December 28, 2025
"God's Plan Prevails"
Matthew 2:13-23
I think most of us wish that more had been written about Jesus’ life before He began His ministry at the age of thirty. That’s thirty years of His life in which not much is known. It seems, then, that He must have led a fairly normal life during those years. If there is not much written about Jesus during those years, then nothing out of the ordinary happened. This is what we can assume. It wasn’t until Jesus began to do miraculous things that we come across things written about Him, namely in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We learn much more about Jesus.
Our text, however, has to do with Jesus’ life before He began His ministry. In this account, we’re told that an angel warned Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt because Jesus’ life was in danger. King Herod had wanted to kill Him. We’re not exactly sure how old Jesus was at that time. He was probably under two years old. This event took place before Jesus began His ministry.
Where in Egypt did the family flee to? The Bible doesn’t tell us, but tradition has it that they fled to the city of Cairo. It wasn’t called Cairo back then. Cairo is the modern name of the city.
There is an old section in the city of Cairo where it is believed that the family stayed. A church has been built on the site. When I was there about thirty years ago, the basement of the church was flooded, so I wasn’t able to see where the family lived. It is believed that they lived downstairs. But again, this is only according to tradition. There is no mention in the Bible as to where the family stayed while in Egypt.
It’s not clear how long Jesus and His family stayed in Egypt. After some time, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to return to Israel. King Herod had died and so it was safe to return to Israel—which the family did.
If we go back about 2,000 years before this, we see something similar in the history of Israel. If we remember, Jacob had sent his sons to Egypt for food. They were on the verge of starving to death. When the sons went to Egypt, they had discovered that Joseph, their brother, was second only to the king. They had returned to their father to tell him this. After some time, Jacob had moved his entire family to Egypt, where they had plenty of food to eat. Their lives had been spared from famine and death.
After about 400 years, the people of Israel returned to the land of Israel. They no longer had to fear death by starvation. They had plenty in the land to eat.
So, we see a parallel between Jesus’ going to Egypt and returning to Israel and the Israelites going to Egypt and returning to Israel. Both left Israel when it was unsafe and returned when it was safe. In both instances, God made sure nothing happened to them. He protected them.
God had protected them because He had a plan for them. God had preserved the nation of Israel because from them would descend the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. He came into the world, as we all well know. We are still celebrating His birth. God had preserved the Israelites to keep His plan of salvation on track.
God kept His Son, the baby Jesus, alive to fulfill His promise to us. That promise was to save us from our sins. God wasn’t about to let King Herod get in the way of His plan. Eventually, Jesus would die for our sins, but it wasn’t His time to do so as a very young child. That wasn’t in God’s plans. And so we see from our text from Matthew God’s sending Jesus into Egypt for a while. This was to keep God’s plan on track. He was intent on saving us.
I suppose some people look at Jesus’ family fleeing to Egypt as a common sense thing to do. They don’t see the event as part of a bigger picture. They don’t make the connection between this event and God’s plan of salvation. What I hope we understand is that this passage of Matthew isn’t some digression away from God’s ultimate plan. It is part of God’s plan to keep Jesus alive until the appointed time.
What would have happened had Herod killed Jesus? What would have happened had Joseph and Mary decided to stay in Israel and not listen to the angel? Jesus would have been killed quite possibly and our salvation come to nothing. But this wasn't God’s plan.
It is comforting to know that nothing can get in the way of God’s plan, not even evil rulers. When God determines something, it comes to pass. Nothing can get in the way of God’s plan to save us. That’s comforting for us, especially in our world where human plans don’t always happen. Even our plans don’t always work out. But we can be sure that God’s plans will come to fruition.
God’s plan to save us was fulfilled in Jesus. From the very beginning of time, God had a Savior in mind, one who would become like one of us. That’s exactly what happened in Jesus. God became flesh in order to die for our sins and rise from the dead. And He rose from the dead to show us what will happen to all human flesh. All people will be raised on the Last Day, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting shame. We are looking forward to being raised to everlasting life.
Again, it was God’s plan to keep the God-child, Jesus, from being killed before the appointed time. God kept Him safe until then. This happened according to God’s plan.
God has a plan for us. It is to save us, of course. We all are aware of this. God wants to save us all. His grand plan for us is eternal life. This shouldn’t be anything new to us.
But there is more to God’s plan for us, for each one of us. God’s plan is to preserve each of us in the faith until we enter eternal life. God has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts. He lives within us. He is our strength. He keeps us faithful.
I’m sure we sometimes wonder if we are going to make it into heaven. We’ve learned that nothing is for sure in this world. So, how do we know that our salvation is guaranteed? Plus, we wonder if we are good enough to make it into heaven. Have we done more bad than good? How merciful is God going to be? At times, we may not be confident in God’s preserving power.
It is possible for us to lose our salvation. We have the freewill to reject God. God doesn’t force us to believe in Him. So, if we want to walk away from God, we certainly can. If we lose our salvation, we have only ourselves to blame. We can’t blame God or this or that person. We have to point the finger at ourselves.
But I would encourage us not to become preoccupied with worrying about whether or not we are good enough to enter heaven. Let’s face it, none of us is good enough to make it into heaven. That’s a fact. If we were good enough, we would have no need for Jesus. That part of God’s plan of salvation would be unnecessary. We wouldn’t need Jesus to die for our sins because we are good enough.
And what does it mean to be good enough in our own eyes? If we rely on our good deeds, we are setting the standard. We become our own judge. And this would be true for everyone. Each person would be his own judge, if good deeds are the standard. Each person determines if he has done enough good deeds. This would be different for everyone. Who would be right?
We have to throw out our good deeds when it comes to our salvation. God’s plan is that we believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. If we believe in Him, we don’t have to worry about whether or not we will make it into heaven. Our good deeds are our response to God’s grace.
God will preserve us in the faith. That is His plan for us. This is another sign of God’s love for us. He wants us to be included in His plan of salvation—each of us.
May the Lord’s plan to keep us in the faith until we reach heaven bring us joy and comfort.