The God Who's Involved (Matt. 2)

Translation: ^2.1And when Jesus’ was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of King Herod, look magi from the eastern regions arrived into Jerusalem, ²saying, “Where is the King of the Jews Who was born? Because we’ve seen his star in the east and we’ve come to worship Him.” ³And when King Herod heard, he was upset, and all Jerusalem with him. ⁴And gathering all the arch-priests and scholars of the people, he asked of them, “Where will the Messiah be born?” ⁵And they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judah, because that’s how it’s written by the prophet, ⁶“And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, no way are you the least important among the rulers of Judah, because Someone Who will rule will come out from you, Who will shepherd My people Israel!” ⁷Then Herod after summoning the magi in secret tried to find out from them precisely the time of the star that appeared. ⁸And sending them into Bethlehem, he said, “One you travel [there], make an extra thorough search about the Little Child. And when you find [Him], tell me, so that I can also go and worship Him.” ⁹And when they had listened to the king, they traveled and look the star, which they saw in the east, led the way for them until it came and stopped over where the Little Child was. ¹⁰And seeing the star, they celebrated with crazy amounts of happiness! ¹¹And coming into the house, they saw the Little Child with Mary, His mother. And they fell down and worshiped Him and once they opened their treasure chests and they offered Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ¹²And because they were warned by dream no to return to Herod, they went far away to their region by another road.

¹³And when they were going back home—look, an angel of the Lord showed up in a dream to Joseph, saying “When you get up, take the Little Child and His mother and flee into Egypt and be there until I tell you, because Herod is about to look for the Little Child to destroy Him.” ¹⁴And when he got up, he took the Little Child and his mother during the night and went far away into Egypt. ¹⁵And he was there until the end of Herod, so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled, when he said, “out of Egypt I called My Son!” ¹⁶Then when he saw that he was tricked by the magi, Herod was made really angry. And by sending [soldiers] he killed all the kids that were in Bethlehem and in all its boundaries from two-year-olds and younger, according to the time which He found out precisely from the magi. ¹⁷Then what was spoken through Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, when he said, ¹⁸“A sound was heard in Rama, lots of crying and mourning, Rachel crying for her children and she doesn’t want to be comforted, because they’re gone.

¹⁹And when Herod met his end—look an angel of the Lord showed up by dream to Joseph in Egypt, ²⁰saying, “When you get up take the Little Child and His mother and go into the land of Israel, because the people looking for the life of the Little Children are have died. ²¹And when he got up he told the Little Child and His mother and went into the land of Israel. ²²And because he heard that Archelaus was reigning as king over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was scared enough there to leave. And because he was Divinely warned by dream he went far away into the districts of Galilee. ²³And when he came, he settled down into the city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken through the prophets would be fulfilled, namely that He would be called a Nazarene.

  Questions:

a.       What can we offer to Jesus this Christmas?

b.      What promises has God given us that we should trust Him to keep?

c.       What would it look like to live out the faith of Joseph in your own life

d.      How is God involved in your live each day?