PROCLAMATION
“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.’ ” Matthew 2:13 (NIV)
EXPLANATION
These words are from the gospel, the good news
regarding Jesus, The Christ, as recorded by the Apostle Matthew. After the birth of Jesus, there came wise
men, the Magi, from the east to worship Him. (Matthew 2:1-2) When King Herod heard these things he was
disturbed. He gathered together the
chief priests and the scribes and sought information from them regarding the place
of the birth of Christ. They told Herod
that the prophets said that Christ would be born in Bethlehem and the Magi told
him the exact time of His birth based upon the time the star appeared. Herod told the Magi to let him know the exact
location of the child so that he could go and worship Him, but he really wanted
to kill Him. (Matthew 2:4-8) The Magi
left Herod and went to the place where the Christ-child lay. They worshiped Him and gave Him gifts of gold,
frankincense, and myrrh. Afterwards they
left and returned to their country by a different route, having been warned by
an angel of The Lord not to go back to King Herod. (Matthew 2:12) Joseph, Mary’s husband, was also warned about
King Herod by an angel of The Lord and he took Mary and the Christ-child to
Egypt. (Matthew 2:13-15) The Christ-child
was protected from an unseen danger by an angel of The Lord.
APPLICATION
It is clear that in this verse, and in this chapter,
the “angel of The Lord” was protecting The Christ-child. It is also clear that as believers we have
angels watching over us. (Matthew 18:10)
When we are under attack, there are a host of angels surrounding us and
ready to come to our defense. (2 Kings 6:17)
We have guardian angels who protect us from dangers seen and unseen. If we are a child of The King, then we have
His protection day and night.
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