‘When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Hosea 11:1 NIVUK
Right now, as I write these words, my country is confronted with a migrant crisis. Every day, small boats are attempting to cross one of the world’s busiest shipping routes – the English Channel. It can also be unspeakable rough, especially if you are in a small dinghy and often without life jackets. People are risking their lives to come to the UK because they believe it is some form of promised land.
However, our government does not want them. It has made that entirely clear.
So anything I say about this passage will be controversial.
However, let me be plain about this, because the Bible is plain: when Jesus travelled to Egypt with His parents, they were clearly seeking asylum as refugees; when they returned, they were migrants.
That is the truth, however uncomfortable it may be for us to hear it.
But on the surface, this passage does not appear to be about Jesus at all. It appears to be about the Exodus – about Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land.
So it is a real surprise to see it quoted here:
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.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.’
Matthew 2:13-15 NIVUK
In effect, this verse has three separate contexts:
· The Exodus from Egypt
· Hosea’s own life story
· Jesus’ escape to and return from Egypt.
But what could it mean? And what can we learn from it?
Firstly, we need to look at the location. That location is clear: Egypt.
But what does Egypt represent?
There is actually a stunning connection between all three contexts.
We see it mentioned many years before the Exodus, when the forefathers of the Israelites went to live in Egypt:
Pharaoh asked the brothers, ‘What is your occupation?’ ‘Your servants are shepherds,’ they replied to Pharaoh, ‘just as our fathers were.’ They also said to him, ‘We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.’
Genesis 47:3-4 NIVUK
Egypt, for Jacob and his family, was a place of plenty (provided by Joseph) where they could take shelter from the famine in Canaan.
Hosea himself had a job where reputation really mattered. He was a prophet: a spiritual leader of God’s people. Yet God told him to do something radical, that would be beyond most of us. He calls Hosea to marry promiscuous woman – someone who will utterly trash his reputation (Hosea 1:2-3). Things get so bad for Hosea that God sends him to a slave market to buy back his wife who has been living like a prostitute (Hosea 3:1-3).
So if anyone knew what it meant to be asked to leave a comfortable life behind, it was Hosea.
Again, during the time of the Exile, when Hosea was prophesying and the northern kingdom of Israel was facing real pressure from Assyria, what did they do?
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser’s vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt, and he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore Shalmaneser seized him and put him in prison.
2 Kings 17:3-4 NIVUK
Again, they reached out for rescue, safety and security from Egypt. Again, it didn’t work. That was why the prophet Ezekiel later said this about Egypt:
Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord. ‘ “You have been a staff of reed for the people of Israel. When they grasped you with their hands, you splintered and you tore open their shoulders; when they leaned on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched.
Ezekiel 29:6-7 NIVUK
And when he did so, he was lifting from a statement about Egypt made by – guess who? – the same Assyrians that had taken Israel captive (2 Kings 18:21; Isaiah 36:6).
For most of Jewish history, Egypt represented a place of safety, security and prosperity, but outside God’s plan. In fact, in the early days after the Exodus, there were specific commands that told the Israelites not to go to Egypt (Deuteronomy 17:16). And later on, during the Exile, the people received the same command from the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 42).
There were times when God reversed this and sent His people there. He did it with Jacob and He did it with Mary and Joseph. But it was only ever for a short time. They were always supposed to return to where God had told them to be.
So Egypt is a place of security – our comfort zone, if you will: our sanctuary – but it is not a place where we should stay indefinitely. We should always be prepared, as the Israelites were during the Exodus, to follow God and move on. And we should not grumble about it, as many of them did, who never saw God’s promises fulfilled as a result (1 Corinthians 10:10).
Leaving that place of security and sanctuary is a risk. But then, Christmas is all about risk:
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
John 1:11 NIVUK
It is not necessarily about peace and safety. At its heart, Christmas is about the God who left behind the ultimate place of safety and security to come to earth as a vulnerable baby.
So if God Himself can do this, why can’t you?
However, something we need to bear in mind is that God does not call us to take mindless risks. He does not want us to live our lives as if nothing matters, as mindless hedonists who care about nothing.
The reality is that God called Moses to take the Israelites from Egypt:
The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.’
Exodus 3:7-10 NIVUK
God called Hosea to take the radical step to marry Gomer (Hosea 1:3).
Jesus obeyed God when He came to earth to save us (Romans 5:19).
So as well as the location, we also see the invocation.
Any decision to step out of our comfort zone should not be taken lightly – we should do it only in obedience to God. That and that alone is how we know it will be safe. That and that alone is how we know it will be successful.
Christians should not be like mindless fools who do dangerous things to draw attention to ourselves. We should not be reckless.
Let me give you an example. While on the Philippine island of Boracay on holiday, we tried parasailing for the first time. But we did it safely. We wore harnesses. We used a rope that we were assured is regularly checked and changed, and a parachute that has no holes.
Doing parasailing without any of those things is foolish. It will only lead to an accident, or even death.
Leaving the safety of our comfort zone without being called by God is likewise complete folly. It will not end well for us, and likewise also for the people around us.
As well as the location – the fact that we are called, like Jesus – to leave our comfort zones, and the invocation – the fact that we should not do so unless God calls us, we lastly see the identification. We see who it is that God calls.
And that is His Son. Or, more generically, His child.
There are three significant ways this idea of the ‘son of God’ is used in Scripture.
Luke 3:38 refers to Adam as the son of God – not in the sense that God had a wife who gave birth to him, but in the sense that God created Adam.
Secondly, we see in these verses in Hosea that God referred to the people of Israel as His son, His child. This was a picture of the special relationship Israel had with God, which is exemplified by the fact that He gave them an inheritance – the Promised Land (Psalm 16:6, 135:10-12, 136:17-22). This is, of course, something a father would do.
But there is also another angle to this. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into His family (Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians 1:4-6). And that means that we receive an inheritance – one that can never perish, spoil or fade (1 Peter 1:3-5). That inheritance is our salvation.
In other words, like Adam and like the people of Israel, we too are His children.
If we are His children, and He is our Father, that means we trust Him no matter what.
Imagine for a moment a child who is really afraid. Maybe they have run and hid under a table or their bed or in a cupboard. Now imagine a loving parent, speaking to them softly, assuring them that everything is okay. That is the picture here. It is the picture of a relationship we can fundamentally rely on, giving us the courage to step out in faith beyond our comfort zone for God.
The decision to return to Judea from Egypt must not have been easy for Mary and Joseph.
They had escaped a massacre of innocent lives. The new ruler was, after all, a relative of the despot from whom they had escaped.
But they did it. They obeyed God. And, as Matthew notes, they fulfilled Old Testament prophecy by doing so (Matthew 2:14-15, 19-23).
When I was training to be a missionary, I was advised to read books written by other missionaries so I could stand on the shoulders of giants, learn from them and be a better missionary. And I get it. I really do. It helped me a lot.
But the single greatest missionary this world has ever known is Jesus Christ. There is none greater.
Only He surrendered the privilege and glory of Heaven to become like a baby.
Only He learned to talk and walk like a frail human being.
Only He was able to minister deeply within His host language and culture like none other.
Some people might look at Easter and say ‘That’s what missions is all about.’ And they would be correct. Without Easter there is no missions.
But Christmas is when Jesus shows how to be missionaries: how to serve God where we are.
Being called out of our comfort zones is never easy. For the Jews, it took slavery and the miraculous ministry of Moses. For the disciples, it took fiery persecution from the Jews.
What will it take for you?
The call to live like Jesus – and Hosea – to heed God’s call and leave our comfort zone behind is clear and unmistakable.
What will it take to do it?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I often don’t link Christmas and the call to serve You as a missionary out of my comfort zone. Yet I see it here in these verses, plain as the day. Show me what this will mean for me, I pray. Amen.
Questions
1. What does Egypt represent in the Bible? Where, or what, is your Egypt?
2. Why is Christmas linked to the call to missions? When should we leave our comfort zones?
3. What does this call mean for you? How will you apply this teaching to your life?
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