Dream On

(The link to the audio version of this blog is found at FAB’s Podcast at this link.)

Later, when Herod died, God’s angel appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt: “Up, take the child and his mother and return to Israel. All those out to murder the child are dead.”

Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel. When he heard, though, that Archelaus had succeeded his father, Herod, as king in Judea, he was afraid to go there. But then Joseph was directed in a dream to go to the hills of Galilee. On arrival, he settled in the village of Nazareth. This move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2:19-23)

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We assume that Joseph and Mary had no way of hearing the news report about the slaughter of the innocent babies around Jerusalem. Maybe it had filtered down to Egypt from news couriers operating in the region, but we aren’t told that. I’m not sure how the forerunner of the Associated Press operated in those days. However, the angel delivered the news to Joseph in a dream that it was safe to return. It was safe for the king of the Jews to return to the land of the Jews. Evil Herod was finished. The murderous posse was disbanded. Up you go, Joseph! Time to go home! Let’s get cracking. Water the camels, honey, we’ve got several long days ahead.

I wonder what the family emotions were like on hearing the news that it was time to return to Israel. Had they grown attached to friends there? Did Joseph have a good job in Egypt, and Jesus a good pack of buddies (or was he even old enough to play meaningfully with friends)? Was Mary in fellowship with her neighbors, and they had some kind of first century equivalent supper club? Or, had they sort of lived on the edge, knowing that they were pilgrims and strangers in Egypt and thus ready to exit anytime? There was nothing in Egypt to hold them back. Surely, their hearts and allegiance were in Israel, but had they put down any tent stakes—literally or figuratively—that might be hard to take up?

And also, it’s probably useful to factor in their fear of being found out; had they wondered if Herod had sent spies, so they kept a low profile, and were always looking over their shoulders? Thus, they were ready to go, to change location, and if they had been followed, set off on a new track, and leave again, without a trace. And was that departure also in the nighttime? I don’t think this scenario is too far-fetched.

Whatever their situation and context, the scripture says, “Joseph obeyed. He got up, took the child and his mother, and reentered Israel.” They were surely convinced that God had a plan for their child—which of course, included their family—and it was a glorious one. The dreams were real, could not be ignored, and continued to provide direction for their next moves. Sort of reminds me of what Israel experienced in the exodus from Egypt: God led them with a pillar of cloud by day, and fire by night. It was supernatural leading. And so it was for Joseph and Mary. God made clear his plan, and they obeyed. The vehicle of choice for speaking to them was by dreams.

I’m interested in how the dreams were directional, and the prophecies were confirmational. The dreams were immediate, fresh words from God that could not be ignored or explained away as some psychological misfire or the result of a bad dinner before falling off to sleep. They were specific as to next steps, they were real and not fairy tales, and they were life-giving.

The prophecies, which cycle throughout this presentation by Matthew, set the stage for these actions taken as a result of the dreams. Joseph didn’t read in Isaiah that one day he would be specifically named as the father of the Messiah who one day would have a dream and in that dream he would be told that Herod would try to kill his child, and after that was over, he could return to Israel. It didn’t work that way. The words of the Jewish prophets, given centuries before, and read by Matthew’s Jewish audience, laid out the foundation stones of proclamation about this Messiah. As the advent dawned on the life of this king, the prophecies were recounted which prepared the people to meet him. The dreams given to Joseph were specific, detailed actions on getting things in order and in place for those prophecies to be further fulfilled.

Even here in this passage, Joseph took his family to settle in the hills of Galilee. And it’s fascinating that this was motivated by his fear, upon return to his homeland, of being near Jerusalem. Wicked Herod’s son Archelaus was now the big boss in the capital, and he might catch wind of this, and hunt down their infant. We aren’t told that Joseph had a dream about going to Nazareth in Galilee, but somehow God gave him that idea and off they went for a new start.

I look back on their short family history: Mary gave birth to this king on a journey to fulfill a government census; they spent a short time living in some kind of residence during the time that the star-scholars found them; fairly immediately, they uprooted to exile in Egypt; then they returned to Israel, but it was to a new place for this young family. It surely felt like a vagabond life, a life of refugees who couldn’t seem to settle, and couldn’t find a home and permanent residence. But it does seem that this is a turning point in the story in terms of location. They were now in Nazareth, and yet another prophecy was mentioned by Matthew, citing “this move was a fulfillment of the prophetic words, ‘He shall be called a Nazarene.’” But who was the prophet who made this prediction?

The short answer is, we aren’t told. Unlike the other prophecies we have considered in these meditations, we don’t actually have a reference on this one. It may have been orally passed down, and never written, or at least not preserved. Or, it may have a figurative, or extended meaning and the reference is not to an actual geographic place (though that is clearly Matthew’s intention here, to tie together Nazareth and Nazarene. It does seem that someone from Nazareth would be called a Nazarite rather than a Nazarene, but let’s not get hung up on English rendering of Hebrew terms.) Instead, and without a lot of detail in this short discussion, the Nazarene reference reflects a common understanding of being despised and rejected. It was an out of the way place, and not important, and his Nazarene connection was a symbol of that lifelong and ultimate rejection. We aren’t told exactly what this Nazarene reference means, though it fits somehow in some combination of these things, or even with something else. My bottom line is that I’m satisfied that this is a prophecy, as Matthew stated, and the move to Nazareth was a fulfillment of that. Matthew understood this, and I assume his readers did as well.

I am thankful that Joseph and Mary were obedient to the dream messages the Lord gave them about their movements and location. The earthly life of the King of Kings was in the hands of his parents. They are parents who obeyed, and who presented him to the world.

“Father, again we are moved to joy when we consider how this man Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, responded to you with wholehearted obedience. May we do the same in our journey with you. Thank you for the legacy of following you that Jesus’ parents left to us.”