“Out of Egypt I have called My Son,” is a beautiful prophecy of Christ, fulfilled when the Holy Family was called back to the Promised Land after Herod’s death. It is a prophecy that has the descendants of Jacob as its reference whom God delivered from Pharaoh with great signs and wonders. But it is also a prophecy about each of us a Christians. Lost and condemned in our sins and our trespasses, we too were once captive in Egypt, slaves to the devil and the passions of our flesh. But that is not where God created you to be. You were not created for eternal damnation. You were created to live in the Promised Land of God’s kingdom, a kingdom where all are ruled over by the gracious and life-giving Word of God, where all serve God day and night in His temple, and where all live together in perfect love. All of God’s people must be called out of Egypt and thus the one who will bear our sins and overthrow our captors must also be brought up out of Egypt. And so the Lord Jesus came forth from Egypt to open the way again to everlasting life. Every step He took was a step of obedience to His Heavenly Father and love for you. Every one of those steps was a step toward our redemption, the shedding of His Blood so that Satan and death would lose their grip upon us and we might be called out of Egypt, to live in the gracious presence of God, to lay aside all the sin that is of Egypt and to walk instead, in newness of life. Let us gather together with Christ again, to hear His Word and receive His Supper, that we might be strengthened for our journey to the true and eternal Promised Land where we will sit at the table of our Heavenly Father. I look forward to seeing all of you this coming Lord’s Day.
Pastor Ulmer