In the middle of the night, Joseph wakes to another dream.
The message is urgent: “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt” (Matthew 2:13).
Herod has turned violent, and Jesus must disappear into the very land Israel once escaped from.
It is a strange reversal. In the original Exodus, Moses led the people out of Egypt to freedom. Now the new Moses, the true Deliverer, is being taken into Egypt to survive.
This is no symbolic trip. Mary and Joseph carry the salvation of the world as they cross the wilderness in fear and fatigue.
No miracles part the desert.
No crowds celebrate their journey.
Just silence, exhaustion, and the pressure of being pursued.
But Egypt is not outside God’s plan.
Matthew tells us that this movement fulfills prophecy: “Out of Egypt I called my son” (v. 15, referencing Hosea 11:1).
The story of Israel is being replayed, but this time, the Son will succeed where the nation failed.
Jesus retraces the steps of His people so He can redeem their story. Every exile will now find its answer in Him.
Eventually, Herod dies. The threat passes.
But Joseph’s return is cautious. He settles the family in Nazareth, a forgotten town in Galilee.
Matthew simply says, “so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene” (v. 23).
Strangely, no prophet ever says those exact words. That’s the point.
Matthew is pointing to a deeper truth: a convergence of prophetic themes.
Nazareth was a place of low reputation.
To be a “Nazarene” was to be dismissed and misunderstood. Exactly the kind of Messiah the prophets had whispered about.
Jesus doesn’t just fulfill prophecy in the obvious ways. He also fulfills the pain, the exile, the obscurity. The long, hard road through Egypt and Nazareth is part of the divine design.
And here is the mystery that often hits closest to home.
Sometimes God leads you into places you thought He had already saved you from.
Not because He’s punishing you. But because there is something in the wilderness that will shape you for the mission ahead.
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Egypt is not always the enemy.
Sometimes it is the shelter.
Sometimes it is the forge.
Sometimes the road to calling runs through places you hoped to avoid.
Jesus went before you.
He entered exile to break yours. And when He calls you back into the wilderness, it is never to abandon you; it is to prepare you.
So if you find yourself in a place you thought you had left behind, take heart.
God has not lost track of the promise. He may be leading you deeper into the story to reveal how much more it holds.
