This Sunday we return (it has been a while) to our series in the gospel of Matthew. We preached through the Sermon on the Mount several years ago and then did a couple of Christmas messages on chapter 1 and part of chapter 2 back in 2023. So now we return to chapter 2 of Matthew looking at verses 13-23; our text for this week. In this passage we have God protecting His son, and Mary & Joseph from the evil Herod and his men who are out to kill baby Jesus. But God doesn’t make it easy for the young family, because we see from the text that Joseph is told to escape to Egypt for a few months. Why couldn’t God do a miracle to save this family? Why make them travel all this distance rather than just protect them there in the land? There are some practical lessons that we can learn about God’s provision and protection from this passage in the gospel according to Matthew. Why does God make it hard sometimes? Our scripture reading is Isaiah 53:3-12, a passage that talks about Jesus sufferings. Isn’t there an easier way than for Jesus to go through all that? Life is hard at times, but God is still on the throne and still doing His work.