Matthew 2:13-23.  Who you are right now is the result of a thousand decisions – some large and some small – and those decisions shaped your destiny.  The catalysts for those decisions are various.  In Jesus’ early life, his parents made many decisions that ultimately led to his being where he needed to be, and some of those decisions protected him from enemies, like Herod.  They listened to the wise men, to angels in dreams, and to their own common sense.  At some point in time they looked back on those decisions and discovered that their lives had been mapped by the scriptures.

1. They fled to Egypt until the death of Herod the Great.  “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet (Hosea 11:1) ‘out of Egypt I called my Son.’”
2. Herod, thinking that they were still in Bethlehem, had all the young boys in the town killed.  “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah” – a prediction that the Rama region would experience a great loss of children.
3. After Herod’s death, they decided to return, but resettled not in Judah, but in Galilee … “that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled  ‘he shall be called a Nazarene.’”

Nothing about Jesus’ life was mere chance or random circumstance.  He had a destiny, and his life was mapped out by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit had revealed some of the salient points of that destiny in the writings of the prophets.  The scriptures reveal that this same Jesus is going to come again.  It is his destiny.

LORD, Your destiny is sure.  When you come again to fulfill the predictions in the scriptures, may we be ready to welcome you.