I remember my first Christmas married and before kids, my husband and I had big dreams for the future and very little money. We were both in school and working part time. I was an undergraduate in Accounting and he was in his second year of medical school. I worked as a teller at a local bank and he worked in the student accounting office on work-study scholarship. It seemed like everything worth having or doing was in the far future. Many of our conversations started with “when” and ended with “then.”
•When I finally graduate and can work full time, then we can stop wasting money on rent and actually buy a house.
•When you’re a resident, then we can start a family.
•When you’re in practice, then we’ll have more time for each other.
•When money isn’t so tight, then we can take a real vacation.
These conversations continued through our first decade of marriage. We had surpassed many of the milestones at the point where we both realized the futility of this way of thinking. We did try to buy a townhouse when I took my first full time job and our loan was denied, however in his fourth year, we were able to give up our apartment and I lived with my parents while Paul rotated out of town a month at a time with potential training programs. Hindsight proved valuable in this and many other instances during those early years.
So many times the things I worry about never actually happen. Other times, our well-laid plans are set aside by choice or necessity. We read in Proverbs that “You can make many plans, but the Lord’s purpose will prevail.” (Proverbs 19:21) I am comforted by the knowledge that my whims and wishes cannot frustrate God’s sovereign plan for my life and for His kingdom. I am thankful for the times He overrides my intentions, superimposing His will and prospering me rather than allowing me to be harmed by my own ignorance.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/isa.55.9.NLT
When the angel came to Joseph and said leave for Egypt tonight, I have to wonder what Joseph already had in his mind to do. After all, he and Mary came to his ancestral home for a census. He had a family and a home to return to eventually. Matthew records three visions given to Joseph during the reign of Herod and his son, Archelaus. Only once is Joseph’s fear mentioned but each time his response is the same… immediate obedience.
“After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”
So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there.
Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.2.13-23.NLT
Joseph, a carpenter by trade, left the family business untended for several years to follow the path laid out for him. His family must have wondered what kept him so long in Bethlehem. Maybe some assumed he stayed to avoid the rumors surrounding Jesus’s birth. There was no simple way to send a message home, and sending a message could expose their whereabouts so would it even be safe to do so?
Where did they find lodging in Egypt? Who were their neighbors? Who were Jesus’s playmates in those early years? How did Mary teach him the Scriptures in a pagan land with no synagogues? How thankful they must have been when word of Herod’s death reached them! Did Joseph wonder if there was still a place for him in his family home?
Being from the tribe of Judah meant returning to the Southern Kingdom, but the family ended up in Nazareth of Galilee, the northernmost portion of the Northern Kingdom, or as far away as possible from Herod’s threat. Common sense? Yes. God’s ultimate plan? Absolutely! Three separate Old Testament prophecies about Messiah are fulfilled in these verses.
There are no coincidences in God’s kingdom. We are all beneficiaries of His grace and mercy. God’s hand guides and directs those who look to Him for wisdom, and He is no less sovereign over those who do not seek Him.
“Praise the name of God forever and ever, for he has all wisdom and power.
He controls the course of world events; he removes kings and sets up other kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the scholars.”
Daniel 2:20-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/dan.2.20-21.NLT
Thank You, Lord, that You are good. In answer to one who called Him “Good Teacher,” Jesus countered with “why do you call Me good? Only God is good,” giving the young man an opportunity to recognize Him for who He is- God in human flesh.
You alone are good and worthy of all praise, honor, and glory now and forever. I acknowledge You as Sovereign Lord. In all things, You reign supreme.
Thank You for guiding events and shaping history for Your good purpose and according to Your perfect will.
“Have Thine own way, Lord, have Thine own way. Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will while I am waiting, yielded and still.” Amen.
Have Thine Own Way, Lord Adelaide A. Pollard (1906)
A Fitting Reply 