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.”
Have you ever found yourself annoyed by those messages that come across the radio or T.V. periodically to test something called the “emergency broadcast system”?
The program you are listening to or watching is suddenly interrupted by a kind of alarm – which is then followed by a voice that says something like, “We interrupt regularly scheduled programming for this test of the emergency broadcast system. This is only a test. If this were an actual emergency …” and the announcer goes on to describe what would happen and what you should do if, in fact, this had been an actual tornado, hurricane, terrorist attack or any of a multitude of other disasters.
Even though I know that it is necessary to run tests to make sure the system is working properly, I almost always find those to be a bit annoying. But when I stop to think about it, I should be deeply grateful for this warning system, because most of the time the great interruptions of our lives come without any warning at all!
A phone call late at night – there’s been an accident.
A routine physical exam turns into a positive biopsy.
You arrive at work one day to find a pink slip on your desk.
You arrive at work one day to find a pink slip on your desk.
No radio or T.V. announcement; no alarm; just life interrupted without warning. That’s what happens 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.”
Most scholars agree that at this point in the story a couple of years have actually passed since all the interruptions surrounding the child’s birth. Little Jesus is now likely a toddler and life has settled down for Mary and Joseph. People have stopped talking about the strange circumstances surrounding their engagement and wedding and Joseph is running his small carpenter’s shop while his little boy is playing with wooden blocks he made from pieces of scrap from his jobs.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, another interruption!
“Get up!” the angel of the Lord says in the middle of the night. “Get up and go to Egypt, because Herod wants to kill your son.”
Can you imagine?
Maybe you can.
Maybe you have received that phone call in the middle of the night that brought bad news. Maybe you have faced that circumstance that you always prayed would never happen to you or to someone you love.
Notice what Joseph does.
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt…
He didn’t argue with God. He didn’t ask God to please call him back in the morning. He didn’t plead with God for another destination – after all the Israelites didn’t have the best memories of their time in Egypt! He simply got up and did what God told him to do.
Joseph understood that obedience is like a simple “on/off” switch. You either obey or you don’t. You are either on or off. When it comes to obedience you can’t be somewhere in between! And because Joseph was so willing to obey – even in the middle of the night - God trusted him with the precious life of his own Son.
What can I learn from Joseph?
I can learn that interruptions are part of life; even more, that life can be understood as a series of interruptions. I can learn that God often does his best work in and through interruptions. And finally, I can check my “obedience switch” to make sure it is on!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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.”
Most scholars agree that at this point in the story a couple of years have actually passed since all the interruptions surrounding the child’s birth. Little Jesus is now likely a toddler and life has settled down for Mary and Joseph. People have stopped talking about the strange circumstances surrounding their engagement and wedding and Joseph is running his small carpenter’s shop while his little boy is playing with wooden blocks he made from pieces of scrap from his jobs.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, another interruption!
“Get up!” the angel of the Lord says in the middle of the night. “Get up and go to Egypt, because Herod wants to kill your son.”
Can you imagine?
Maybe you can.
Maybe you have received that phone call in the middle of the night that brought bad news. Maybe you have faced that circumstance that you always prayed would never happen to you or to someone you love.
Notice what Joseph does.
So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt…
He didn’t argue with God. He didn’t ask God to please call him back in the morning. He didn’t plead with God for another destination – after all the Israelites didn’t have the best memories of their time in Egypt! He simply got up and did what God told him to do.
Joseph understood that obedience is like a simple “on/off” switch. You either obey or you don’t. You are either on or off. When it comes to obedience you can’t be somewhere in between! And because Joseph was so willing to obey – even in the middle of the night - God trusted him with the precious life of his own Son.
What can I learn from Joseph?
I can learn that interruptions are part of life; even more, that life can be understood as a series of interruptions. I can learn that God often does his best work in and through interruptions. And finally, I can check my “obedience switch” to make sure it is on!
Pastor Brian Coffey
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