Hosea’s Preaching

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They lived in Egypt until Herod’s death. This Egyptian exile fulfilled what Hosea had preached: “I called my son out of Egypt.” (Matthew 2:15)

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It seems that one verb perhaps often missing from the re-telling of the Advent stories is ‘obey.’ The word of the Lord was irresistible. God spoke, and made himself clear. Joseph heard it, and obeyed. It was time to go. The family of three saddled up, in the dark, and headed south. With no forwarding address.

But like so many of the parts of this remarkable story, the threads are tied together over centuries of connection. The obedience of Joseph and Mary to go to Egypt was a huge deal—but in God’s purposes, was not something unplanned. This Egyptian exile was actually part of the preaching of the prophet Hosea, announced in the eighth century before Jesus was born.

In Bible study, theologians and scholars seem to relish drawing out the discussion and debate about how New Testament writers used Old Testament passages. You will not have to look far in  your study-journey to find statements like these: “Hosea could not have meant that he was referring to Jesus! What he was referring to was the nation of Israel, and that’s why…” I will say those are valid and healthy inspection comments regarding original context and audience, and cause us to ask the questions about what did the prophets know, and what did God tell them to say? But I sift through that hurriedly and land on this point: God used the prophet’s words in any way He wanted, and that includes a possible re-purposing to Matthew’s audience of something uttered eight centuries before. And the best part here? It wasn’t way off line, or some random statement: it fit exactly what was happening in the life of Jesus. Hosea didn’t have to know what it meant, or envision that his words were pointing to the birth of the Messiah. Matthew’s Jewish audience, who no doubt had enormous respect for the prophet Hosea, must have sat up and listened, and took notice how God used the prophet’s words to speak directly about this hurriedly planned exile to the south of Israel. And so, they went, and landed in a far-away, foreign place.

I wonder: after the baby Jesus grew up, did he even remember the trip and the circumstances? Did Mary tell family stories, “Jesus, when we lived in Egypt, our house had a…” Then, did Jesus interrupt and say, “What did you say, Mama, about the house there? I don’t remember any of that!”

It may have been before his brain had developed to the point of being able to grasp and retain the effects of the sudden dislocation and the exile. (I am anticipating at least one reader at this point stopping me, and saying, “Wait! He was Jesus! He knew everything!” But I will fall back on the fact that he voluntarily limited himself when he became man. He was fully God, and fully man. To become fully man, he came to us in the most vulnerable human state, that of a baby, and I may be going out on a limb to say that he as a baby took time to develop a brain and memory, as all babies do.)

We aren’t told if Joseph set up his carpenter’s shop there, or Mary took in sewing to make ends meet, or if they found other Jewish exiles in the same town where they landed. There is no record of where that was; maybe it was a very remote, temporary settlement? Maybe it was the forerunner of modern Cairo where they could blend in with the crowds. Maybe Jesus had some of his ‘bestest’ boyhood friends there, and as he grew up, he remembered those as wonderful days of play and learning. Did he speak a language of Egypt, acquired through playtime and interaction with friends? Or did Mary keep him sequestered? If he lived as one of the locals, did his school class take field trips to the pyramids? Did Joseph chaperone?

Those details are lost to us, and while they would certainly be entertaining, they are apparently unimportant. What was important is that they were safe in Egypt, in exile. Herod’s execution squads had gone on a rampage and killed all the baby boys, two years old and under, in the region they had just been living in (Matthew 2:17-18). That’s the exact opposite of what Herod said to the star-scholars, “Tell me where he is so that I can go and worship him.” Yeah, right. That lethal action fulfilled the words of another prophet, Jeremiah, about two centuries after Hosea, that this type atrocity would occur. It’s the darkest stain on the Christmas story, and leaves us gasping for air in our discussion. How could one man be so cruel, corrupt and horrible? 

Jesus lived through the madman Herod’s quest for his extermination—and that was a result of his parents’ obedience to the word of the Lord. To immediately go to Egypt. And from there, God would call forth his son. Just as the preacher Hosea had said, eight centuries before.

“Father, thank you for the word of the prophet, faithfully uttered by him and preserved for us through the miracle of divine communication across the centuries. We marvel at how many different characters and events you put together to tell this Advent story.”