter one, it begins the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And if you fast forward, I think to verse, oh, let’s say 16, it lands at Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. And then it explains why all the names. So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14. And from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 more generations. And then from the deportation to Babylon, to the birth of Christ, 14. So if my math is right, that’s 42 generations from Abraham. So we think it was slow for Abraham to have to wait 25 years for a son. Well, he had to wait 42 generations for the promised child.
Then you pick up in verse 18, and it says, now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child, from the Holy Spirit. And her husband, Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from the sleep, he did as the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. he called his name Jesus.
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet. And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go, search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
After listening to the king, they went on their way, and behold, the star they had seen, when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 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. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 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.”
Amen, this is God’s word. I imagine you all have great Christmas memories. From growing up, my sister has a kid who has been digitizing all of our family pictures, and they get sent out from time to time. And there was one from 1979, saw it the other day, and I can remember that picture being taken. Right after the picture was taken, the three of us children with my little brother was a baby blob, the three of us got down, well probably two of us, my brother probably laid in the chair, but the three of us got down and we peeked up the chimney to see if it was, you know, open enough for Santa to come because we, you know, had to make sure.
But one of the memories I have from Christmas over the years is decorating. Every year sometime around maybe Thanksgiving, we would go up in the attic, pull down all the boxes, We bring down the fake tree that lasted till we got a real one, which was exciting. But we would put the tree together and maybe some of you remember those old trees with the wooden stalk and you had the colored ends painted on and you put the yellow ones and the blue ones and the green ones and then there was a gold that you could get confused with the yellow and on and on it went. And finally, of course, you had to figure out the longer ones went at the bottom. Shorter ones went at the top. So if you had your colors mixed up, there you go.
Well, while we put together the tree and decorated it, all the rest, we would play Christmas music that the three of us kids have affectionately still call to this day, Christmas with Dad. Dad had a record player in the living room where the tree was, and those records would crackle. And he had a lot of classical music like Handel’s Messiah. But he had some wonderful bluegrass Christmas music. And one of our favorites still to this day is Oh Beautiful Star of Bethlehem, shine on. I know y’all have heard that. Somewhere along the way, the records turned into a bootlegged cassette tape. And then somewhere else along the way, one of us three kids had the tape digitized. And then, of course, it went into Apple Music, and so it’s in the phone. It comes out every year. This morning, a text message went out reminding us all to listen to Christmas. with dad.
I have no idea where the bootleg tapes are. The records are probably in his basement and we’ll sift through those one day. But for now iTunes will have to do.
Oh, beautiful Star of Bethlehem. And why do I tell you about that song, about these memories? Well, I want us to zero in on the Christmas story to the coming of the wise men. Now they came about two years after the birth of Jesus.
There’s a lot of details we don’t know about When Jesus was born, you know, was there no room in the inn or was it really no guest room in the house? And so they stayed in the part of the house where the animals were. If you’ve ever been in the Middle East, houses are big open rooms and they, you know, let their animals sleep in parts of the house. So, you know, probably not some barn out back like we’d think. But anyway, some semblance of not much room. They had to live where they could.
But they were there in Bethlehem for about two years. And when the wise men who come from somewhere in the East, they come to seek the one who was born King of the Jews, they follow the star. Now, scientists and stargazers and all the rest have tried to figure out what was this star. They’ve tried to look at the patterns of the sky and what pops up in history. Maybe it was a comet, they say. Maybe it was the North Star at a point when the Earth was in its axis here, there, whatever. They got all kinds of guesses.
I think the best way to interpret the star is to go back through the rest of the scripture. When did a bright light in times past show up for God’s people to be guided in the way of salvation? And the great example is the Shekinah glory, the cloud a fire by night during the Exodus that guided the wilderness generation through Sinai. And then the pillar of cloud by day, when the pillar rest or the cloud rested, the people of God camped. And when the pillar moved, that’s when they broke up camp and would travel until they made their way into the promised land.
And so I think the best explanation of the star of Bethlehem is the glory of God. the Shekinah glory, the same appearance we find in the Old Testament, now in the New. And so the Magi show up following the light of the glory of God, and they show up to see this new baby king and worship him, and they need directions. Good men, they ask for directions. Where do they go? They go to the palace.
And our scripture tells us that Herod was upset, and that’s an understatement. Here is this group of kings, serious looking men, coming and saying, where is he born King of the Jews? Well, what do we know about Herod? Herod was a maniac. Herod was what we would call a narcissist in our day. Herod would be one of those who bought his office from the Romans so that he could have a cushy job. It wasn’t always easy, but he would have a cushy job with a good Roman pension.
And so what happens when a good government man hears that his job is under threat? Well, he protects it. And so Herod is livid that his region, his part of the promised land that we called Judah and Jerusalem, Bethlehem, he is petrified that his region will be taken from him by some upstart king of the Jews. He’s the king of the Jews. And so he pulls together the scribes and the Pharisees or scribes and teachers, and they look it up in the Bible. Where is the one to be born called Messiah? They look it up, they find out it’s in Bethlehem. And we love the little line where he says to the wise men, you go find Jesus. And once you find him, send word back to me that I may worship him. Well, we see right through that, don’t we? We have echoes of Genesis 3. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field. Herod wanted to go see that baby and kill that baby. We remember the promise God made to Satan and also to Adam and Eve. The offspring of Eve would one day crush the serpent’s head, but the serpent would nip at the heels. of God’s servant. And so here it is what we call a heel nipper-etter. Does that sound right? He wants to kill baby Jesus. He wants to kill the king of kings, the Lord of lords. He wants to kill the son of David. He wants to kill the king of the Jews.
And so as it happens, the wise men are warned, go home a different way. Do not swing by the palace. Don’t go by and tell Herod where Jesus is. So they slip off back to the east after having seen the baby and worshipped him as the king. Well, Adam, Joseph is warned in a dream, Herod wants to kill your son. and you need to go to Egypt.
Now, everywhere in the Bible, we see people going down to Egypt. That’s always bad. Remember in the life of Abraham, he went down to Egypt a couple times because there was a famine. Should have trusted the Lord, should have stayed, should have found the provisions God would have given him if he’d stayed. But nevertheless, a couple times, Abraham goes down to Egypt to seek help. And that’s always bad, going down to Egypt, bad.
Remember what happened when finally Israel went to Egypt. Israel went to Egypt because there was a famine and remember Joseph sold into slavery, was already there. He was in Potiphar’s house, then he was in prison. And then he became the great steward of Egypt where he took the seven great years of wheat harvest and he stored it away for the seven years of famine. Well, Joseph’s father sent his brothers go to Egypt and get some wheat. And so there was that whole back and forth where Finally, he revealed himself and said, you need to bring dad back. And so Israel sojourned in Egypt up in the land of Goshen. They began to outnumber the stars in the sky like God promised to Abraham. They began to outnumber the sand on the seashore like God had promised to Abraham.
And one day there was a Pharaoh over Egypt who did not know Moses. and did not know all the promises. And so he began to deal shrewdly with Egypt. What did he say to the midwives? If it’s a boy, you’ve got to kill the boy. We don’t want a nation of people within our borders who will rise up against us. Sounds like Herod, doesn’t it? And take away our kingdom. And so they began to deal shrewdly, make bricks without straw, same quota. And so Israel groaned And God heard their groaning. He went to Moses at the burning bush and said, go and let my people go out of Egypt and bring them into the promised land that I promised Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all our forefathers. And so we have the great Exodus from Egypt.
Now notice what it says in Matthew chapter two. Why did Jesus, why did baby Jesus go down to Egypt? Well, it simply says in verse 15, this was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. That’s Hosea out of Egypt. I called my son. Now here’s where this gets a little tricky. So hang, hang with me a second. Okay, Jesus is compared in the Bible very often to a lot of characters. He’s matched up with David. Which one’s the better king? Well, not David, Jesus. He’s paired up with Adam. Adam was challenged to obey God perfectly in the garden, and he’d live forever, and so would all his offspring. Well, Adam sins against God. So Jesus, according to Saint Paul, is the second Adam. the obedient Adam.
Well then, Jesus is also called God’s son Israel. And Israel, when they’re rescued and redeemed from Egypt, they go into the wilderness and they got a pretty simple job. At least it sounded simple. It was to listen to God, obey God, and don’t get into idolatry.
Well, they get out into the wilderness. First thing they do is they fashion a golden calf. They get out in the wilderness and they break out, they’re snuck out of Egypt, Egyptian gods. They get out of Egypt and into the wilderness and they put God’s law behind their back. They get out of Egypt just being rescued and redeemed after they had cried out and they get out in the wilderness and they really Well, they want to go back to Egypt. There were leeks and onions. At least there was good food. The fare was better than the way to Israel. And so Israel is considered God’s unfaithful son. Adam is considered our first parent who’s unfaithful.
So when Jesus comes, his ministry, in a sense, really begins when he’s carried down to Egypt by his parents at the command of God. He is going to go down to Egypt as a baby, and he is going to come up out of Egypt, much like Israel did. He’s going to come up out of Egypt, and he’s going to go through the waters, not of the Red Sea, but the waters of baptism in the Jordan River. where he’s going to identify with the people of God and their sin. Then he’s gonna go into the wilderness and he’s gonna be there 40 days and 40 nights, not 40 years like Israel, but perhaps like Moses when he was on the mountain 40 days without food or drink, waiting for God’s law.
Jesus is gonna be in the wilderness and what’s he going to do? He’s going to be confronted at the end of that 40 days by Satan. And we remember Adam being tempted in the wilderness, or tempted in the garden where he had paradise. He had Eve, he had every good and perfect gift from God. He is tempted and fails, but what about Jesus in the wilderness? Satan gives him three temptations. And Jesus beats all three of those temptations by quoting the scripture.
And so Jesus in the wilderness temptation What Adam failed to do in the garden, Jesus completes. What Israel failed to do in the wilderness, Jesus completes. And then he goes on about his public ministry, reversing the curses of sin. He heals the sick. He touches the blind. He lets the lame walk. He gives palsied hands health. He casts out demons. He proclaims the good news to the captives and he begins the work that ultimately is culminated in his death and suffering on the cross.
And so all that to point out to us this Christmas Eve, we fail, right? We break God’s law daily, thought word and deed. We are like Israel, we’re unfaithful and idolatrous. We are like Adam. God’s been good to us and we still muck it up. We are like the kings that God raised up for Israel and we are unfaithful kings.
But in all that bad news, there’s good news. What did God always determine to do for Adam and Eve and for unfaithful Israel and for us who fall short of his glory? He promises restoration through his faithful son, Jesus. And so when Jesus came out of Egypt and into the land of promise to fulfill all righteousness and to go die the death of deaths on the cross, he did all of that so that we would see in him and have in him a perfect savior, a righteous mediator, a perfect lawgiver, a perfect law keeper. and one who, as Hebrew says, has identified with us, becoming like us in every way except with sin. And we have a high priest now who sits on the throne and can sympathize with us.
And so all this to point us this Christmas night to the little one in the cradle, the little one who would be carried off to Egypt, and to the great one who now sits on the throne having made satisfaction for sins.
I want to encourage you in this way. Israel and Adam and others have overlooked God’s kindness in Jesus and have put the Lord to the test, have put God behind their back in all those things. Even we do that daily and thoughtward indeed. Let me encourage you this night to see Jesus afresh. Remember his life, his obedience. His redemption, and put your faith and your hope and your trust in Him alone for your salvation, and you will never be put to shame.
God sees you in Jesus as if you never sinned and as if you always obeyed. And there’s one exodus yet to come. It’s that great exodus from this life, from this world, this sin-filled world, into the presence of God in heaven. And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, that assurance is indeed yours.
Pray with me. Our God, we give you thanks for the coming of Jesus and all that it means. What a blessing it is to be known by you and loved by you and to have the wonderful picture of Jesus presented to us so that we can lay hold of him by faith, completely trusting in him alone for our salvation. Bless us this night in these things that firm up our faith. And we ask it all in the name of Jesus, our great savior. Amen.