Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the L-rd appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, 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 L-rd had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the L-rd appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.”
Matthew 2:13–23 ESV
Gang,
I often wonder what the L-rd meant when He allowed his son, the Exhorter, to be raised by a Servant (Joseph) and a Teacher (Mary).
Were they able to comprehend competing desires for their son’s attention?
Were they ever concerned about their son’s desires leading him to places that would become dangerous?
Were they ever concerned when he was led into the wilderness, while Joseph handled work in the contractor’s office (τεκτον is inaccurately described as a carpenter; it better describes, not someone who works with wood, as working with wood is only once described in the New Testament, at Golgotha, but rather someone who works with metal, stone, gems and other materials that are found in eternity; for reference, many of those other materials are spoken of extensively throughout the New Testament. Likely we we’re dealing with stonemasons, considering the context of Yehsua’s birth. Furthermore, “carpenter” among the skilled trades several decades back, used to refer to a catch-all tradesman who did everything)?
Were they ever concerned about not being able to keep their social butterfly of a son safe?
Were they concerned, given the religious leaders might raise questions about his parentage, if they found out what Mary knew about the father?
What was Mary like as a Teacher after that encounter with the King? For this is how the L-rd heals a Teacher after their wounding.
Escaping genocide. Thousands of women’s desires were destroyed in a matter of days. Dreams, birthrights, designs, future families, all enshrouded in the lament that refuses comfort. Desire expounded through the words of the Exhorter Jeremiah.
All because a spirit of jealousy took over a king who would not focus on his owndesign and his birthright, and because he refused understand what the elders of the nation said to him. And instead he began to envy someone else’s design without first seeking to understand it.
(Exhorters are often threatened with their lives or their skin, and this is part of how Father brings the Exhorter into Reality and brings him or her to a place of radical dependence on The G-d Who Fabricates And Designs Reality.)
Desires that are not rightly-aligned-and-attenuated lead to the destruction of other godly desires.
And the region of Rachel, the Prophet wife of Jacob, had a volcanic response to the destruction.
Gang, we must focus our desires in a right frame . And often that frame for those desires is bred or given through a dream.
Again, I understand that many of y’all may not have read Matthew this way, but the 10th commandment is the featured thread of the textile of this gospel.
What is in your heart? For out of that will come everything else, including your speech, the issues of life, your desires, and your willingness to execute on those desires.
And as for the Father, His desires were executed through the giving of dreams and prophecies and FULFILLMENT (a Mercy dynamic) of those prophecies, which inceived us into the process of following His heart. The question is, given the Giver Dynamic of this Gospel, how are we going to steward those gifts given from the Father of Lights?
Just some thoughts here, gang.