Latest / Arise Women of God / From Manger to Egypt: A Tale of Faith, Fear, and Following Promptings
Transcript
- 0:00Have you ever had the prompting to do something but you weren't quite sure why?
- 0:05And it's like a strong prompting to stop you from doing something, maybe, or to prompt you into moving because of danger?
- 0:13If so, you're not the only one.
- 0:15Today we're going to talk about an amazing warning that Joseph received that saved his family from danger and things that we can apply from this to our day.
- 0:25So stay tuned.
- 0:28Welcome to Bible Women in Bathrobes, the podcast where faith meets comfort.
- 0:35Join us Tuesday morning as the gals from Women warriors of Light and their guests don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ.
- 0:47From Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount, we explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments.
- 0:58Tune in live or at your leisure as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.
- 1:10Hello and welcome to another episode of Bible Women in Bathrobes.
- 1:13I'm your host, Tamara K Anderson.
- 1:15And joining me today are two amazing women as we're diving into this Voices of the Nativity story.
- 1:22And today we have Amy Johnson.
- 1:25Amy, welcome back.
- 1:27Thank you.
- 1:28It's an amazing day.
- 1:30It is, it is.
- 1:31And Amy's a member of our advisory board and we're just so happy to have her.
- 1:35She, she's a frequent on this podcast and I just appreciate her so much for her wisdom and insights into the scriptures.
- 1:42And another person that joined us last week on our on our story with the wise men is my good friend, Sandy Falter.
- 1:48Sandy, thanks for being here again.
- 1:50Oh, so grateful for this chance to be here and discuss God's word with you.
- 1:55Oh, so, so good.
- 1:57And I love what I love about Sandy is her personal journey from just hard circumstances to having those ashes in her life become beautiful.
- 2:08And she is a grief coach, trainer and speaker.
- 2:11And you can find out more about her at her website, heal.sand to glass coaching.com or on social media at sand to Glass Coaching.
- 2:23So if you struggle with grief and getting through it, she's a good person to talk to.
- 2:30All right, on to our story.
- 2:32So last week we talked a little bit about the wise men and their amazing voices and today we kind of finish the end of that story.
- 2:41The the wise men open the door to King Herod becoming aware of of Jesus and his birth.
- 2:49And King Herod spent some time with the wise men finding out all he could about this new king that was supposed to.
- 2:55He's like, no one's going to take my place.
- 2:57But he was given that choice, right?
- 2:59That choice to either tip towards the Savior and faith or to tip away from him.
- 3:03And he definitely chose the other way.
- 3:07So that's where we pick up this story.
- 3:08We're in Matthew chapter two, and we're going to cover verses 13 through 23 and, and some of the miracles that happened in here.
- 3:18Now I'm just going to back up and just kind of give you a few little thoughts as we dive into this.
- 3:24We live in a world right now where things are constantly under commotion and the adversary is doing his darndest to thwart all of us in our journeys.
- 3:35And I think that hopefully if we kind of look at this story through those eyes, that we'll be able to find some parallels that of things we can do in our own lives to protect us from the adversary
- 3:48and all of that.
- 3:49All right, so let's go to verse 13 here and we'll kick it off.
- 3:54And it says, and when they were departed, this is talking about the wise men visiting them.
- 4:00Behold, the angel of the Lord appeared 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 bring thee word.
- 4:14Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.
- 4:19And, and so, and then it says in verse 14, when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt.
- 4:29So I'm just going to pause right there and we'll just dive straight into this.
- 4:33Sandy, let's start with you thoughts on these two verses.
- 4:37Yes.
- 4:38I can't imagine as a parent being welcome to this dream.
- 4:43Right.
- 4:44But I think that God is so good and he kind of prepares us, I'm sure the visit from the wise men.
- 4:51And then there I.
- 4:54I'm sure they pulled Joseph aside, I would imagine, and said, look, Herod, we're going another way.
- 4:59I had.
- 5:00We.
- 5:00We had a vision.
- 5:01We're going another way.
- 5:02But Herod's got some things planned, like, you need to be careful of him.
- 5:07Right.
- 5:07And so I'm sure it was on his mind.
- 5:09And, and I feel like God is so good that sometimes we just get a message out of the blue.
- 5:14But a lot of times he's preparing our thoughts and our minds and so he gets this vision.
- 5:19I love that it says in the night, Joseph didn't wait.
- 5:23Well, we'll think about it.
- 5:25Oh, let me see if this is really true.
- 5:27I'll gather everything.
- 5:28No, no, no.
- 5:29He got up and he took them and he left.
- 5:30And I love that.
- 5:31And how often do I Follow those promptings that I get right now.
- 5:37Or how often be like, yeah, I'll get to that.
- 5:40I.
- 5:40I love his example.
- 5:42And yes, you know, the Savior's life was at stake here, and, And I.
- 5:47I get that.
- 5:49But even in the simple things, how often do I listen and follow those promptings?
- 5:54Right now I love that.
- 5:57Amy, thoughts on those verses.
- 5:59I love how, Sandy, I love how you said that he got up and he followed it.
- 6:04And I.
- 6:05I.
- 6:05In my mind's eye, I see him knowing the story of Moses.
- 6:09I see him see.
- 6:10I see him knowing that story.
- 6:13I don't.
- 6:13I don't.
- 6:14I have to assume that they knew that, right?
- 6:16That Moses was under the same duress as a child.
- 6:21And for me, I.
- 6:23I think there's power in.
- 6:26When I see this.
- 6:27I.
- 6:27I see there is power in knowing what's come before, knowing what the Lord has done for his people, and then being close enough to the Lord that when he prompts, you can quickly draw those parallels and say, oh,
- 6:43yeah, remember Moses or whoever.
- 6:48Whoever the parallel is.
- 6:51And so for me, when I read this, every time I read this, I always think about Moses being destroyed and.
- 6:58Or being at risk.
- 6:59I mean, and I.
- 7:01I feel like he had to know that he had to know Moses's story.
- 7:06He had to know God, and he had to connect things fast and go and just trust.
- 7:11And I.
- 7:12I think we have a.
- 7:14Not only an obligation, but a privilege to be able to do that in our own lives.
- 7:20I really do.
- 7:20I think we have that privilege, too.
- 7:23Do we know what God has done before, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others?
- 7:30And then can we quickly make those connections and trust enough that trust yourself, trust God, and get out and go?
- 7:39Well, and I've never thought about it quite in this way before, but I almost think Joseph, the last time we have record of him having that dream was when Mary was found pregnant.
- 7:51And he's like, what am I going to do here, Lord?
- 7:54You know?
- 7:54And the angel comes to him in the dream and tells him, you know, don't worry, this baby is of the Holy Ghost and you need to get married.
- 8:02And he acted immediately.
- 8:04So we know that Joseph is dependable, but I think that he could also probably reflect back on that dream and say, God told me then in a dream, and he told me now in a dream.
- 8:15And so I can rely on this being the next right thing that I'm supposed to do and just trusting that inspiration and that guidance.
- 8:25And sometimes God asks us to do hard things.
- 8:29And I mean, this certainly was not easy.
- 8:32This is taking them completely out of their culture and taking them to a totally different land.
- 8:39Before, when they went to Bethlehem, you know, when Jesus was born, they at least had family in the area.
- 8:46Yeah, but this is, this is a kind of an additional step of faith that you're going to go somewhere, you are not going to know anybody, you know, and you're going to have to take and go there.
- 8:57And.
- 8:58And Sandy brought up on our last episode that how, what a miracle it was that one of the gifts that the wise men gave them was gold, because they were going to need it as they journeyed to Egypt.
- 9:10So God provided the resources that they needed so that they could take their next right step here.
- 9:18It's, it's pretty crazy.
- 9:19Sandy.
- 9:20I believe he always does that.
- 9:21Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 9:23I think all that, what you're saying just reminds me of how many times in the Scriptures it says remember, right.
- 9:30Or I remembered, you know, how good he was to my fathers.
- 9:34I remembered.
- 9:35And so it's that remembering when, when we're in His Word and we're.
- 9:39And we're seeking him and all these things as we're remembering it makes it easier for us to follow because it's like, oh, yeah, this happened to Moses.
- 9:49This is a real threat.
- 9:50And God provided a way.
- 9:52And I'm going to listen, I'm going to follow.
- 9:53I remembered the angel came to me before and he told me what to do, and I followed and everything's okay.
- 9:59Right.
- 9:59And so as we remember, it's.
- 10:01That's an important thing to do, as the scriptures tell us, because it keeps us in.
- 10:07In.
- 10:08It keeps it all in our heart.
- 10:10And I think it's easier to follow when it's.
- 10:13It's already in our heart.
- 10:14We know we can trust because, because we remember we've seen a pattern because God's the same.
- 10:20He doesn't change.
- 10:21And we can see that pattern.
- 10:23Yeah, absolutely.
- 10:24Oh, I love this.
- 10:25Okay, let's, let's, let's keep going.
- 10:28Okay, so we are in verse 15.
- 10:32And I love that their flight to Egypt was prophesied of too.
- 10:37So here we're going to read a little bit about that.
- 10:39And it says, and was there until the death of Herod.
- 10:42So they stayed in Egypt that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son.
- 10:52And so how neat that even this incident with Herod, that you're like, what is this, this little blip in the life of an Israelite that probably was not very common that they he took his family and fled to
- 11:08Egypt.
- 11:10And then we come to the sad part of Herod and his actions.
- 11:16It says when Herod.
- 11:18Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of wise men, was exceedingly wroth, and sent forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according
- 11:30to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men, that it might be fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying in Rama there was a voice heard lamentation and weeping and great mourning.
- 11:44Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they were not.
- 11:49Okay, I'm just going to pause right there.
- 11:51We have two scriptures.
- 11:52I think it's so interesting that Luke blends these scriptures in.
- 11:58This was prophesied of Christ and here's where it was fulfilled.
- 12:02So it's really cool.
- 12:03Any thoughts on this?
- 12:04Amy, we'll start with you this time.
- 12:08It never occurred to me until this morning that they very likely had family members that were killed while they were escaping.
- 12:21But that's possible.
- 12:23I mean, she was of childbearing age, and when I was of childbearing age, so were all my sisters.
- 12:31Right?
- 12:33And, and so it never really occurred to me until this morning that they fled because they were warned.
- 12:40And, and I've seen that in my own life where I.
- 12:48One person has been saved from tragedy because of a prompting or seeming tragedy because of a prompting, and then another person tumbles headlong into it because they just didn't get the same prompting, not because they didn't do.
- 13:04Didn't do something right, but because that wasn't God's plan for them.
- 13:09And I think that can be really heartbreaking and confusing.
- 13:15And, and as a woman, I don't know, maybe not maybe just as Amy, I look at it and I think sometimes if that happens, and I'm the one who tumbles headlong into tragedy because I didn't get the prompting,
- 13:28then what, then am I thinking?
- 13:30What am I doing wrong?
- 13:32Why isn't, why isn't it working out for me the way it worked out for them?
- 13:36Like, because we start to second guess ourselves and we start to question.
- 13:42And I, I've been pondering faith a lot lately.
- 13:45I've been pondering what it looks like to exercise faith.
- 13:48And I think because, because I, I, I tend to work out a little bit and so exercise.
- 13:58When I hear that word, it just jumps off the page at me because I know what that means.
- 14:02I know what it means to push your body to run and to push your body to lift weights and to even push your mind and spirit to do yoga.
- 14:10I know what that looks like.
- 14:12Right.
- 14:12And so when I hear exercise Faith, I've been thinking a lot about that, and I think it takes a lot of exercising of faith to leave, but I think it takes a lot of exercising of faith to deal
- 14:26with calamity if you don't get prompted to leave, if your story is not the same as somebody's who looks more glamorous or more secure or more happy or better or whatever.
- 14:40And.
- 14:40And I think that for me, there's a lesson in that this morning that just because I am a mother of a child who was slain, enthroned into the coast and wherever, whatever he did with the bodies, think I'm
- 14:58mixing Moses, which is great.
- 15:02What if I'm a mother of that?
- 15:04But then what if I'm the mother who gets told to get up and leave and leave everything?
- 15:08And I don't understand all the reasons why, except that I just trust God enough to do what he's told me to do.
- 15:17So I think it's.
- 15:18It's a balancing act.
- 15:20We have to exercise our faith that God knows how he's going to make our story amazing, even if it doesn't look like the way he's making our sister or our neighbor or a friend's life amazing.
- 15:35Yeah.
- 15:36I'm sure you have some insight into this, Sandy.
- 15:40Yeah.
- 15:40My first thought was Mary didn't receive the vision, and yet she got up and went in the middle of the night.
- 15:48Right.
- 15:48She.
- 15:49They departed in the middle of the night.
- 15:52And so what faith she had to follow and to go.
- 15:57And.
- 15:58And do I have that same faith, whether the guidance comes, you know, from an angel or if I'm reading and I receive a prompting or I hear it from someone else, and I know that that's true.
- 16:11Am I following?
- 16:12Am I.
- 16:12Am I going in the night?
- 16:13Like I've just got this.
- 16:14And what faith she must have had and.
- 16:18And grief.
- 16:19She was leaving everything that she knew.
- 16:24And she hasn't had an easy go, like, you know, I mean, she gave birth in a manger and her mom wasn't there.
- 16:33I think about that thinking, oh, at least, you know, we have some comforts.
- 16:38And I might have somebody I know with me and, and all of that.
- 16:40And her journey has been hard, but she's always followed.
- 16:43She's always had that faith to just follow and to go.
- 16:48And I can imagine the sorrow in her heart knowing that others will lose their children and how hard that is.
- 17:00And also going to a place where she doesn't have friends, she doesn't have family, and she's starting all over.
- 17:07So fear and faith existing in the same space again.
- 17:13Right.
- 17:13And.
- 17:13And I love that, that, that, that does happen.
- 17:15And, and I love that.
- 17:19I, I agree wholeheartedly with what you said.
- 17:22Yes.
- 17:23Yeah.
- 17:25I don't think they knew that Herod was going to come and kill everybody.
- 17:28All those kids.
- 17:29I, I don't think that was given them.
- 17:32I, they, they obviously found out after the fact, but they knew that Herod was seeking their son.
- 17:40Um, and so this has been, as I have pondered and as I've been preparing for this podcast, this has been one of those things that's kind of weighed on my heart a little bit.
- 17:52Like, like Amy was saying, how is it that sometimes the answer is you're saved for some people and the answer is not for others.
- 18:02And it's, it's really weighed on my heart.
- 18:06And the only thing that I can even kind of come up with in my brain is that God is with both in their journey.
- 18:20And sometimes we're the ones that get the saved call, and sometimes we're the ones that someone we love passes away, no matter how faithful and how much we pray and all of that.
- 18:37And I guess it is that true faith in God, no matter which side of the equation happens in our lives today or tomorrow or the next day, true faith is saying, okay, I trust you in this.
- 18:52Even though it is so far from what I wanted, from what I would have chosen for me or my loved ones or my family.
- 19:02And so since I have to go through this, you're going to have to help me through it.
- 19:06Whether it's a sudden move leaving everyone you know, or the loss of someone you love very, very dearly and the ensuing grief and perhaps anger pounding on the doors of heaven, that God can be with us and navigate
- 19:24either scenario.
- 19:26And, ah, it's.
- 19:30It's a hard topic.
- 19:31And so I knew we were going to have to broach it.
- 19:33And, and my heart is just tender right now talking about it.
- 19:36But I guess my thoughts from God this today are he will be with us.
- 19:44He will be with us in either scenario.
- 19:47And that no scenario is too hard for him to help us navigate if we do it with Him.
- 19:54And again, there's that choice, right?
- 19:56And there may be days when we feel full of faith, and there may be days where we're full of anger.
- 20:01And that's also part of the Journey and trust that God will get you through to the other side.
- 20:09Could I answer that?
- 20:11Yes.
- 20:12I know in some of my darkest times, and it felt like it.
- 20:17It was long, felt like the night was never going to end, and.
- 20:22And I had to choose.
- 20:24I had to choose him.
- 20:26And, and I love the examples in the Scriptures where Christ meets us, where we are.
- 20:32He's not afraid of being in a place of discomfort.
- 20:37You know, he'll meet you and he'll weep with you.
- 20:41I think about the woman caught in adultery and how he was willing to just go.
- 20:45And I mean, everybody's like, come on, fix this, right?
- 20:48We don't like to be in a place of discomfort, but Christ has shown us that he'll come and he'll sit with us and he'll be in a place of discomfort.
- 20:56He'll pause for us and, and I.
- 21:00That helped me in my dark times, knowing that even if this lasts a little longer, he can meet me right here and he'll stay with me as long as it takes for the sun to come up again.
- 21:13And just knowing, just that, knowing I could still be sad and have peace.
- 21:19We talked about this last time, but that was so helpful for me to know that both could exist, that I could feel his love and his peace and be devastated and be crushed and be grieving, and all those
- 21:31emotions can exist at the same space, and we can hold that space for Christ to be with us in our discomfort.
- 21:39Sandy, I love that.
- 21:40And I really think it's actually important that we understand that not only it can exist, it needs to exist, that, that those emotions are what make us who we are.
- 21:51They're.
- 21:51They're what allow us to feel the magnitude of emotions.
- 21:56When we and I, I had to learn this, but when I was blocking the discomfort emotions, then it was also blocking the amazing, wonderful, joyful emotions.
- 22:11And so by allowing my.
- 22:12To meet myself, to be vulnerable and feeling more this direction, I was then able to feel more that direction.
- 22:22The other thing I really thought, love that you said, was that it wasn't her revelation, it wasn't her inspiration, because I've, I've had that really recently.
- 22:33I'm.
- 22:34I'm.
- 22:35I feel like, pretty confident in my ability to receive inspiration, and I'm super confident in my ability to act.
- 22:41But when you.
- 22:43The inspiration comes from my husband, who hasn't always been trustworthy to just act on his and be okay to move forward and wait till my own inspiration comes, that's a lot scarier, but also part of becoming one as
- 23:02a couple.
- 23:03So I love those two things.
- 23:08So many good things we're talking about here.
- 23:10I love this.
- 23:11Let's finish the story and.
- 23:13And wrap it up.
- 23:14It says in verse.
- 23:17Let's see, verse 19, I think, is where we are.
- 23:19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel.
- 23:22The Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.
- 23:24Here he goes.
- 23:25Another dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead, which sought the young child's life.
- 23:36And he arose and took the young child and his mother and came into the land of Israel.
- 23:42And when he heard that, archaeologists.
- 23:45I don't know if I'm saying this right.
- 23:47Did reign in Judea, in the room of his father Herod.
- 23:50He was afraid to go thither, notwithstanding being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken
- 24:03by the prophets.
- 24:03He shall be called a Nazareth Arene.
- 24:06And so I love.
- 24:08I love the twists and turns this story takes.
- 24:12All from one man trying to keep his family safe.
- 24:17And then even though the dream said it was safe to go back, he's like, oh, my gosh, Herod's son is still there.
- 24:21I don't want to go there, so I'm going to go to Galilee.
- 24:25And that was in fulfillment of prophecy.
- 24:27I'm just like, oh, my gosh, there's so many good things in here.
- 24:32So, so good.
- 24:33All right, Amy, thoughts on these verses and.
- 24:35And final takeaway.
- 24:36And then we'll go to Sandy.
- 24:37Do you just love that there's a prophecy?
- 24:39Because God knows what I'm going to do before I even do it right.
- 24:45Seriously, do you just love that?
- 24:47I just love that.
- 24:49That God looks at it and he goes, I know exactly what you're going to do, sweetie.
- 24:53So to.
- 24:54In order to make all things for your good, I got your back.
- 25:00Because I also know that you're a covenant keeper.
- 25:03I also know you're one of mine.
- 25:06And so even though I know what you're going to do before you even do it, and it's not what I told you to do.
- 25:11Exactly.
- 25:12Good job.
- 25:13I'm gonna.
- 25:14I got your back.
- 25:15I love that.
- 25:17I love that.
- 25:18Yeah.
- 25:19God is so good to us.
- 25:20I'm so glad he loves us even with all of our imperfections.
- 25:24It's so reassuring, right, Sandy?
- 25:29I love their journey story from the beginning because it's such a good example of a couple of things.
- 25:35One, that even the good are going to have hard, hard times come, right?
- 25:39We're, we don't escape that because we keep covenants or we are followers of Christ.
- 25:44That doesn't mean that we're, we're not gonna have challenges.
- 25:48And we saw that definitely here.
- 25:50But I also love that every step of the journey.
- 25:53Okay, now we're taking a left.
- 25:54Okay, now we're taking a right.
- 25:56And they were willing to just follow wherever with so much faith and trust in the Lord or in God that, that he will direct their path.
- 26:04He knows what's best and they're not second guessing that.
- 26:08And that's such a good example for me.
- 26:10So many times am I getting this, oh, it's time to pivot.
- 26:13And I'm like, oh no, I, not, not yet.
- 26:15Like, I'm just getting going here.
- 26:16And, and he's like, no, actually, you know, I remember that very clearly when, when I was, you know, told I, you need to become a grief coach.
- 26:27And I'm like, yeah, no, that wasn't, I was going to go back to school.
- 26:31Like, no, you're going to become a grief coach.
- 26:33And, and he's guided that path and directed in so many times in my life.
- 26:38I recognize his.
- 26:39It's always easier to look back and see his hand, right.
- 26:42And to see how he's guided.
- 26:44And I love seeing how it wasn't a straight course, it wasn't an easy path, but they followed every step of the way and they, they listened for guidance and they trusted.
- 26:55So, so good.
- 26:56Oh, I, I love, I love this story.
- 27:00I love their story of faith.
- 27:02I know my life has taken many twists and turns and it's involved several moves.
- 27:07So just saying the word move like, kind of gives me hypes.
- 27:10I'm just like, oh no, not that, not that.
- 27:14It's so hard.
- 27:17So I admire their strength to lean into the hard and do it anyway.
- 27:24Because life, they're an example of persevering through hard things.
- 27:33And so I'm thankful for that.
- 27:36I love kind of the theme that we've talked about.
- 27:38We've had several themes, but the one that is resonating with me right now is, is the theme that you brought up, Sandy, of remembering and remembering both our personal stories.
- 27:49Well, God has been with me through this and then he will be with me through this next hard thing, whatever it is that's kind of laying before us.
- 27:58And we're kind of just looking at it with fearful eyes, but also looking to the scriptures and seeing those stories.
- 28:05Well, he helped Mary and Joseph.
- 28:07He will help me.
- 28:09And so that's just a good reminder.
- 28:11We can find things to remember to remind us of faith and things will work out eventually in the scriptures.
- 28:20So powerful things.
- 28:21Well, we're going to leave you now and invite you to remember God today, invite you to take and walk with him on your journey through your hard things because he will support you and be with you through it
- 28:35all.
- 28:36Before you go, I wanted to give you guys a quick update that we now have on our Women warriors of Light website.
- 28:44Under the free content, some show excerpts from the last couple of episodes.
- 28:49We stay on for the next two to five minutes and we just record the miracles that we've seen in each podcast.
- 28:56So if you want to check that out, go to our website womenwarriorsoflight.com go to the store and get free content, free courses.
- 29:05And in there you will find all these little after the show miracles that we talk about after we finish recording each episode.
- 29:13Because each episode really is a miracle from God.
- 29:17Thanks for tuning in to Bible Women and Bathrobes, hosted by Women warriors of Light.
- 29:23We've loved exploring the stories of remarkable women or the teachings of the Savior J Day with you.
- 29:30If today's episode brought someone special to mind, be sure to spread the word and don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of inspiration and sisterhood.
- 29:42Just a friendly reminder.
- 29:43All opinions we share are entirely personal as we are trying to decipher and apply Bible teachings just like you are.
- 29:51Until next time, stay faithful and may your journey be blessed and illuminated by God's love.