Prayer of the Day: O Lord God, heavenly Father, who didst suffer Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ, to become a stranger and a sojourner in Egypt for our sakes, and didst lead Him safely home to His fatherland: Mercifully grant that we poor sinners, who are strangers and sojourners in this perilous world, may soon be called home to our true fatherland, the kingdom of heaven, where we shall live in eternal joy and glory; through the merits of Thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

Grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our meditation is based on the Child Jesus in Egypt. You will see the Lord carries you into spiritually difficult situations for the purpose that His saving grace might shine.

And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not. But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.”

Dearest Christ child, bless Thy Word that we may trust in Thee. Amen.

Children today are under attack. In school, real science, math, literature, and work skills are being steadily replaced with a full eight hours of social justice and climate change. From friends, they learn how divorce isn’t such a bad thing (mom’s boyfriend, dad’s girlfriend, kind of neat). From television and movies, they get a constant messaging of a new normal concerning gender fluidity. And on little hand-held devices, they get to explore whatever false reality the dark recesses of the carnal mind can think up.

So what do you do? Never send them to anything that looks like a school? Micromanage a short list of parentally approved friends? Never let them touch an electronic device, in a world where it’s increasingly impossible to find employment without one? You’d have to never leave the house! Well, in our gospel lesson today, we find it’s not quite that simple. The parents given custody of the Infant Savior are sent to raise their Child in a full-out pagan society, and sent there by God’s command: “Flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.”

Now, Scripture doesn’t detail precisely what happened in this foreign land, nor exactly how long they sojourned there (perhaps a decade). However, we do know that where God chose to send them, Egypt, was the very worst place you could go!

Throughout Bible history, whenever God’s people fancied Egypt to be the solution to their discontentment with His ways, it was met with punishment. In Biblical poetry, the word “Egypt” stands for the spiritual danger inherent to any godless way. And the Apostle Paul sums up well that any so-called enlightened culture without the Bible, including ours today, inevitably exalts in the veneration of animals above God, in homosexual behavior, and in abortion/infanticide. Paul said, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools… and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator… birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things… For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections… to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.”

Yet despite all these clear Scriptural warnings, it was to such a land filled with militant immorality and indolent idolatry that the Lord commands Joseph and Mary to raise their Child: “Be thou there until I bring thee word.”

Maybe they could try not leaving their home? But the story of the angels’ visit to the city of Sodom, and perhaps your own experience, shows that no matter how adamantly you might try to shelter your little ones, that which is contrary to God’s Word has a way of getting into your home one way or another.

Like Mary and Joseph, you have to work and deal with a society that increasingly lauds such godless things. Here are some things you might want to do: boycott every ungodly business, complain online, cover your children’s eyes, and resolve never to leave the house again. None of these tactics of ours can keep them as innocent as you’d like.

Also, as your children learn, say, and do unthinkable things, all on their own from no outside influence, it should strike you that they learned it right within the sanctity of their own home, from you. For despite our zealous opinions of how society should clean up its act, our own souls can prove just as filthy.

You see, then, the peculiar way of your God, is so different from our parental instincts. God sent His children, Mary and Joseph, and Jesus, places you’d never willingly choose to send yours. So, instead of relying on your parenting skills, learn from your Father in heaven, who sent His only-begotten Son into the most spiritually trying of environments. Also learn how Jesus was the one and only Child who in this world of sin could remain unscathed, righteous and pure.

The command was “Be thou there.” There they remained, in patience, until God gave word. And there Jesus endured perhaps a decade of seeing filthy sights and hearing society’s filthy lies. See here the long-suffering purpose for which Jesus came, as He would later say Himself: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.” Jesus had long-suffering patience and boundless mercy for the Egyptians. He has the same for us. He has long-suffering patience and mercy for our discontentment with where God asks us to be. He has long-suffering patience and mercy for those He commands us to love.

Jesus remained in Egypt in perfect righteousness until the day His Father gave word: “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” And though Jesus’ eyes and ears had taken in the worst of false realities in Egypt, He remained unscathed. And when His Father called Him out of that land and back to His home, the shame of living in the midst of a pagan people was replaced with a shame inflicted by His own. Here then is both Christ’s active and passive obedience, essential to the Father’s plan to make eternal life yours.

In Egypt, His Child’s light would shine through humility and perseverance in a perverse and evil land. And called out of that land and on up to Golgotha, His Child’s light might shine on you from a cross in self-sacrificial love. Here on the cross He was no longer a mere innocent bystander. That which He had previously taken in through His eyes and ears, He took into His soul. He bore your sins as His own, and enduring everything your sin deserves, He conquered our spiritual darkness and set us free from death and hell. Trust this Child to preserve your children, to keep your household in order, and in the end carry you all to the eternal home with Him.

Now, certainly Mary and Joseph struggled with the same kinds of parental anxiety as any of us. And no doubt many a day, they wanted to up and run from Egypt, but they could not. The angel said, “Be thou there.” What sustained them, then, in that godless environment was repentance and faith in God’s promise: “Be thou there until I bring thee word.” Faith in a promise they could hold in their arms, the Word incarnate right in their home, the Child left in their care.

Jesus and Mary were sent to Egypt with no command to topple the nation or even preach against it, but simply to be there, to first remain faithful themselves. And everything they were forced to take in with their eyes and ears, in God’s design was meant to refocus them on that most holy of work.

We do and must teach what is right in our public preaching of the Word and as God gives you individual opportunity to speak “the truth in love.” But there is a profound lesson to be learned from Jesus’ time in Egypt. The greater spiritual gift, than our natural penchant for fight or flight, is the Spirit-wrought patience and love which can only come through faith in Christ. Here they and we learn the holy work of waiting on God. We learn turning to His Word in the solace of our home and when out and about. Here we learn living our faith by engaging with others, with an overwhelming generosity of love.

No matter how you’d prefer to hide away at home, God’s given you the ability to engage like they did, in a world you’d rather not. In love, we should work with and for those who speak and act contrary to God’s Word. We “help and befriend them in every bodily need.” We “help them to improve and protect them property and business.” Thus our light might shine as the Child who came not to condemn but to save. And even if while out and about, your children see, hear, and repeat things that appall you, thank your God for the privilege to teach and show them by example the compassion and humility which shines brighter than any rash action we could take. Thereby follow the childlike pattern and footsteps of Jesus.

Recommit yourselves today to keeping the Word made flesh at the center of your home. Keep It as a treasure you can hold in your arms like a little child, the Holy Scriptures. Talk about whatever it is you see out there in the world in light of what God has to say about it. Listen together to a good, sound Lutheran devotion read aloud, even if it starts out as just 30 seconds a day. Once it’s there, and only once it’s there, will it grow. And when conflict creeps into the solace of your home, peer first into your own heart, that from here, the inner working of the Word might spread out to the rest. If you do these things before leaving the door, you’ll find the outside to be not nearly as scary, and that you’re not nearly as alone as you might think.

For the God who had Mary and Joseph live in Egypt “until He brought them word,” brings you word with great regularity. He brings you word to assemble with those who sojourn the same, calling you together out of our Egypt in visible fashion as His church. He calls us together to receive the Christ child anew in Word and Sacrament, that our faith might be strengthened and our longsuffering emboldened, in reflection of God’s gracious dealing with all lost mankind. He calls us to His Word and church until, His final word is given and your journey complete, you get to depart this world for good. To heaven He will call us to enjoy an eternal innocence far greater than any child could be given here and now.

Now the peace that passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

—Pastor Timothy T. Daub

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
Hecla, SD

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Ministry by Mail is a weekly publication of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Sermon archives, and subscription and staff information may be found online at www.clclutheran.org/ministrybymail. Audio Sermons are available at: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ministrybymail

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version.