Commentary - Matthew 2:13-15

Bird's-eye view

This short passage details the Holy Family's flight to Egypt, an event precipitated by the murderous intentions of King Herod. On the surface, it is a story of political intrigue, a threatened monarch, and a miraculous escape. Joseph, warned by an angel in a dream, displays immediate and unquestioning obedience, whisking the Christ child and His mother away under the cover of night. But Matthew, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that this is far more than just a narrow escape. This journey is a deliberate act of God, designed to fulfill a deep, typological pattern established centuries earlier in the history of Israel. The event is a recapitulation of Israel's story, with a crucial difference. Jesus is the true Son, the perfect Israel, and He is re-enacting the history of His people in order to redeem it. This passage shows us the profound unity of the Old and New Testaments and reveals Christ as the one in whom all the promises and patterns of God find their ultimate meaning.

We see here the collision of two kingdoms. Herod, the Edomite king, represents the kingdom of man: paranoid, violent, and ultimately impotent. He wields the sword in a frantic attempt to secure his throne against a rival he cannot comprehend. In stark contrast, the kingdom of God advances not through political power plays, but through the quiet obedience of a carpenter, the vulnerability of a mother, and the helplessness of a baby. God's sovereign plan is not thwarted by the rage of earthly kings; rather, He uses their wickedness as the dark backdrop against which He paints the masterpiece of His redemption. The flight to Egypt is a strategic retreat, ordained by God, that places His Son in the precise location necessary to fulfill His word and advance His unstoppable purpose.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This passage follows immediately on the heels of the visit of the Magi. The Magi, Gentile seekers from the East, have come and worshiped the newborn King, presenting Him with royal gifts. Their visit has accomplished two things: it has publicly, if cryptically, announced the arrival of the true King of the Jews, and it has simultaneously enraged the counterfeit king, Herod. Herod's feigned piety has been exposed as a sham; having failed to trick the Magi into revealing the Child's location, his only remaining recourse is brute force. The flight to Egypt, therefore, is the direct consequence of the Magi's worship. The worship of the Gentiles provokes the wrath of the corrupt Jewish leadership, a pattern that will repeat itself throughout Jesus' ministry and the book of Acts. This section, along with the subsequent slaughter of the innocents, demonstrates the violent opposition that the kingdom of God faces from the kingdom of this world from the very moment of Christ's birth.

Key Issues

The King in Exile

From the very beginning, the life of our Lord is marked by exile and opposition. He is born under the rule of a foreign power, Rome, and a puppet king, Herod. He is worshiped by Gentiles from afar while being hunted by the ruler of His own people. And now, He is forced to become a refugee, fleeing the "Promised Land" for the historical land of bondage, Egypt. This is all profoundly upside-down, and intentionally so. Matthew is showing us that the land of Israel, under the corrupt leadership of men like Herod, had become the new Egypt, a place of slavery and death. And in a stunning reversal, the old Egypt, the land of Pharaoh and bondage, becomes a temporary sanctuary for the Son of God. God is turning the world's categories on their head.

This is how God's kingdom frequently advances: through what appears to be weakness, retreat, and disaster. The world sees a family of refugees fleeing a tyrant. Heaven sees the King of kings executing a perfectly timed maneuver in a cosmic war. This is a pattern for us. When we face opposition, when the Herods of this world rage against the Lord and His Anointed, we should not be surprised if God's plan for us involves a strategic retreat or a season of quiet exile. Our security is not in our circumstances, but in the unerring guidance of our God, who knows how to protect His own and how to use the malice of His enemies to fulfill His own righteous purposes.

Verse by Verse Commentary

13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”

The Magi are gone, and the divine protection shifts from a star in the sky to a direct word from Heaven. For the third time, God communicates with Joseph through a dream. This is not some vague, pizza-induced vision; this is a clear, authoritative command from an angel of the Lord. The message is urgent. The verbs are sharp imperatives: Get up! Take! Flee! Remain! There is no time for deliberation. Herod's paranoia has been stoked, and his intelligence network is now hunting for the Child. The threat is not political maneuvering; it is extermination. Herod wants to destroy Him. The place of refuge is specified: Egypt. This is deeply ironic. The place from which God had miraculously delivered His people Israel is now the place He has chosen to protect His Son. The command also contains a promise of future guidance: "remain there until I tell you." Joseph is not being sent into exile indefinitely; he is being placed under God's direct command and protection for a specific, though undisclosed, period of time.

14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and departed for Egypt.

Joseph's obedience is as immediate and precise as the command he received. The text says he "got up," the very first verb from the angel's command. He does not wait for morning. He does not conduct a cost-benefit analysis. He does not ask for a second opinion. He acts "while it was still night." This is the obedience of true faith. Faith hears the word of God and acts on it, period. Joseph's role in this story is that of the faithful guardian, the protector of the Christ child. He had previously obeyed God by taking Mary as his wife, and now he obeys by taking his family into exile. He is a model of masculine, believing headship, protecting his family from a clear and present danger by submitting himself entirely to the command of God. The darkness of the night under which they flee is a fitting picture of the moral darkness of Herod's kingdom from which they are escaping.

15 And he remained there until the death of Herod, in order that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, saying, “OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”

The family stays in Egypt until the threat is removed by an act of God: the death of Herod. Tyrants have a shelf life. But Matthew's primary interest here is not the political situation, but the prophetic significance. He tells us this entire episode, the flight and the return, was orchestrated by God to fulfill His word spoken through the prophet Hosea. Now, if you turn back to Hosea 11:1, you will find that the prophet is clearly speaking about the nation of Israel's exodus from Egypt. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." So how is this a fulfillment? Matthew is not ripping a verse out of context. He is teaching us to read our Bibles typologically. He is showing us that Israel's history was a pattern, a foreshadowing, of the life of the true and ultimate Son, Jesus Christ. Israel was God's "son" (Ex. 4:22), but a rebellious and disobedient son. Jesus is the obedient Son who succeeds where Israel failed. He is, in effect, the true Israel. By going down into Egypt and coming back out, Jesus is recapitulating Israel's history. He is living it over again, but this time in perfect faithfulness. God called His son, Israel, out of Egypt. Now He calls His only begotten Son, Jesus, out of Egypt. The first was a picture; the second is the reality. This is the deepest meaning of the event. It was not just an escape; it was a fulfillment, demonstrating that Jesus is the one to whom the entire story of Israel was pointing all along.

Application

There are at least three points of application for us here. First is the simple, rugged obedience of Joseph. In a culture that often mocks quiet faithfulness and masculine responsibility, Joseph stands as a tremendous example. He heard God's word and he did it, immediately, without fanfare. He led and protected his family. Men are called to do the same, to be attentive to the word of God and quick to obey, leading their households in righteousness, even when it requires sacrifice and dislocation.

Second, we see the utter sovereignty of God over the affairs of evil men. Herod, with all his power and murderous rage, is nothing more than a pawn in God's grand design. His wicked plot to kill the Christ child is the very thing that drives the Holy Family to the exact place they need to be to fulfill a prophecy. This should give us great confidence. The political turmoil we see around us, the threats of modern-day Herods, do not have the final say. God is weaving all of it, even the malice of His enemies, into the fabric of His perfect plan. Our job is not to fret, but to trust and obey the God who works all things together for good.

Finally, we must learn to read our Bibles as Matthew did. The Old Testament is not a collection of disconnected stories and moralisms. It is the story that prepares the way for Christ. Jesus is the true Adam, the true Abraham, the true Israel, the true David. The patterns of deliverance, exile, and redemption that we see in the Old Testament all find their ultimate meaning and fulfillment in Him. When we see this, the whole Bible opens up to us in a new and glorious way. We see that the flight to Egypt was not a random detour, but a crucial chapter in the story of the Son who was reliving the history of His people in order to save them.