Today’s Reading: Matthew 2:13-23

When he learned of Mary’s pregnancy, Joseph planned to divorce Mary quietly. If he did not draw attention to the situation, perhaps he would be spared the embarrassment and she would be saved the shame. Joseph was a good man and did not want Mary to be publicly disgraced.

An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. This child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit and would save his people from their sins. Joseph was to marry her and name the baby Jesus. When he woke up from the dream, Joseph chose to believe and do everything the Lord had commanded him to do. He respectfully cared for her and faithfully obeyed the instructions he had been given (Matthew 1:18-25).

An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream again after the wisemen came to visit Jesus.

“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.” – Matthew 2:13b

Joseph was not just told to move to another home, he was told to flee — to run away from the danger that was headed their direction. There was a sense of urgency and a strong need for Joseph to respond without delay. The same man of God who woke up and did exactly what the Lord had told him to do when he took Mary as his wife was now responding again in obedience.

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.” – Matthew 2:14-15

At times God calls us to respond without delay. Not tomorrow, not next week, not whenever you get around to it. This moment requires an undelayed response. Joseph left Egypt that night. He took only the time needed to gather together his family and then quickly moved them to safety, just as the angel had commanded them to do. And then he stayed.

Just as easily as he had responded to God’s command to flee, Joseph obediently stayed where God had told him to stay. To stay is to remain where you are; to stay is to stand firm, to take residence, and to wait. The same strength that equipped Joseph to run to safety also equipped him to rest where God had placed him.

What is God telling you to do right now? Is He telling you that it is time to move on in an area of your life? Or perhaps there is a sense of urgency and you are hearing the Lord tell you to flee — to run away from a situation or to move away from a dangerous environment or a toxic relationship. Will you respond without delay even if it is the hardest thing you have ever done?

Or perhaps God is giving you permission to stay; perhaps God is telling you to remain where He has you and rest in His perfect plan. His timing is always what we need, even when it challenges our patience. So stay…take residence…rest. Be still and wait until you hear Him telling you differently.

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. – Matthew 2:19-22

Lord, we sit before you quietly this morning and wait on you. We pray that you will direct us in the way we should go. Give us a heart that responds in trust with a willingness to go if you call us to go and stay if you ask us to stay. May our response to you be undistracted and undelayed — both today and tomorrow. Amen.