Lesson 3 - Obedience

Scripture Passage - Matthew 2

The Flight to Egypt.

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt,* and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.”Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Learning Point

Obedience is what first comes to mind in this passage from Matthew. In Luke’s gospel Joseph was ordered to take his heavily pregnant wife from Nazareth to Bethlehem despite the great risk involved with traveling from Galilee through Samaria to Bethlehem. He packed up Mary and went. Next he was instructed by an angel appearing to him in a dream to marry a woman who carrying a child of which he was not the earthly father. He did. 

Next we read he was suddenly told to pack up and head for Egypt. Imagine being awakened from a sleep and being told quickly gather up your family and to take off for Mexico on foot. Would we be able to obey? Consider the Latin root of obedience is obedire which means to listen at the level of encounter. Would we able to respond to call to make a fundamental change with grace and courage as did Joseph? God told him to leave Bethlehem. He did.

God does not likely speak to us in dreams - at least not in the way see in scripture. These days when we hear voices it is likely because we have not taken our medication. God does, however, speak to us and to challenges us to obey him, to listen to him in a way we are changed by the encounter. The Church teaches us we learn from the revealed word what is expected of us as fathers.