John Calvin Commentary Matthew 2:13

"Now when they were departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I tell thee: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him." — Matthew 2:13 (ASV)

And when they had departed. How many days elapsed from the departure of the Magi until Joseph was ordered to flee into Egypt is not known, nor is it of much importance to inquire. It is probable, however, that the Lord spared Mary until she was sufficiently recovered from childbirth to be able to perform the journey. It was a wonderful purpose of God that He chose to preserve His Son by flight.

Joseph's mind must have been harassed by dangerous temptations when he saw that there was no hope but in flight, for in flight there was no appearance of divine protection. Furthermore, it was very difficult to reconcile the statement that He who was to be the Savior of all could not be preserved without the efforts of a mortal man.

But in preserving the life of His Son, God maintained such reserve as to give some indications of His heavenly power, and yet not to make it so manifest as to prevent it from being concealed under the appearance of weakness, for the full time of glorifying Christ openly had not yet come. The angel predicts an event that was hidden and unknown to men. This is an evident proof of divine guidance. But the angel orders him to defend the life of the child by flight and exile. This belongs to the weakness of the flesh, to which Christ was subjected.

We are taught here that God has more than one way of preserving His own people. Sometimes He makes astonishing displays of His power, while at other times He employs dark coverings or shadows, from which feeble rays of it escape. This wonderful method of preserving the Son of God under the cross teaches us that those who prescribe to God a fixed plan of action act improperly. Let us permit Him to advance our salvation by a diversity of methods, and let us not refuse to be humbled, so that He may more abundantly display His glory.

Above all, let us never avoid the cross, by which the Son of God Himself was trained from His earliest infancy. This flight is a part of the foolishness of the cross, but it surpasses all the wisdom of the world. So that He might appear at His own time as the Savior of Judea, He is compelled to flee from it and is nourished by Egypt, from which nothing but what was destructive to the Church of God had ever proceeded. Who would not have regarded with amazement such an unexpected work of God?

Joseph immediately complies with the injunction of the angel. This is another proof of the certainty of the dream: for such promptness in obedience plainly shows that he had no doubt whatever that it was God who had enjoined him to take flight. This eager haste might carry some appearance of distrust: for the flight by night had some appearance of alarm. But it is not difficult to frame an excuse. He saw that God had appointed a method of safety that was low and humble, and he concludes that he is free to take flight in such a state of alarm as is commonly produced by extreme danger. Our fear ought always to be regulated by divine intimations. If it agrees with them, it will not be opposed to faith.

Be thou there until I have told thee. By these words the angel declares that the life of the child will, even in the future, be the object of divine care. Joseph needed to be thus strengthened, so as to conclude with certainty that God would not only guide him on the journey, but that, during his banishment, God would be His constant protector. And in this way God was pleased to allay many anxieties with which the good man's heart must have been perplexed, so that he enjoyed serenity of mind during his sojourn in Egypt.

But for this, not a moment would have passed without numerous temptations, when he saw himself excluded not only from the inheritance promised by God to all His saints—but from the temple, from sacrifices, from a public profession of his faith—and living among the worst enemies of God and in a deep gulf of superstitions.

He carried with him, indeed, in the person of the child, all the blessings that the Fathers had hoped to enjoy, or which the Lord had promised to them: but as he had not yet made such proficiency in faith and in the knowledge of Christ, he needed to be restrained by this injunction, Be thou there until I have told thee, so that he might not be displeased at languishing in banishment from his country among the Egyptians.