CHRISTMAS INTERLUDE

God’s Protections At Christmas

Part II: God’s Protection With Family Issues

(Matthew 2:1-15)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Obtaining personal protection with family issues is a great need today:

(1) Family members need emotional protection: Annie Lane’s “Dear Annie” column recently ran a letter by “Worried Baseball Mom” who reported, “My 11-year-old son . . . used to eat, sleep and breathe baseball . . . This year he finally made the local travel baseball team” but the “coach . . . is one of those old-school, win-at-all-cost types. He yells when kids strike out, rolls his eyes when someone misses a grounder and has actually said things like, ‘Maybe baseball just isn’t your sport,’ loudly enough for everyone to hear . . . My once confident, baseball-obsessed kid now asks if we ‘have to’ go to practice . . . When I gently raised my concern with” the coach, “he brushed me off and said the boys ‘need to toughen up’ if they want to compete.” (Republican-American, December 8, 2025, p. B10)

(2) Family members need mental protection: parents have to watch out for AI-powered toys this Christmas since some artificial intelligence-equipped toys “invite children to look for matches and knives” and “encourage self-harm, suicide.’” (Ken Dixon, “Toys to watch out for this holiday, experts say,” op. cit., November 28, 2025, p. A4) “(T)he new generation of interactive computer-based toys mostly made in China can make inappropriate statements, feign disappointment when children try to put them away and may be spying on families, advocates said.” (Ibid.)

(3) Family members need physical protection: “A 12-year-old boy was hit by a car at the Torrington Middle School campus” last month “during dismissal, according to police and the child’s mother. Deanna Serencko said her son was stopped with several kids, including his older brother, at a crosswalk after school on Nov. 19. Serencko, who was parked in the parking lot waiting for her kids, was looking down in the moment and, the next thing she saw was her son lying on the ground. Serencko said a car hit her son in the crosswalk, resulting in a damaged headlight on the car. Her son landed on the ground and, after being taken to the hospital by an ambulance, she discovered he had fractures on his elbow, extensive bruising and road burn, she said . . . Serencko described dismissal time for the campus, which is shared with the high school, as ‘chaotic’ as two-way traffic goes in and out of the school. Serencko said there was no crossing guard present directing traffic or helping the students cross the busy area.” (Liz Hardaway, “Mom: Dismissal is ‘chaotic,’” op. cit., November 29, 2025, p. A1)

Need: So we ask, “How can we obtain God’s personal protection with family issues we face in today’s world?”

I. Since Joseph initially was unaware of King Herod’s intent to find and kill his wife’s newborn Infant Jesus, God protected Joseph’s family through His sovereign control of events and people, Matt. 2:1-11:

A. God arranged events to put King Herod in a political straitjacket to delay his effort to seek and to kill Jesus:

1. When the magi came to Jerusalem asking where to find the newborn King of the Jews, that they had seen his star in the east and had come to worship Him, king Herod and all Jerusalem were upset, Matt. 2:1-3:

a. Herod was an Edomite, an enemy of the Hebrews, but he had acquired Israel’s throne by Roman force. (Bible Know Com., N. T., p. 21-22) Thus, news that a Hebrew Messiah had been born in Israel imperiled Herod’s reign, deeply troubling him and all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants who knew that Herod would react to such news with typical violence when he tried to find and kill Israel’s Infant Messiah! (Ibid.)

b. However, the magi were Persian-Parthian kingmakers and military foes of Rome who had entered the Roman buffer state of Israel with a protective cavalry escort, voicing a question about one born king of the Jews that was calculated to insult Herod and pick an altercation with him that the Persia-Parthian army could use as an excuse for invading and capturing Jerusalem. (Zon. Pict. Ency. Bib., vol. Four, p. 34)

2. Herod did not want to fight the magi lest he lose his throne in a Persian-Parthian army invasion or that he anger Caesar for inciting the Persian-Parthians into invading Israel and see Caesar banish him to Gaul.

3. Thus, Herod dared not kill the Infant Messiah Whom the magi came to honor until after the magi had left Israel for their homeland lest he create the altercation the Persian-Parthian kingmaker magi had sought!

B. God also prepared the magi to help protect Jesus by leading them to believe in Himself, Matthew 2:4-12:

1. Herod learned from the Hebrew religious leaders that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, v. 4-6.

2. King Herod then secretly met the magi and inquired diligently of them at what time the star first appeared that he might determine the baby’s exact age. Then, he sent them to Bethlehem to search for the baby and report back to him, falsely claiming that he also wanted to go and worship the Infant Messiah, Matt. 2:7-8.

3. However, as the magi traveled southward to Bethlehem, God caused the star the magi had seen to move miraculously southward and guide them so that it stopped over the house where Jesus dwelt, Matthew 2:9.

4. The magi reacted to the star’s guidance with great joy, for it signaled they were led by the Creator, v. 10.

5. Entering the house, the newly converted magi found Mary and Jesus, and they fell down and worshipped Him, presenting to Him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, gifts fit for a king, Matthew 2:11.

6. To protect Jesus when Joseph was still unaware of Herod’s threat, God warned the magi in a dream not to return to Herod, so the newly converted men gladly heeded God, going home without seeing Herod, v. 12.

II. God then informed Joseph do his part as Jesus’ earthly father to protect the Infant Jesus, Matt. 2:13-15:

A. With the magi leaving Israel without returning to Herod, it was only a matter of time before Herod would learn that the magi had not reported to him as he desired, what would infuriate Herod and cause him to do everything cruel and vicious that he could to be sure he eliminated the Infant Messiah. (Matthew 2:16)

B. Thus, after the magi had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a night dream, directing him to wake up (egeiro, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 5; Abbott-Smith, A Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 127), take the infant Jesus and his mother Mary, flee into Egypt and stay there until he brought Joseph word again, Matthew 2:13a. The angel explained the reason for this directive was that Herod was about to look for the Infant Jesus to try to destroy Him, Matthew 2:13b.

C. Joseph responsibly obeyed the Lord’s angelic messenger, Matthew 2:13-15, 19-20:

1. Joseph obeyed God based on reliable precedents: (a) The Gospel writer Matthew knew of the magis’ dream, so he must have learned of it from Joseph or Mary. With such knowledge, Joseph would have been predisposed by the dream’s warning about the magis’ not returning to Herod that Herod was at least a potential threat to his family. (b) Joseph had also received a message from God’s angel to take Mary his espoused wife to live with him (Matthew 1:20-21) and (c) Mary would have told Joseph about the angel’s word to her about Jesus’ conception and birth (Luke 1:26-36), so Joseph was inclined to trust the angel’s word in his own Matthew 2:13 dream and to trust the angel’s warning to him of Herod’s plan to kill Jesus!

2. Joseph obeyed God with precision: he did exactly what the angel told him to do. Joseph woke up, he took Jesus and His mother, he fled with them into Egypt and he remained there until he received further notice from the angel in a subsequent dream, Matthew 2:13, 14-15, 19-20.

3. Joseph obeyed God speedily: he woke up (egeiro, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., loc. cit.) in the night from the dream, and that very night (nuktos, Ibid.) he quickly “withdrew (avoiding danger)” (anachoreo, Ibid.; Abbott-Smith, op. cit., p. 35) into Egypt, taking his young family with him, Matthew 2:14-15.

4. Joseph obeyed God with caution: the heralding of the Bethlehem shepherds (Luke 2:15-18) and the visit of the magi with their cavalry escort would have attracted a lot of attention of the townspeople to Jesus. Thus, Joseph left Bethlehem late at night lest anyone else might be awake and see him take his family in a certain direction and report his movement to Herod’s soldiers to the eventual demise of the Infant Jesus.

5. Joseph obeyed God with consistency: he stayed in Egypt until he heard again from the angel, Matt. 2:19.

Lesson: When Joseph lacked the capacity to protect his family from peril, he gained God’s help by God’s sovereign control of events and people. However, when God wanted Joseph to do his part as head of his family, God directed him, and Joseph obeyed the Lord’s directive, heeding precedents with precision, speed, caution and consistency.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) May we rely on God to protect our families if we have no capacity to do so, but if He leads us to act, may we heed precedents with precision, speed, caution and consistency.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . . )

Years ago, a father of a young boy and a toddler son spotted his boys at an open well. The toddler was leaning out over the mouth of the well trying to look down at the well’s bottom while his four-year-old brother was behind him, holding onto the back upper lip of his diaper, trying to pull his toddler brother back from the well. The father realized that if he said or did anything dramatic, he might startle the four-year-old into releasing his hold on the diaper with tragic results. Thus, with precision, speed, caution and consistency, the father quietly crept up behind his boys, grabbed them both at the same time and carried them to safety! This is how God wants us to protect our families.

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. May we rely on God to protect our families if we have no capacity to do so, but if He leads us to act, may we heed precedents with precision, speed, caution and consistency.