IRREPRESSIBLE
Opening Prayer
In the whole world, my community, my family, and my own life, Father God, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
Read MATTHEW 2:13–23
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Escape to Egypt
13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[a]
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”[b]
The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.
Footnotes
- Matthew 2:15 Hosea 11:1
- Matthew 2:18 Jer. 31:15
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Where do you see the world engaged in battle with God’s kingdom today?When the kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God, e.g., 19:24) arrived by Jesus’ birth, the kingdoms of this world hated it. Throughout Jesus’ life on earth, every part of it, except his resurrection and ascension, was marked by conflict and struggle against ‘the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms’ (Ephesians 6:12). The same is true for citizens of the kingdom of heaven: us. Read again today’s verses, picking out the sorrow, fear, and uncertainty caused by antagonism toward the rule of the newborn King.
All of this was the result of the fearfulness and anger of Herod when he sensed the risk of being removed by another ‘king of the Jews’ (vv. 2, 3, 7, 16). The enforced refugee status of a very young child and his parents (vv. 13, 14), the horrific murder of innocent children (v. 16) and the nervous return of Joseph and his family to the backwater town of Nazareth, for fear of Herod’s successor (vv. 22, 23), must have caused immeasurable anguish.
Yet nothing and no one can stop the coming of the kingdom of heaven: the reign of Jesus. If we are on his side, we too will ultimately be victorious (1 John 5:4, 5).
Apply
In what ways does the reality of being part of the kingdom of God impact your attitudes and actions?
Closing prayer
You came and you reign, Lord Jesus. Your resurrection proved your victory—give me confidence to proclaim the Good News!
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.