the new Moses

Friday December 31st, Matthew 2: 13 After they left, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up! Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, because Herod is starting to look for the child so he can kill him. Stay in Egypt until I tell you to return." 14 So Joseph got up and left for Egypt during the night with the child and his mother.15 And Joseph stayed in Egypt until Herod died. This happened to bring about what the Lord had said through the prophet: "I called my son out of Egypt." For Matthew, Jesus is the new Moses who is here to lead the people into the new Promised Land. This story of the families run to Egypt and subsequent return is one way to connect that story. The slaughter of the holy innocents is another as the hearers recall Pharaoh’s slaughter of the holy innocents of their ancestors. In the struggles to maintain wealth and power it is often the innocents who become the victims. Like so many in wars for profit, dispensable victims in the quest for more. As Moses led the people from bondage to freedom, so too, Jesus will now undertake the task of leading the people of this world from bondage to freedom. May you in this new year, move from the battle field of power and away from bondage to this system and into the life of freedom that comes only from following the risen Christ.