Read Matt 2:13-17.
“Take the Child and His mother and escape to
Matthew 2:13
Though the wise men never returned to direct the demented Herod to Jesus, Herod determined to see Him killed. To be sure he destroyed one Child, Herod ordered all male children under two in the neighbourhood of
The act underlines the cruelty of Herod, and also the futility of such cruelty. God had spoken to Joseph again in a dream and, no doubt using the gifts brought by the magi to finance the journey, Mary and Joseph escaped with the Christ Child to
Matthew quoted here from Jeremiah 31:15, picturing the anguish of those who lost their children in Herod’s purge. Yet Matthew 2:16-17 reminds us of a great truth. Even as the people of Jeremiah’s day were told that after their suffering “they will return from the land of the enemy,” so through the Cross, the infants who died will live again. “So,” the Lord declared through Jeremiah, “there is hope for your future.”
Jesus did live to die for us. Because of Him, even when we suffer painful tragedies, we too have hope for our future. In God's economy, no suffering that we have to bear for the sake of keeping true to the Word of God will go to waste. Out of our dying, God always releases life for the future.
