When Jesus was a small child in Bethlehem, King Herod the Great wanted to kill Him because he feared that Jesus would overthrow him if He grew up. But Mary and Joseph received a warning from an angel to flee to Egypt, which they obeyed. After Herod died, Jesus and His family returned to Israel. Matthew, the author who recorded this, claimed that this fulfilled the prophecy, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” This quote can be traced back to Hosea 11:1. Critics claim that Matthew took this verse out of context because if you read the whole verse in Hosea, God is talking about Israel as His child. However, Matthew is not using Hosea 11:1 as a straightforward predictive sign of Jesus. Instead, he is showing that Jesus, by reliving Israels history, is fulfilling Israel by succeeding where they as a nation failed so that He could be the perfect sacrifice on Israels (and the rest of the worlds) behalf. So Israel itself is a predictive prophecy of Jesus, who would come to redeem the world. With that big-picture perspective in mind, we can see how Gods grand plan of redemption is glorious. And God uses this as a sign to the rest of the world to expose mankinds sinful condition and need for Jesus as our Savior.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 01:10:33 +0000
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