What does Matthew 2:19 mean?
Joseph experiences some of the most direct revelations from God of any character in the Gospels. Each revelation came with specific instructions for what he should do and how he should do it. Each involved the appearance of an angel of the Lord in a dream. This is the third of four such experiences.This dream came after the death of Herod in Israel. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were living in Egypt, perhaps among one of the Jewish settlements in the region. Judea was a Roman province, ruled by Herod and his family. Egypt, likewise, was Roman territory, under different local governors. God had sent them outside the reach of Herod through the message of an angel in an earlier dream. Though part of the Roman empire, Egypt was far outside of Herod's jurisdiction, and too far for him to discover that someone had survived his massacre of infants (Matthew 2:16).
Matthew 2:19–23 tells of Jesus' childhood return to Israel after the death of King Herod. Joseph is alerted by an angel in a dream that Herod has died; nobody who wanted Jesus dead is still living. When they return, another message from God warns Joseph not to move back to Bethlehem, in Judea. Rather, he is to settle in his hometown of Nazareth in the region of Galilee. In that way, Jesus grows up as a citizen of Nazareth, fulfilling yet another prophecy.
King Herod is surprised and troubled by the arrival of wise men from the east. They have come looking for a newborn king of the Jews. Herod directs the men to Bethlehem to find the boy for him. The wise men find and worship Jesus. Rather than cooperating with the wicked Herod, the wise men slip away. An angel warns Joseph to flee to Egypt with his family before Herod kills all the boys in Bethlehem two years old and younger to protect his throne. After Herod's death, an angel sends Joseph back to Israel and then God directs him to settle with Mary and Jesus in Nazareth in the region of Galilee.
