Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Protection
- Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One. Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us. Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us. Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear. We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.
Herod smells
a rival and wants to be done away with this would-be-king. When he sees the magi coming, he also smells
innocent people who are so unaware of the political milieu that he could take
advantage of them. This is the context
of this chapter.
Notice,
however, that the Father makes a case about being able to protect. The Father will protect His Son until the
time of His death has truly come. The
Father puts a plan into motion that will confuse Herod and prevent him from
harming His Son.
Part of this
protection is also protecting the magi.
Yes, He protects them physically by sending them home a different
way. However, the Father also protects
their innocence. They are simply coming
to worship at the feet of someone that the heavens also worship as shown by the
star. God protects their innocence and
does not allow them to because Herod’s pawn.
Naturally,
god protect Jesus and his family. Joseph
is warned in a dream to go to Egypt.
When they come back they are given the wisdom to settle in
Nazareth. God sets up His Son on a path
of protection against the wrath of the human leadership around him.
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As an
aside, when I first read this chapter for study, I thought that I was going to
write a blog on authority. After all, it
is clear that this chapter is about authority in our life and the competing
authority of God and Herod. The magi
choose God’s authority. Joseph chooses
God’s authority. But in the end, I think
that is all really self-explanatory, which is why I looked at protection
instead.
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