Jesus' Sojourn In Egypt

"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His Mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you 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 for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son"" (Matthew 2:13-15).

"But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt," (Matthew 2:19)

Nazareth was situated north, in Galilee, in the "hill country of Judea." Because Herod was hounding the newborn Child, the holy family had to flee from their village to a far away place. Egypt in the Bible was always a place of exile, idolatry, and degradation; to the family from Nazareth, it would no doubt have been the farthest journey they would have had to make from home; Egypt would have been the most foreign and outlandish country a first century Jew from Galilee would travel to.

Herod was mad for power. Like the Pharaoh "who did not know Joseph" in the Book of Exodus, who had also sought to destroy Moses, so was Herod after the same. Moses was saved by the reeds of the Nile river, and now that same Nile would prove itself to be the same safe conveyance for Jesus to a place of a very temporary refuge. The Nile had carried the two saviors to safety.

On the other hand, Egypt is sort of a symbol for the entire world. Egypt is a symbol of temporary residence, and change. Egypt, however corrupt, is still a fruitful and a well-watered oasis in the desert of madness. Whether God's people have escaped there as a result of a plague, or on account of a flight from a wicked Israelite king, or for refuge, Egypt in the Bible was always a sort of a spiritual recess, a desolate place to await the call of God with patience and endurance. God's people as "pilgrims and sojourners" would gaze longingly eastward to Jerusalem and intensely yearn to go back home.

Oftentimes, God communicates with His people through dreams and ecstatic visions. The place would light up with resplendent mystical light and the prophet would fall into a sort of an altered state of mind. For Joseph, God had used a dream to direct Him to a place of refuge from the bloodthirsty king. Joseph's was an angelic premonition. The message that was conveyed to him was "onward to Egypt!"

Joseph, therefore, "saddled his donkey and set her upon it" as the apocryphal legend phrases it, and came down to Egypt. There was a tradition that circulated in the ancient churches of Egypt that Joseph and Mary "came to the region of Hermopolis, and went into one of the Egyptian cities called Sotinen." The family must have tarried in Egypt for at least two years; they were afraid of Herod, and they were awaiting the vision of the angel.

Journey to Egypt had been a long night journey for the family. They became aliens in an alien land, exiled from their home, and all alone, with no one else to trust or turn to for support. For two years, what livelihood would Joseph have found for his family? The three must have taken up some lodgings and lived through it until things had quieted down.

Jesus and His family, like the Israelites of old, dwelt "as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it" (Acts 13:17). Egypt has always been that place where you just stay a while in order to grow to get out of it. Israel slaved for the Pharaohs for four hundred years, and God had sworn that He would one day deliver them. Now, Joseph and Mary, are awaiting the same promise of deliverance from Egypt, and settling back to Nazareth.

There is a mystical significance to Egypt. The Book of Revelation apocalyptically reveals the annihilation of wickedness of the earth: "And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified" (Revelation 11:8). Sodom is a symbol of sensual depravity, and Egypt, slavery. The world is enslaved to the sins of permissive lewdness and all manner of idolatry.

The Coptic Christians often tell me that when the holy family arrived in Egypt, all the idols of the Egyptians toppled and the temples were lying in complete ruins. I think there is a ring of truth to that, seeing that the coming of Christ is the end of all human idolatry.