After Pentecost Devotional - Day 04

"That night, Joseph got up and took his wife and the child to Egypt, where they stayed until Herod died. So the Lord’s promise came true, just as the prophet had said, 'I called my son out of Egypt.'" Matthew 2:14-15

From a story of God's entrance into the world in questionable surroundings, Matthew takes us on a new journey with the infant Jesus. Jesus becomes a refugee with his family, fleeing to escape murder at the hands of Herod. While there were foreigners in Jesus' birth narrative, now Jesus himself becomes the foreigner, living in Egypt to escape political violence at home.

The magi had departed with an awareness of the political intrigues of Israelite life. They well understood that Herod was threatened with the news of the birth of a baby destined to become King. This was not simply an idle threat to his power years in the future. Israel had in the past crowed a nine-year-old as king. Any possible claim to the throne was a potential threat, regardless of Jesus' age.

Egypt had more than once been a refuge for Abraham and his descendants. It was, after all, the major world power of the day. It was in Egypt that Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Jacob, and Jeremiah had each fled in turn to escape oppression, famine, or other issues back home. Jesus' flight into Egypt is depicted by Matthew as once more falling into the same theme of a people fleeing oppression, seeking refuge, and being called out of refuge into the place Yahweh had designed for them.

Egypt was considered a place of safety, of wealth, of stability. It was not, however, where God wanted his people to remain. It was a place to which they might flee in moments of need, but not where God wanted them to remain.

Egypt was a refuge. It was a place to which one might escape. It was a place that could afford relief from various kinds of oppression, suffering, and need. It was also a difficult place for God's people to consider remaining.

Living as a refugee was not a life to be desired. Living as an immigrant, a foreigner, a stranger, one who does not belong is a difficult way to live. One may enjoy certain benefits of finding refuge, but it is rarely an easy experience. To live where one does not belong is to find oneself a target for abuse and oppression.

That is why Yahweh had redeemed the people from Egypt in the first place. He had chosen to hear and heed their cries. Yahweh had determined to offer the oppressed release from subjugation in a land where they had fled for refuge in a time of famine.

So Jesus and his family experienced the life of immigrants and refugees in Egypt. They also experienced God calling them out of that experience into a life of greater tranquility. After all, Yahweh is the redeemer who seeks to free one and all from oppression. He is also the one who entered that experience to better identify with the oppressed.

Who are those around me who experience difficulty due to living in a foreign setting? Determine to do something to alleviate the difficulty of the immigrant experience.

"Lord, make me more sensitive to the oppression of others around me."

—©Copyright 2016, Christopher B. Harbin
http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/ 
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