Arise, take the young Child… flee to Egypt… for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him” (Matthew 2:13), the angel told Joseph.
There were many ways in which God could have saved the infant Christ from Herod’s sword without requiring Him to flee to Egypt. He could, for example, have made the Child invisible to Herod, among countless other possibilities. Yet He chose Egypt for a particular reason.
At that time, Egypt was known as a land filled with idols, each representing a different god. The Egyptians were idolaters who worshipped numerous false gods and were therefore deeply deceived. God wished to reveal to them that, before His Son, the true God who became man, their gods were false and lifeless.
As soon as the infant Jesus entered Egypt, He caused the idols to crumble into dust, in fulfilment of the prophecy: “The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence” (Isaiah 19:1). We also chant in the Salutations to the Virgin Mary: “By shedding the light of truth in Egypt, You dispelled the darkness of falsehood, for Egypt’s idols, unable to withstand Your power, O Savior, fell” (Second Stanza). This, then, was why the Lord sent the Christ Child into exile in Egypt rather than to another land, such as Syria.
For this reason, Egypt was blessed by the presence of the Divine Child. It was there, in Egypt, that monasticism began and flourished, giving rise to many great saints who intercede before the Lord, such as St Paul of Thebes, St Anthony the Great, St Pachomius the Great, St Arsenius the Great, St Sisoes the Great, St Macarius of Egypt, St Macarius of Alexandria, St Moses the Ethiopian, St Mary of Egypt, and many others. This is what David means when he prophetically declares: “Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt” (Psalm 67:32).
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Next in this series: How Did the Holy Family Support Themselves in Egypt?
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