Are You Listening?

6-10-2009

The title for this devotional is based upon the obedience of being still. As we dive into Joseph’s role in the birth of Jesus, we first read about his obedience to listen to the angel as Joseph was given clarity about the purity of Mary. In Matthew chapter 2:13 Joseph hears from the angel a second time.

“When they had gone, 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.” In case you didn’t do your homework last night J, here’s the background of what’s taking place. King Herod wants to be the man, therefore, when he hears that this “Jesus” is being born, Herod takes this as a threat to his power. King Herod then uses the Magi, also known as wise men, to find Jesus so Herod could have him killed. Once they realized what Herod was up to, the Magi avoided Herod at all cost. The Magi were good and worshiped Jesus, Herod is the bad guy here. Getting back to the scripture we read at the beginning of this paragraph, Joseph hears from the angel for a second time. This time the angels warn Joseph that Herod wants to kill Jesus, so they should flee to Egypt, and that’s exactly what they did.

Due to the fact King Herod was outwitted by the Magi, he chose to have every boy under the age of two to be killed hoping one of them would be Jesus. The sad reality is all of this would have been avoided if Herod wasn’t so concerned with power. He literally wanted to kill Jesus because he was afraid of what could be. The reality is Herod missed the entire reason for the birth of Christ because he was too absorbed in selfish and prideful motives. Think about this situation for a second…things go terribly wrong because someone abuses their power for selfish and prideful motives. Imagine how amazing the world would be if we could rid ourselves of such thinking. After all, Christ has taught us well. He came to SERVE not be served.

Application:
1. Read Matthew 2:13-18
2. Do you allow selfish and prideful motives to run any aspects of your life? If so, what needs to take place so that Christ can be the focal point of everything you do?