Matthew 2:13-23 - Find Peace in God's Providential Plan - January 12, 2020

Doesn’t it seem like these verses could have been pulled right out of the recent news? Maybe from Hong Kong or Iran or Venezuela where violence and death threats are common occurrences? Just think of the splashy headlines: I. Petty and paranoid tyrant hunts down supposed child challenger to his throne; II. Family forced to flee in the middle of the night to seek asylum in foreign country to escape death; III. Outsmarted and enraged, petty tyrant retaliates with bloody slaughter; IV. Village mourns the tragic and senseless loss of life. These could be headlines from our world today, but they’re not, they are headlines from the first century AD and they are recorded in the Bible. These are the headlines that detail what baby Jesus went through only months after his birth in Bethlehem. As we meditate on these headlines, God will help us find Peace in His Providential Plan.

Providence is the fancy theological word we use to describe God’s continuous care of his creation and his creatures – and his special care for believers like us. It’s the Bible’s teaching and our confession that God is still actively working in and preserving his creation. The first thing we need to understand about God’s providence is that sometimes God permits his children to hurt. In our text, God allowed his only Son, Jesus to hurt. Here is the baby whom prophets had foretold for thousands of years, whose birth was proclaimed by hosts of angels, who had been worshipped by shepherds and mysterious wise me. This was the King of kings and Lord of lords and yet he had to flee to a foreign country to escape the murderous wrath of a petty tyrant – it certainly doesn’t seem right, it doesn’t seem fair that God’s own Son would have to face such hardship and suffering. But no matter how it seems to us, God in his wisdom allowed his own Son to hurt.

And what was true for God’s only begotten Son is also true for the rest of his children. The Bible declares over and over that those who follow Christ should expect to suffer like he did (1 Peter 4:12). Consider Mary and Joseph. Don’t you think the parents of Jesus might have expected better? After all, the angel said their son was God’s Son (Matthew 1:23). If the Son of God was living in your home, wouldn’t you imagine that your life would be pretty smooth and worry free? Wouldn’t you think you had the ultimate insurance policy against pain and suffering? But the reality was just the opposite – Jesus brought nothing but trouble to Mary and Joseph. First, they had to have that uncomfortable conversation about how Mary was pregnant and it wasn’t Joseph’s. Second, they had to travel to Bethlehem for a census with a very pregnant Mary. And finally they had to flee in the middle of the night to keep Jesus safe. And the suffering didn’t stop there. Enraged that he been outwitted by God and the wise men, Herod ordered the senseless slaughter of Bethlehem’s baby boys. These were children of God, they had been received into his family through circumcision, and yet they were murdered for no reason other than that they were about Jesus’ age.

We immediately ask, “Why?” Why did God’s Son have to suffer like this? Why should any of God’s sons and daughters have to suffer? In Jesus’ case, the Bible’s answer is straightforward. Jesus suffered like this for us. This was part of his humiliation for us. When Isaiah writes that the Savior would be a man who knew grief, who was well acquainted with suffering (Isaiah 53:3) – this is one of the ways he became familiar with suffering. Hebrews says that he had to become like his brothers in every way including experiencing pain and sorrow (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus had to humiliate himself, to undergo pain and suffering as a helpless infant, a despised teacher, and as a crucified criminal to save us from our sins. Why did God’s Son have to hurt like this? That answer is as simple as it is sobering: it part of the price he had to pay to free us from sin, death and the devil. It was part of the cost of our redemption. It was for our eternal good.

We can grasp that, right? At least in theory. But it’s one thing to understand and believe that Jesus endured pain and suffering for our good – it’s another thing to trust that God permits us to suffer for the very same reason: for our good. How can we be sure of that? How can the pain, disappointment, the physical and psychological and emotional hurt we endure in this life – how can it be for our good, how can it give us any peace? There is one detail in our text that gives us peace even in the midst of pain, hardship, and sorrow. Did you notice that Matthew quoted the OT in both stories – the flight to Egypt and the slaughter of infants? Matthew quotes from Hosea (11:1) and Jeremiah (31:15) and says that these prophecies were fulfilled by what happened to Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and these innocent baby boys. In other words, God knew that these things would happen long before they did.

What? He knew ahead of time and did nothing to stop it? Where’s the comfort in that? The comfort lies in knowing that in this world nothing happens by chance or by accident. Everything happens according to God’s plan. There are few places in the Bible that demonstrate God’s complete control as right here, in Matthew 2. Satan was working hard through Herod to root out and destroy the Savior and our hope of salvation, but God was working behind the scenes to frustrate him at every turn. Jesus was indeed destined to die, but on a cross, not as a toddler in Bethlehem – and God used both natural and supernatural means to guarantee his safety. Remember that the next time pain, sorrow, or hardship come into your life – it’s all part of God’s plan for you. God uses suffering to humble us, to draw us closer, to purify our faith and for many other reasons – but it’s all for our good. It may not feel good, you may not be able to see how it could possibly turn out for good, but when you hurt, when you suffer, when you are in pain – you can still have peace, because you know that God is in control and in his eternal wisdom, he permits his children to suffer.

And yet, even though God allows his children to hurt, he also protects them from any true, eternally permanent harm. Yes, it was terrifying and humiliating for Jesus and his parents to have to flee to Egypt. There could have been nothing easy or pleasant about having to pick up in the middle of the night and run for their lives. But through the angel’s warning and this midnight flight to Egypt, God protected his Son so that he could grow up and die on a cross. And now you’re thinking – “yeah, but what about all those innocent babies whose lives were snuffed out by Herod’s soldiers? Clearly God didn’t care enough to keep them safe.” And it’s true, if we look at this story through the lens of reason or emotion all we see is senseless, meaningless suffering. But when we look at this story through our God-given eyes of faith, we can see that even this tragedy was part of God’s plan. The prophet Isaiah teaches us that God’s mercy is really behind the seemingly premature death of even young believers: the righteous one perishes, but no one takes it to heart. Men of mercy are being taken away, but no one understands that the righteous one is being spared from evil. He will enter into peace. They will rest on their beds. (Isaiah 57:1-2) These baby boys, who were the first martyrs to die for Jesus’ name, were also the first to realize the fulfillment of their Savior’s promise: be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10) Yes, Herod had ended these infant’s lives on this earth prematurely, but he couldn’t rob them of the eternal life God had freely given them. In life and in death, God protects his children from true, eternal harm.

Remember that as we march into this New Year. Because if we know anything about 2020, it’s that this world will continue to be a dangerous and deadly place. And even though we are believers, we will not be immune from pain and harm and danger. Freak accidents will strike, awful crimes will happen, natural disasters will destroy property and lives, wars and epidemics and disease will lead to terror and panic. And yet, through it all, we can live in peace, because we know that God will always protect his people from real, eternal harm. Every day and every night you can carry this promise with you: The LORD will watch to keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life. (Psalm 121:7)

How will he do this? Maybe he will keep harm away from you. Maybe the multi-car pile-up will take place a split second after you clear the intersection. Maybe this will be the year that you don’t get the flu. Maybe He will send one of his angels – or a fellow member – to take your hand as you navigate a treacherous, icy parking lot. Or maybe the LORD will keep you from harm by turning evil into good. Fleeing in the dark of night must have seemed evil to Mary and Joseph, but in the end it resulted in Jesus going to the cross to pay for theirs and the world’s sins – there has never been a greater reversal of evil to good in human history. So you might get in a car accident or experience a life-threatening sickness or lose a job or have your identity stolen in 2020. God can turn these evils into good by using them to humble you, to lead you to repentance, to strengthen your faith, to deepen your trust in his promises, to assure you that all things work together for the good of those who love God. (Romans 8:28) Yes, even if the very worst evil that sin brought into this world happens – even if you or someone you love dies, you can have peace, because not even death can harm those who are children of God by faith in Christ, for Christ has removed the sting of death by his death and resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).

After Herod died, God again sent an angel to Joseph who told him: get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to kill the child are dead. And again Joseph obeyed God’s command, leaving Egypt to make the long journey back to Israel. However, guided by a dream he passed by Bethlehem and settled in Nazareth. Again, this was not by accident, this was all according to God’s plan and under his providence. Matthew tells us that this was the fulfillment of prophecy: He will be called a Nazarene. In the end, this entire story happened just as God had mapped it out. From a midnight flight to Egypt, to the slaughter of innocent infants, to Mary and Joseph’s return to Nazareth – God was behind the scenes directing everything so that his Son would live in the home he had prepared for him.

And the same is true for us. God has a home prepared for us too. In fact, that’s why he allowed all these events to happen. Jesus had to be born in a lowly manger, he had to suffer as an infant and be crucified as an adult because we have sinned and forfeited any chance at heaven. Because we have failed to trust in God’s wise providence, because we have complained about his mysterious ways, because we have doubted and been discontent with the life God has given us – Jesus had to demonstrate perfect trust in his Father’s plan in even the most painful circumstances. Jesus came and suffered and died to open heaven to us once again and returned to paradise to prepare a place for us there. The night before he died, Jesus showed his disciples the key to finding peace in this world of pain and suffering: Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that you may also be where I am. (John 14:1-3) Just as God prepared a home in Nazareth for his Son, he has prepared a place in heaven for you and me and all believers – and no amount of pain or suffering will foil God’s plan.

I have a prediction to make for the year 2020 and the new decade that has just begun: once again people will search high and low for peace but won’t find it because this world is filled with suffering, pain, tragedy, and sorrow. But we will have peace. We will find our peace in God’s providence because even though will never know precisely what direction God has planned for our lives, we do know this: we know that God’s plan is for our path to end in heaven – and that gives us peace no matter what we face in life. Amen.