Why Did Jesus Have to Flee? 🏃♂️ | Matthew Devotional (7-Step QT)
7-Step QT Notes
1. 🙏 Quiet Time
Pause.
Take a deep breath.
Ask God to help you trust His plan even when life feels confusing.
2. 📅 January 15, 2026
Today’s passage reminds us:
God’s promises are fulfilled even through pain and uncertainty.
3. ✝️ Matthew 2:13-23
After the Magi left, an angel warned Joseph to flee to Egypt with Mary and Jesus because Herod planned to kill the child. They stayed until Herod died, fulfilling the prophecy: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Furious, Herod ordered the massacre of boys two years and under in Bethlehem, fulfilling Jeremiah’s prophecy of lamentation. After Herod’s death, an angel told Joseph to return to Israel, but fearing Archelaus, he settled in Galilee, in Nazareth—fulfilling the prophecy that Jesus would be called a Nazarene.
4. 📖 Key Verse
“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” (v. 13b)
5. 📝 Reflection
Even those with faith may wonder when reading this passage: Why did God’s Son, though just a baby, need to flee? Couldn’t God blind Herod’s soldiers or prevent this from happening altogether?
God is all-powerful and could have done so. Couldn’t He have proclaimed salvation without sending Jesus? Yet according to God’s promise, Jesus had to come to earth and die. His flight to Egypt, the tragic death of boys under two in Bethlehem, and His move to Nazareth were all necessary for Scripture to be fulfilled.
Dear friends, the pain and tears you experience today are not meaningless. Everything is under God’s sovereign will. His Word will surely come to pass. So lift your eyes to God, not to your problems or circumstances. We are God’s children, promised eternal life.
6. 💬 What does this passage speak to you today?
- Where do I struggle to trust God’s plan?
- How can I remind myself that His promises are certain even when life hurts?
- What does it look like to live with hope today?
7. 🙏 Prayer
Lord, help me trust Your plan when I don’t understand.
Remind me that Your promises never fail.
Give me strength to look beyond my circumstances and fix my eyes on You.
Amen.
Scriptures
📖 13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah:
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
19 But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” 21 And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. 23 And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:13-23, ESV).
Comments
Post a Comment