Toxicity & Cleansing
The Flight into Egypt by Giotto di Bondone (1304–1306, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua)
Mt 2:13-15 - The Flight to Egypt
Why does Jesus go to Egypt?
Circumstantially, Herod’s a narcissistic tyrant.
So God gives Joseph a heads up to “get outta Dodge!” to save Mary and the child.
But why does Matthew include these words? This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet [Hosea], ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’
Something bigger (than Herod) is also happening.
Consider Paul’s words to the Romans that Jesus “is the first-born among many brethren” (Rom 8:29).
What might ‘Egypt’ represent?
What is your ‘Egypt’?
Is it pride? Vanity? Sensuality? What’s your poison?
What relationships is it spoiling in your life right now?
Toxicity creeps into an ecosystem usually before anyone ever realizes it, and by the time it’s noticed, it’s already destroyed life forms or is in the process of destroying them.
In some deep sense, our entire experience of reality is a relational ecosystem.
For each one of us, the human heart is the fundamental biotic factor of our relational ecosystem.
The heart is the nucleus of our “world” of relationships, the personal experience-center of our entire interface with reality.
But our sins fester like smog, polluting the existential air we breathe.
Jesus goes down to Egypt to recapitulate the story of God’s people.
Egypt - at one time the Israelites’ place of comfort and rest (from famine) - eventually became their slavery.
Our own “Egypt” may provide pleasure and comfort initially, but our passions - be they intellectual or physical - make terrible masters when disordered.
What’s the point here?
Deliverance from the toxicity of sin.
Jesus desires to meet you in your own Egypt to free you from its bondage to become a son in the Son.
Out of Egypt our Heavenly Father calls us. Out of Egypt He calls you, desiring to cleanse your heart one day at a time.
Onward and Upward,
Ted
Here’s What I’m Reading This Week
In The Soul of Shame, psychiatrist Curt Thompson unpacks the ubiquitous nature and neurobiological roots of shame. He also provides the theological and practical tools necessary to dismantle it, based on years of researching its damaging effects and counseling people to overcome those wounds. Thompson argues that whether we realize it or not, shame affects every aspect of our personal lives and vocational endeavors. It seeks to destroy our identity in Christ, replacing it with a damaged version of ourselves that results in unhealed pain and brokenness. But God is telling a different story for your life so that you experience healing and wholeness.
For more content, check out my Substack where you can read my latest piece on The Great Educational Fallacy: and other thoughts on education.
If this speaks to you, consider a paid membership.
If now isn’t the right time for a paid membership, I’d be grateful if you shared Into Deep Water with a friend who might find it meaningful. Thanks!
