Real Hope: The Birth of Our Saviour KingSýnishorn

Capture The Attention

There’s always more than meets the eye when reading the Bible and a quick skim usually misses important details to finding the gold in the moment we’re reading about. Such is true with this passage and the angel of the Lord instructing Joseph to get up, leave with Mary and the child and escape to Egypt. We realise the appearance of an angel with a message from God is miraculous. But why Egypt?

Up until this moment, Moses was the hero, the recipient of the ten commandments, and Israel’s leader who rescued them from slavery in Egypt and guided them to the promised land. The Jewish people remembered Moses through storytelling and memorising the Torah. He was their example and their inspiration for faithfulness and obedience to God. Yet something and someone new was about to enter the story. Prophets had long spoken of the Messiah who was to come, and now God was orchestrating redemption and salvation through Jesus. Of all the places Joseph could have been sent, he was told to go to Egypt. To return to the scene of Israel’s most significant moments and the place of Moses was a way of affirming what had been, yet emphasising the new and greater to come. The return to Egypt was a way of capturing the attention of every person who would hear the story. Jesus was about to lead all people out of slavery and into the promised land of salvation and eternal hope.

Written by SAM FAGAN