Matt. 2:13 Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,“Get up!Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” 14 So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. 15 He remained there until the death of Herod.This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:“OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.”
Why was it necessary for Jesus to spend any time in Egypt. I asked the Lord the question, “why did Jesus need to be called out of Egypt.” Jesus spent probably about three years in Egypt, and he and Mary and Joseph left Israel as a homeless family going to a foreign country as refugees. Remember, this wasn’t just any foreign country; it was Egypt. Egypt’s history with the Jewish people was not a good one.The people of God had spent 400 years in slavery in the land of Egypt; and their record of treating Jewish children was one of cruelty and murder. So the question is, why in the world would God the Father choose Egypt to be a place where His Son would come out Of to fulfill his destiny. God could have just ended Herod the Great’s life on the spot, and kept Jesus from having to spend any time in Egypt. The Father ended Herod Agrippa’s (He was Herod the Great’s grandson) suddenly in the Acts12:3. Why didn’t he do it that way with Herod the Great. We know that Jesus was in the Father, and the Father was in him; and therefore every step of Jesus is life was in perfect harmony with the will of God for him, and these verses declare that this was a fulfillment of scripture from Hosea 11:1.
I believe that there are a number of answers to this question, but the one I want you to see you today is that sometimes God puts us in the worst places to serve the best of purposes, calling forth our destiny from those hard circumstances. It was necessary for the Holy family to sojourn into Egypt to be cultivated to fulfill their destiny in God. If you find that you were in a hard place remember that you are in Christ, and ask the Lord to cultivate in you all that’s necessary, so that once he calls you out of this place you will be prepared to be all but he destined you to be in eternity’s scheme of things for your life.