Sermon Text:
Text: Hosea 11:1-11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2 But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. 4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them. 5 “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? 6 Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. 7 My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them. 8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. 9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. 10 They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. 11 They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.
My dear friends in Christ,
Some of my favorite commercials on TV are the "Wanna Get Away?" commercials from Southwest Airlines. In the most recent one, two friends are in front of the 50 inch plasma TV hanging on the wall. The first person is explaining how his new video game system works. If he moves the controller, the baseball player swings the bat. He tells his friend to use the controller and throw the ball to him. His friend throws the controller as hard as he can at the screen, shattering the TV. It falls and smashes the entertainment center. He looks over at his friend, and we hear the line, "Wanna get away?"
There are plenty of times we wanna get away. When we've been working for months at a time, and work gets more and more hectic, with deadlines hanging over our heads, projects piled up in the inbox and nothing in the outbox, we wanna get away! When we have to wade through laundry waist deep, referee the latest argument with the kids, get the dishes done, and keep the household running smoothly, we wanna get away!
Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus wanted to get away. They had to get away. Magi from the East had followed a star to Jerusalem. They consulted King Herod and asked him where they might find the one born as the king of the Jews. Herod called in his experts to tell him where they could find this child. They discovered in Micah's prophecy that the child would be born in Bethlehem. Herod asked the Magi to come back and tell him if they found the baby. When the Magi didn't return, Herod went on the warpath. He had no desire to have a challenger for his throne. He sent soldiers to Bethlehem with orders to kill every child under the age of two. Our gospel for today said, "An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.' So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod" (Matthew 2:13-15).
It doesn't seem fair. Why would Joseph, Mary, and Jesus, God's own Son, have to get away? Couldn't God stop Herod? Why didn't Mary and Joseph just pray that God would deliver them? The answer lies in the words of our text. Hosea wrote down the words of this prophecy about 700 years before Jesus was born. He was speaking to Israel—the people living in the northern kingdom. Throughout his ministry, Hosea called them to repentance. They had fallen away from the LORD. They weren't waiting for the Messiah. They worshiped Baal. They regularly broke the 6th commandment. They turned to other nations and made treaties with them instead of trusting in God's powerful protection.
In chapter 11, the LORD reminded Israel how much he cared for them. He said, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them." (Hosea 11:1-4). Almost 1000 years earlier, the children of Israel wanted to get away from their slavery under Pharaoh. They cried out to the LORD, and he rescued them. He called them out of Egypt. He sent Moses to lead them. The LORD brought them out with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. He led them through the sea, provided water where there was none, gave them manna in the morning and quail in the evening.
God didn't want to get away from Israel. Through Hosea he said, "How can I give you up, Ephraim? …My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man— the Holy One among you" (Hosea 11:8-9). Even though Israel had rejected the LORD, he would remain faithful. He would use Hosea's words to carry out his plan of salvation. When Jesus was born, the Holy One came to be among us. King Herod's murderous actions couldn't stop God from carrying out his plan. He sent Joseph, Mary, and Jesus to Egypt to protect them from evil King Herod. Jesus had to get away. Remember what Matthew told us? "And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son'" (Matthew 2:15). Once again, we see an Old Testament piece of the puzzle fall into place—another promise fulfilled.
The LORD had another reason to send his Son to Egypt. The Bible tells us, "He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). Jesus experienced every struggle that we experience. Jesus had to get away—his life was in danger. For a time, Jesus and his parents were trapped in Egypt—no friends, no family to support them. They were alone.
We know loneliness too. We know the loneliness of our sins. When we page through the catalog of things that we do wrong each day, we often feel like no one knows our struggles. No one has to fight sin as we do. We also know the loneliness of forgiveness. We know that Jesus made atonement for all of our sins. We live like his people. That can be a lonely place, because the rest of the world doesn't understand. People poke fun at us, or isolate us so we feel like we're alone. On top of all that, we still face the trials and struggles of every day life—the deadlines, the family obligations, the pressures that drive us to the brink. Wanna get away?
We have a brother who knows how we feel because he's been there. Jesus told his disciples, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head" (Matthew 8:20). That was true for Jesus already as a 2 year old. He didn't have a home to call his own. Jesus knows our loneliness. He's been there too! Don't forget how Jesus dealt with loneliness and pressure. "He went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone" (Matthew 14:23). When Jesus wanted to get away, he turned to his heavenly Father. In prayer and mediation on the Word, Jesus remembered he wasn't alone. He knew that his Father was always with him.
Jesus is with us too. When we need to get away, we can go to him. Prayers, worship time, and Bible study provide us with the perfect opportunity to get away and remember that we aren't alone. Our Savior is with us. He understands our troubles, and he will always be with us!
Everyone wants to get away. After we've gotten away, do we ever want to get back? We've all experienced that after a week or two of vacation. We long to get back to the regular schedule, to get back to work. We know what we need to do, and we also realize that the daily grind of life is also a blessing from God.
Jesus had to get back to work. God called his Son out of Egypt. After King Herod died, the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him it was time to go back to the land of Israel. Joseph did what the LORD told him to do. However, Joseph also learned that Herod's son, Archelaeus ruled in his place. The LORD warned him in another dream not to stay in Judea. Matthew tells us, "[Joseph] withdrew to the district of Galilee, and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: 'He will be called a Nazarene'" (Matthew 2:22-23).
Jesus' return from Egypt was also part of God's plan. Isaiah 9:1 says, "In the future [the LORD] will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan—" (Isaiah 9:1). Nazareth was located in Galilee, the place where Jesus grew up, and spent time there during much of his ministry. The LORD honored that area by sending his son to Nazareth.
We might expect that the place Jesus lived would have a good reputation and special honor. It didn't. When Nathanael, one of Jesus' future disciples, heard that Jesus was from Nazareth he said, "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" (John 1:46). We have witnessed Jesus' humility this Christmas as we view his birth and the flight to Egypt. Even his return to Nazareth is an example of his humility. He didn't go to Jerusalem and take the throne and palace for himself. He went with his parents to live in a lowly little town, located in Galilee, a place many considered to be a seedy province in the northern part of Israel.
Why put up with it? Why did Jesus go back? He was still the Son of God. He could have avoided the humility, saved the world, and been back on his heavenly throne in an instant! Remember what Jesus taught us to pray? "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). Jesus knew what his Father had planned. He followed it every step of the way, even as a child. He did it all for us, so that he could fulfill the last part of Hosea's words and help us get away forever! "'They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west…I will settle them in their homes,' declares the LORD" (Hosea 11:10,11). The Lion of Judah has come. His roar echoes through the four corners of the earth. The Lion's roar calls us to get away from our sins and believe in him as our Savior. His roar marks the victory he won on the cross over sin, the devil, and the power of death. His roar announces that he has a home for us in heaven, and through faith in him we can get away from this sinful world forever!
Wanna get away? I do! Sometimes I wanna get away from all the problems that sin and this world throw at me. Wanna get away? We can, thanks to Jesus. He fulfilled all of God's promises. He lived for us so that we can do our jobs and carry out all our responsibilities. His death and resurrection guarantee that we can get away from this sinful world to the joys of heaven. Amen.
