Christmas of Jesus Christ Manger of Yahshua

JESUS IN EGYPT – CHRISTMAS IN EGYPT

© Carlos Padilla- Christmas 2024

Christmas in Egypt symbolizes sharing the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, Yahshua, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all, for the Jews and for all the peoples of the world, the non Jews, the Gentiles. God became incarnate and was born in Bethlehem, of Judea, in the midst of the people of Israel who were waiting for the Messiah (Micah 5:2), but the rest of the people did not know the universal reach of His life, death and resurrection. We that believe in Jesus Christ must share that true meaning of Christmas with all around us, including Israel, which already the Messianic Jews who have received Yeshua or Yahshua in their hearts as Lord and Saviour are doing.

“Out of Egypt I called My Son”. In the book of the prophet Hosea, 11:1b, Matthews tell us in 2:15, in his Gospel, that the Son of God would be called from Egypt, which would be fulfilled short after the birth of Child Jesus, who taken there by His parents, following the warning in dreams by the angel of the Lord, the fled to preserve His life. Not only Jesus has gone to Egypt, but, as we know, patriarch Abraham was also in Egypt, and also Israel, from Joseph, was taken to Egypt to later be set free from slavery by the hand of Moses in Exodus. And does each of us have to go to Egypt? Does the Church go to Egypt? What is Egypt? Merry Christmas from Egypt! Keep reading…

THE JOURNEY OF JESUS TO EGYPT – JESUS IN EGYPT

As we read in Matthew 2:15, Jesus and His mother were taken to Egypt by Joseph following the message of the angel of the Lord, in dreams to Joseph, that he should take the Child and His mother and flee from there to escape from Herod, who was searching for the Child to kill him. The fact that the magi went another way, warned also by revelation in dreams to not return to Herod to inform him of the location of Jesus, caused that he ordered the killing of the Martyrs of Jesus: he sent forth to put to death all the male children under two years of age in Bethlehem and its district by fear of losing the throne to Jesus. Herod had requested from the magi the time of the appearance of the star (Matthew 2:7) and then he ordered of two years and under, which may be telling us that magi arrived when Jesus was from months to two years of age approximately. In a similar way Pharaoh did in times of Moses, he commanded to kill all male children that would be born, which is an anteroom of the history of Jesus – Yahshua, because Moses is a type of saviour of the people of God in Egypt, Exodus 1 & 2.

In Matthew 2:22 we see that Joseph and Mary had planned to return to Bethlehem and maybe to remain there, but again the angel of the Lord guides them, this time to Nazareth, from where they had left to go to the census in Bethlehem, according to Luke 2. The doctor and evangelist Luke, in 2:39 describes the return to Nazareth and omits the journey to Egypt, for both stories of Matthew and Luke are for different audiences, to the Jews the first, and to the most excellent Theophilus the second, maybe a high rank governor, due to the treat of the introduction, to the Gentiles, but both Gospels complement each other completing the story. It is also possible that the Holy Family remained in Bethlehem, even with plans to live there, and a year later, after the magi came then traveling to Egypt, and only at their return to Bethlehem could be when the angel would guide them again to Nazareth. Or that being in Bethlehem, after the rituals of the Temple in Jerusalem, went to Nazareth and came back a year after to Jerusalem, as they used to each year (Luke 2:41) and to Bethlehem, to see their family, and while being there the magi arrived. If this chronology would be correct, it would be more logical for the travel of Jesus to Egypt would be when Mary was recovered from the delivery, and Child Jesus almost weaned, with over a year of age and stronger for a long and heavy travel, anyhow it would be God’s plan. It would also be understood that once the magi had presented their offering, these would become resources to live in Egypt during their travel. Whether within a month or withina year, Jesus went to Egypt and took there the story of Christmas, which is part of the Gospel and of the Creed of the Apostles.

Nazareth, which could mean “renew –Hebrew netser” or “guardian” was a small village not mentioned with that name in the Old Testament. An unimportant and discrete place, isolated of everything, a perfect place to be unnoticed until Jesus would initiate His ministry, the place where He grew up, Luke 4:16. In the Nazareth of 1973 there were 18.000 people censed, the majority Arab Christians (Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible Vilá-Escuain), in 2024 around 80.000, between Christians, as well as Arabs, and Jews. Of all the places, the Fountain of the Virgin stands out as a historical enclave, and some churches, like the Maronite, close to the hill where the Lord Jesus’ fellow citizens wanted to throw Him when He started His preaching, Luke 4:29.

Finally, about the concept of Nazareth, we must ask ourselves about the mention of Matthew of the fact that He came from Nazareth fulfilled a prophecy that said that the Messiah would be called “Nazarene”, Matthew 2:23. However in the Old Testament there is no specific prophecy in reference to Nazareth, nor, as we have seen, the city did not have that name, nor it is mentioned in the Old Testament. What does Matthew mean then? If we go deeper, we will see that Nazareth, and the entire Galilee were places of low esteem, and Nazareth was of total irrelevance. Isaiah 53 about the Messiah refers to how He would be despised and not taken into account. One of the 12 apostles, the disciple of Jesus, Nathanael, when his brother Philip tells him that they have found the Messiah, and that He was from Nazareth, exclaimed: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46. Philip replied: “come and see.” In a similar way, when Nicodemus was defending Jesus, the Sanhedrin mocked him saying: “are you also from Galilee?” Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee,” John 7:52, ignoring that Jesus was from Bethlehem, of Judea, of the house of king David, both from father and from mother.

The word Nazareth and the Hebrew of Isaiah 11:1 which talks of root, the Branch over which the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon, coincides on the consonants, to this we must add that the Nazarites (Judges 13:5 the Story of Samson who was a Nazarite), in times of Jesus were despised, but in the Old Testament they were consecrated to the Lord of high esteem. That is the meaning of the prophecy that Jesus fulfilled when being called Nazarene, a triple meaning: what it meant coming from that despised city, that many despised those who were Nazarites or separated for God, and that, being the Messiah, He would be despised by His own people. In the same way, all Christians, in one sense go to Egypt and go through the same ways of faith, persecution, and share the fruit of the cross of Christ, so that, this way, the Church goes to Egypt, to the world, to every place through the work of the missionaries fulfilling the Great Commission, carrying the Gospel to all.

CHRISTMAS IN EGYPT

The journey of Jesus and his parents, according to scholars, took place around the year 5 B.C. as dates, as we know, do not coincide with the present calendar, being that the birth of Jesus is estimated between the years 4 and 6 B.C. Sources like the Bible itself tell us of kings and governors with dates of the Roman Empire, or external sources like historian Josephus. The route of the journey to Egypt was from Bethlehem going south by the coast of Gaza, to Ascalon and the peninsula of Sinai, according to the Coptic Church (Egypt) who have been collecting information, beliefs, traditions and archaeology along twenty centuries and has provided to the history of this event 25 places through which the Holy Family went by which make the route of the tradition and that may be visited contacting Egyptian travel agencies, or churches which organize Biblical trips.

For years, after the journey of Jesus to Egypt, churches and places were being built, like a fountain blessed by Child Jesus. A historical journey that those who can travel it or even some of it place, will bring the soul closer to what the Holy Family experienced, the most special family that has ever existed, who being who they were found themselves forced to emigrate, humble and banished, to travel in a precarious way, carrying the son of God, to preserve His life. The special guide of the angels of the Lord would take them to special places, and to live, most assuredly with other Jews in Egypt; we know of the Jewish enclave of Alexandria, among others. From Egypt they waited to return to their home town of Nazareth from where they left, until the Lord indicated them through the angel.

How long did Jesus spend in Egypt with His parents: months, years? Christmas in Egypt would be a trip they would have done as soon as they had finished with the rites of the Law, on the eighth day they brought Him to be circumcised, and they would leave after their purification, especially of the mother for 33 days, according to Leviticus 12, which is what Luke 2:22-24 refers to, and they offered 2 turtledoves or 2 two young pigeons, which is what Leviticus foresees for families with few resources who cannot afford a lamb, although they were guarding the Lamb of God.

The possibility that they would have left after one or two years later, has also been considered, as we have mentioned, which could coincide with the visit of the magi, which is not in the same moment as the pastors who visit the Child in the manger. After the time they spent in Egypt, the Gospel of Matthew informs us that after the death of Herod the Great, and being Herod Archelaus, his son, who reigned and did so since the year 4 B.C. until the 6th A.D. was the period during which they returned. Therefore, the Holy Family spent the first period of time of the first Christmas in Bethlehem, but it is possible that they would have spent one or two Christmases in Egypt, although there was no conscience of that celebration in the world yet. The Coptic Church (Egypt), who has followed the tradition of the story of the Holy Family, assures that they were three and a half years.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, tells us that the Holy Family was initially going to the land of Israel once they left to return from Egypt, possible to return to Bethlehem to live there, where it is believed they had family, but, again, the angel of the Lord warned Joseph in dreams to take his family to Galilee, and they returned to Nazareth, because he was afraid when he knew hat Herod Archelaus reigned in Jerusalem in the place of his father Herod the Great. Therefore, the Lord Jesus – Yahshua or Yeshua lived his infancy in Nazareth, and each year they would go to Jerusalem, as the Gospel of Luke 2:41-52 tells us, and when Jesus was 12 years old He remained in the Temple with the teachers of the Law, but in his first months of years Jesus lived in Egypt.

The Christmas in Egypt, apart from the one celebrated by Coptic Christians (Egypt) each year on the 7th of January, who had in Athanasius one of the first fathers of the Church in Alexandria, and who intervened in the First Council of Nicaea, how wouldn’t the Gospel arrive to the land where once Israel was a slave and from where the Lord would liberate them in the Exodus, a symbol of the liberation from the slavery to sin from which Christ is our liberator, and of course from where Jesus Himself lived? But Christmas in Egypt also means that we must take the story of the birth of Jesus, the Saviour of the world, to all places, to all the children, families, and to all the people of all nations. Pending that the last Jews to celebrate it in their hearts, like many Messianic Jews already do, because they are part of the prophecy of all nations in the Letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 11 complete, and because it is part of the announcement that Jesus Christ has come to save us and offer us the Kingdom of God, as part of the Gospel and of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:16-20.

WHAT IS EGYPT IN OUR LIFE?

Egypt symbolizes the world, but we are all in the world. The question is, what is Egypt for the non believer?, and what is it for the believer?, and how does it form part of our life and spiritual transformation? In the Study about the Biblical History of Egypt, for which there is a link at the end of this chapter, and in the Spiritual Dictionary of the Bible of this website, and part of the book “The Mind of Christ”, Egypt, symbolizes the world, the Gentile world, all the peoples and nations which are not Israel, non Jews. But, at the same time, the Holy Family travelled between the Jewish people, they stood in homes of Jewish families as it is custom among the Jews, therefore, in a way the Jews, the Israel which was outside Jerusalem, in this case in Egypt and in the places which they went passed, would have testimony later, that their Messiah, and of the entire world had visited His people in the Diaspora; a way of leaving testimony that the Lord was with them, wherever they were, as He is with us Christians every day, until the end of the world, Matthew 28:20. But we have to include among the Gentiles, spiritually talking, those Jews who did not believe God not accepting the Messiah Yahshua – Jesus Christ, for they separated from God not obeying Him, and that is how God considers them, as the Apostle Paul teaches in Romans 11, full chapter.

Also in a spiritual sense it may help us understand that the Christian in whom Christ has been born in his heart, has a season of growth and formation with his caretakers, spiritual fathers, until the time of spiritual maturity arrives and serves in his ministry. Therefore the journey and the spiritual experience of every Christian are similar to the story of our Lord Jesus Christ. First the trip to be registered, symbolizes to be identified, who are we, where do we come from, what is our culture and family beliefs, and from that place of the spiritual journey called Bethlehem, comes the birth, to be born again, Christ in our heart through faith in His work, to receive the Gospel. Following, the fulfilment of the tradition in the Temple represents the religious formation of expression from the Christian denomination where we have known Jesus, that of who has preached to us, and if we have known Jesus through reading the Bible, we will be linked to other Christians with their expression until we form our own in our intimate relationship with our Lord.

From this point comes a persecution, the tests, we are tested in our faith, which is reflected in the history of the Martyrs of Jesus, the killing of the children under two year, the flee to Egypt; to remain unnoticed in the world and in the Church until the return to Nazareth to grow and be formed in the faith, with the visit of Jesus when He became 12 year old (entrance into maturity “bar mitzvah”, communion, etc.), to the teachers of the Temple, which symbolizes the study of the Bible and the deep comprehension of the Gospel. From there and once mature in Christ, baptism, now not in water but in Spirit, which initiates our personal ministry. This last step may take little, even from the beginning of receiving the faith, or long, depending on each Christian and his personal relationship with God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, for we are Temples of God and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17.
To go deeper in what is Egypt in our life, read the Bible Study: Egypt – Biblical and Theological History: https://www.yahshua.net/egypt-bible-and-theology-history/

CONCLUSION

This year 2024 I started writing about the Biblical and Theological History of Egypt, as part of a saga of journeys about the empires that have had direct relationship with Israel and the Church throughout history. Now, also the Christmas of this same year, I have presented it looking at it from the perspective of the history of the journey of Jesus in Egypt, and the Christmas in Egypt.

Christmas in Egypt has taken us to travel the journey of Jesus from the womb of His mother, Mary, until His birth in Bethlehem of Judah and of Judea, to the rituals of the Temple in Jerusalem, and to the trip of flight to Egypt to preserve the life of the Child Jesus. And we have seen how the route has been kept by the Coptic Church (Egypt) in their tradition and places where the Holy Family lived, and from where they returned to Nazareth can be visited today and have a spiritual meaning. Matthew 1 and 2. Luke 2. We have travelled the symbolism of that holy trip which is similar, and a mirror to the life of the Christian, since he is born again by faith in Christ, until his Christian maturity.

Jesus in Egypt puts us in perspective of how Jesus was persecuted from His birth, and how it shows us the life of a believer in the world, until he knows God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit and receives the gift of faith, which comes from preaching or reading the Gospel, of which Christmas is part of the story of the Saviour of the world, this is why we must preach and or give Bibles or Gospels. Today, in Egypt, and in all the world, Christmas is celebrated, in some places they don’t even get close to the Story of the Child Jesus, but let us share this Christmas, from our particular Egypt, wherever we are, the true Message of the Gospel which includes the Story of Christmas, as it will include the return of Jesus Christ – Yahshua or Yeshua to establish the Kingdom of God for eternity, to which we are all called through that complete Gospel which was initiated the first Christmas. Merry Christmas! Amen.

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 Other Readings for Christmas: CHRISTMAS – THE MANGER – BETHLEHEM – JESUS OF NAZARETH – GOLD, FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH – THE WORD OF GOD  – FROM NAZARETH TO BETHLEHEM – CHRISTMAS UNOBSERVED – AND GOD BECAME MAN – THE GENETICS OF YAHSHUA – THE CHRISTMAS OF THE PROPHETS – IS CHRISTMAS BIBLICAL? – CHRISTMAS IN YOUR HEART – WAS JESUS BORN IN HIS FAMILY HOME? – THE CHRISTMAS OF THE ANGELS – WHY GOD BECAME MAN? – SILENT NIGHT – THAT’S MY KING