13 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.”
14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 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.”
16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:
18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”
Matthew 2: 13-18
There’s quite a bit going on in this passage. The Magi, Joseph, and a prophecy about Herod killing the unborn. They’re all related.
The wise men or Magi didn’t trust Herod, but Joseph had no idea what was happening on that front, so he had to be warned.
Again, we’re grateful that Joseph was obedient in taking Mary as his wife even after he found out she was pregnant. Mary would have been on her own without any kind of protection or cover. Even so, they were on their own to outsmart Herod, but it was certainly easier with a man in the home.
We don’t know if Joseph was told more than this, but it must have been a shock to know that the government was out to get their child. In his thirst for blood and power, he was terrified of Jesus so he ordered all boys under the age of two living new Bethlehem to be killed. How possessed do you have to be to want to murder children like that!
We somehow think that governments sanctioning abortion is a relatively new idea, something that was implemented in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. It’s been going on for at least 2000 years. Even before that Pharaoh demanded baby boys be slaughtered because he felt threatened – though in his case, by a twist of good fortune, Pharaoh’s daughter helped raise up the child he felt threatened by.
As long as abortion is legal and sanctioned by the government, we need to keep praying.
We need to pray for the leaders, the women who are deceived by a quick but dark solution, and many men who force their will over these women to end their pregnancy.
I know this is not a typical devotional, but we live in very difficult times. If we don’t speak up for those most vulnerable, no one else will.