This is our final message that we will present for our Christmas season, which for the most has been consigned to history.
The flight into Egypt is told by Matthew, and comes as a consequence of a dream Joseph received. He obeys the God of Israel in taking Jesus to Egypt.
15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.
The Holy Bible: King James Version, Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009), Mt 2:15.
What we can surmise is that Jesus would have been in Egypt 2 to 3 years. The prophecy comes from the mouth of Hosea.
The flight into Egypt is very much to foreshadow our own spiritual walk, Egypt represents where we were before we came to Christ. It represents our unregenerate state, our worldly pursuits. Jesus is then “kaleo”, or rather summoned by the Father. The word Matthew gives for “called” is the same word for all of us who came to Christ, as He became the summoning of the Father to come out of Egypt. But for this coming out Herod, who would seek Him out not to worship but wound Him mortally is dead, so then the way is open for Him to come forth back to the land of Israel.
The Christmas story is redemptive because it identifies with us in Egypt, and represents our being called out. The Church “ecclesia” is made up of those so called out. Whilst the world celebrated a mundane feast, in which the Christmas story is replaced by a Santa Claus and presents, feasting and drunkenness. We have been called out because the One who identified in every way with us, called us out, we heard that call. We heard it in a way many cannot. We heard it speak to our spirit, dead in Egypt but revived, revived enough to hear the call and come out. As the Father summoned His own Son, so He summoned us through His Son.
I sense that what the Father is asking us, are we truly separating and coming out of Egypt? Have we truly obeyed and shaken the dusts of Egypt from our feet? This is the more poignant because in the end times, the little stones from Egypt are the same that cause us to fall into the fashions and trends of the end time world, where Egypt becomes Babylon. It becomes Babylon because Egypt learns to amalgamate political, financial, and religious power.
The “kaleo” of the Father in Jesus’ day, is coming to us more urgently, as the distinction between the called out and the left in Egypt, don’t have much difference as the Church constantly looks back like the children of Israel, who imagined the cucumbers of their slavery and desired to go back. There is for many the “kaleo” is a price too high to pay. The opinions and powers of the Masses, the legislations may work against you. You try to rationalise the “kaleo” to not be such a radical thing.
As much as the Father made the way for His own Son to come out protected so He will enable you and to protect you to come out.
The Christmas story is not about just worshipping the King, but be connected to the Father to hear His “kaleo” and come out of our Egypt to His new Jerusalem, the new Zion, where His people are marked distinguished from the world.
May our next months be part of that journey. May we see Christmas be worked out through the year. To walk with Jesus we must identify with Him both in His Life, His Death, His resurrection, His Ascension, His Glorification…so that we may be like those who on the Day of the Lord bow in deep worship and confess with our whole heart He is our King!
Maranatha!
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