ADVENT THURSDAY DAY NINETEEN: EGYPT

Today is the Nineteenth day day of Advent.  Our word for today is "Egypt."


^{Matthew 2:13} After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, because Herod is starting to look for the child so he can kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return.”

¹⁴ So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother. ¹⁵ And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: “I called my son out of "Egypt.”

Hosea 1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
² But when I called the people of Israel,
they went away from me...

⁵ “The Israelites will become captives again, as they were in Egypt,
and Assyria will become their king,
because they refuse to turn back to God.

 

I find it interesting that there is a recurring theme in Scripture having to do with Israel and Egypt.  In our Scripture for today Matthew is quoting Hosea when he explains why Mary, Joseph, and the child Jesus had to go to Egypt, and then be brought back out of Egypt.

 

Egypt was a symbol for bondage, but also a symbol for God's preparation to bring redemption and deliverance.  In the book of Genesis we have Abraham traveling into Egypt to find food and water for his family.  Abraham was the Father of the Hebrew people, the Jewish nation.  They became captives for a time.  But God brought Judgment on Egypt and brought Abraham and his family out and back to the Land of Promise. 

 

Also in the book of Genesis we have the story of Joseph being sold by his brothers into Egypt.  But through God's providence Jacob and his family move to Egypt and became a nation.  In time they were put under bondage.  In Exodus we see God bringing all of Israel out of Egypt and again return to the Land of Promise. 

 

The prophecy of Hosea tells speaks of the time when in 722 BC Assyria captures the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  They are not taken to literal Egypt but the prophet compares this destruction of Israel by Assyria with being captives in Egypt.  Actually this was the beginning of the diaspora, or the scattering of the Jewish people throughout the world.  In 1948 God brought them out of "Egypt," and back to the Promised Land, and the Nation of Israel was born anew after more than 2700 years later. 

 

According to our text, the Advent of Christ was one more opportunity to repeat this theme.  Remember that Egypt for the Savior was a type of preparation for redemption.  He came out of Egypt to live in Nazareth.  God the Father prepared His Son, the Christ of Heaven, by protecting Him and having Him grow up in Nazareth, and at the right time sending Him out on His teaching, preaching, and healing ministry.  Finally under the Father's will Christ submitted Himself to the cross and there died for our sins.  He arose on the third day as the Victor, and today sets at the right hand of God the Father as our intercessor. 

 

He takes us out of our Egypt (bondage of sin) each time a person is  saved by grace.  He is waiting until the Father gives the word and He will return to take all His children out of "Egypt" (this earthly existence) back to the "Promised Land," heaven itself.  Have you been delivered from your Spiritual Egypt?  That is, are you a born again Child of God?  If so, are you making the most of your time in this earthly Egypt; by seeking to see that many of your loved ones and family go with you one day to your heavenly Promised Land?

 

EGYPT IS ONLY TEMPORARY, HEAVEN IS ETERNAL