Epiphany #4 of 14:

Out of Egypt I have called my Son.

(Matthew 2:15)

We tend to skip over the story of Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child fleeing down into Egypt—refugees. Joseph is the hero of the story. Because of a dream, he “took the Child and his mother by night, and fled to Egypt” (Mt 2:14). It’s such a human story—maybe too human for our liking. I wonder how they put a roof over their heads and food on the table. I suppose Joseph picked up some carpentry work here and there—a few remodels. Enough to survive in a strange land.

After the sojourn into Egypt, God calls Joseph to bring the Child and his mother back home. It will be a scary journey avoiding imperial power along the way: Joseph “was afraid” (Mt 2:22). Later, Matthew tells us that the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt had to do with a prophecy of Hosea: “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” I don’t suppose Joseph knew about the prophecy. He was just doing what needed to be done: protecting and providing, caring and leading. He was a “good man” (Mt 1:19).

That’s the way prophecy works—unbeknownst. If you know it; or, think you know it, you ruin it. It’s an understanding that came to the Apostles “after Christ was raised from the dead” (Jn 2:22). Like all biblical prophecy, it’s both particular (about what Joseph did); and, universal (about what God is doing). The prophecy participates in God’s big story about the rainbow and about Abraham and about how his grandson Jacob and his sons fled to Egypt and about how “a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph” (Ex 1:8). The prophecy had to do with all that and much more until it comes to this particular flight into Egypt of the Christ Child and his mother and of Joseph who did what needed to be done—the protecting and providing, the caring and leading. We never know what our care might bring forth.

Just as God delivered Israel out of Egypt “to bless all people” (Gn 12:3); so, now Jesus will be delivered out of Egypt to bring about God’s big salvation for all people in all places. That’s how the Apostles preached the gospel quoting from another prophet: “I will give you [Christ] as a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Ac 13:47, quoting from Isaiah 49:6).