There's Bound to Come Some Trouble

Even after full commitment.

God made miracles to get Joseph, Mary, & Jesus to this point. Remember how it all started: both Mary and Joseph received specific words from messengers from God about the birth of Jesus. They followed the instructions and it happened: the baby was born. It had to be amazing to them, right? No sex, but a child came anyway. What else could they possibly doubt?

You might think the story would go perfectly from then on. They knew now for sure God was with them, right?

But it didn’t go perfectly. Joseph had to make some difficult decisions. If God could do such miraculous things as a spirit-driven conception and all else that went down on the way to the birth of Jesus, why couldn’t God make everything else go perfectly? Why the escape to Egypt? Why then, on return to Israel, the need to settle in Nazareth? Surely, Matthew tells us about the fulfillment of the prophets. But God could have just told Joseph to settle in Nazareth without the impending danger, right?

Human will and God’s inability to change it could certainly explain a bit of it (meaning Herod and then Archelaus). Perhaps it can’t be fully explained.

But what these notations can tell us is that even when we’ve experienced the fullness of God’s promise, we might yet expect that not all in life will go as easily as we might hope. The road may bring unwanted surprises, difficult chapters, and even danger. Rich Mullins sings it: There’s Bound to Come Some Trouble.

But God will be with us all along.

Matthew 2:13-23

When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod died. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I have called my son out of Egypt.

When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet:

A voice was heard in Ramah,
    weeping and much grieving.
        Rachel weeping for her children,
            and she did not want to be comforted,
                because they were no more.

After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up,” the angel said, “and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus ruled over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee. He settled in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.

Prayer

God,

I’d like to see it all and know it all. I don’t mean that I’d like to rule the world, just that I’d like to know how things will go for me and those I love. I’m sure you can understand this desire.

So help me, God: Keep my feet steady despite challenges. Help me move forward despite setbacks. Give me courage for those things that would try to bring me down. Give me faith beyond what I can see.

By your spirit & in Christ,

Amen.