Jesus was born in Bethlehem to His mother, Mary, and step-father, Joseph. (I smile every time I think of Joseph being Jesus’ “step-father”.) When He was born, wise men followed a star to Jerusalem looking for Him so that they could offer Him gifts and worship Him. When King Herod heard that the wise men were looking for Jesus to worship Him, he became very upset and began plotting against Jesus. He instructed the wise men to report back to him after they found Jesus so that he could go and “worship” Him too. But instead, after they found Him, offered their gifts to Him, and worshipped Him, they returned back to their own country. Why? Because God warned them in a dream not to report back to King Herod. The wise men followed God’s instructions without hesitation. We should be more like the wise men. We should trust that God is able to see all things and that He truly does have our best interest at heart.
After the wise men departed, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and told him to take Jesus and Mary to Egypt as King Herod was seeking to find and kill Jesus. It is here that we see King Herod’s true intentions and why God had instructed the wise men to not return back to him. The king had attempted to use deception and manipulation towards the wise men to fulfill his hidden agenda. But God was ages ahead of him. Just as He was when He sent the angel to Joseph. THAT SAME NIGHT, Joseph obeyed what the angel had told him. He didn’t delay or attempt to reason as we do at times. Sometimes God’s instructions do not make sense, but we must respond as if our lives depend upon our obedience.
King Herod died, and the angel of the Lord came to Jospeh again telling him to return. Learn how to WAIT FOR INSTRUCTIONS. We don’t know how long Jesus and his family were in Egypt. We just know that Joseph was obedient and the angel of the Lord came back to provide further instructions just as it had said. King Herod’s son proceeded him to the thrown, so, once again, the angel of the Lord provided instructions to Joseph. The family ended up going Nazareth and living there instead of returning back home. After you wait for the instructions, listen to them attentively and obey them completely.
Real Talk with Keve 