36 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

And Herod waited and waited, but the wise men never came, for they had dreamed .
a dream which told them not to return to Herod at Jerusalem, but to go back to their own
country another way. j

At last it was told Herod that the wise men had gone, and in his anger as well as fear, he
ordered all the little children in Bethlehem, who were less than two years old, to be killed,
thinking that the baby he was afraid of could not escape.

What a sad day that must have been when the soldiers of that cruel king took away
the little ones out of their mothers’ arms and slew them! The words of the prophet
Jeremiah, spoken hundreds of years ago, of the weeping and misery when some of the
_Jews were put to death by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon and others were
dragged away into captivity, were true once again of the people in the village of Bethlehem.
“ There was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping and great mourning.” ‘We call those
little children the Holy Innocents because they died for Jesus.

But Joseph and Mary the mother of Jesus were not among the mourners. When that
terrible day came, they were far away with the child Jesus on the road to Egypt. For God
watched over the child, and sent a message to warn them. In his dream Joseph seemed to
see an angel who said to him, “ Arise, and take the young child and His mother and flee into
Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to
destroy Him.” It was a difficult command. It meant leaving friends and home, and setting
out on a long journey‘into a strange land. But Joseph did not delay. He was a man who
feared God and kept His commandments. And-he loved:the child God had given him to
take care of. That very night he arose and, taking the young child and His mother, departed
into Egypt along the great south road through the country of the Philistines. How anxiously
he must have looked back to see if any of Herod’s soldiers were following them.. What a
long journey it must have seemed to them ; until after some days’ travelling, Joseph leading
the ass which Mary rode carrying the little baby, they crossed the river which divided
Egypt from the Holy Land and were safe from the cruel King of Judah.

There they lived for some time, years or more, Joseph working at his carpenter’s trade.
How often they must have longed to go back to their own land and-friends, but they dared
not, for as long as Herod was alive the life of the child they both loved so dearly was in
danger. So they waited long and patiently, until one day the news reached them that
Herod was dead, and they might return to Bethlehem... At once they set out, but before
they had gone very far they heard that Herod had been-succeeded by his son Archelaus
and they wondered what they had better do... Was it safe to go back? Perhaps the new
king would be just as jealous of the little child as Herod had been. No, they did not dare
to settle down in his kingdom. So they journeyed northward till they came to the town of
Nazareth, the place where they had dwelt before they had come to Bethlehem on that
first Christmas Eve. There in Nazareth Jesus lived as aboy. There He was sent to school
and learned to read. There he went each Sabbath day to the synagogue to worship His
Heavenly Father. There He learned the carpenter’s trade from Joseph, His foster father.
There He worked as a carpenter to support His Virgin Mother until He was thirty years
old, and began His public ministry and went about doing good. And. when, after His

baptism in the Jordan and temptation in the wilderness, He came back to Nazareth:and

tried to teach them in their synagogue, the people, though they knew Him so well, were-
filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city, and tried to kill Him by
throwing Him down the steep rock on which Nazareth was built. _But He passed through
the crowd and escaped from them, and coming to Capernaum He dwelt there instead.

How sad it is to think that from His earliest days, all through His life, in Bethlehem, |
in Nazareth, in Jerusalem, there were people who hated the loving Jesus. and in their
rage and envy tried to kill Him. Let us ask Him to make us love Him more and more

and never leave us, but always stay with us and be our Teacher, our Friend, and our
Saviour. pe oe |