Saturday, September 25, 2021

Michael Vlach on the use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15

 

 

Matthew 2:15 and Hosea 11:1

 

One example where Matthew shows a correspondence between Israel and Jesus is Matthew 2:15 and its use of Hosea 11:1. According to Matthew 2:13-14, Mayr and Joseph took the child Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod’s attempt to kill Him. Matthew 2:15 then relates Jesus’ return from Egypt with Israel’s journey in the exodus from Egypt centuries earlier: “He [Jesus] remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘OUT OF EGYPT I CALLED MY SON.’” Jesus’ return from Egypt is said to “fulfill” [pleroĊ] the event of Israel’s journey from Egypt as referred to in Hosea 11:1. Hosea 11:1 reads: “When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.” But how can Jesus’ return from Egypt be a fulfillment of a historical event for Israel that occurred centuries earlier? Hosea was referencing the historical exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt seven-hundred years earlier. So how can an event that occurred centuries earlier be fulfilled with Jesus’ return from Egypt? Can a statement about a past event also be a prophecy about a coming person?

 

The answer is found in corporate representation in which events for the “many” are linked with events of the “One.” This involves Israel and Jesus. While Israel has several purposes in God’s plans, one is to be the vehicle for the Messiah. Paul made this point in Romans 9:5: “and from them [Israel], by physical descent, came the Messiah” (HCSB). Because Jesus is the ultimate and ideal “Israelite,” Matthew wants to show his readers that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. To do that, Matthew connected events in Israel’s history with events in Jesus’ life. For Matthew, the fact that both Israel and Jesus came out of Egypt was not an accident or coincidence. God intended this correspondence.

 

Significantly, the connection between Israel and the Messiah concerning Egypt was not invented by Matthew. This connection is made in Numbers 23 and 24. Compare the following oracles of Balaam in Numbers 23 and 24:

 

·       “God brings them [Israel] out of Egypt, He [God] is for them like the horns of the wild ox.” (Num. 23:22)

·       “God brings him [Israel’s king (see Num. 24:7)] out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox.” (Num. 24:8)

 

In these verses both Israel and Israel’s King are said to be brought out of Egypt. Thus, even before Hosea wrote Hosea 11:1, Numbers 23 and 24 connected Israel as a whole who came out of Egypt with the King of Israel who also would come out of Egypt. Hosea likely knew this when he wrote Hosea 11:1. If so, while he primarily had the historical exodus event in mind, he also may have had the coming King of Israel in mind.

 

Also, the use of “son” by both Hosea and Matthew is strategic. Terms like “seed” and “son” are strategic in the Bible and often carry both a collective and individual sense in the Ot. And when these terms were used collectively, they also could imply a coming “Seed” and “Son”. So when Hosea referred to Israel as God’s “son” who came out of Egypt, he may also have had a messianic hope in mind. This is not an argument for double meaning, but a realization that certain terms in the OT carried both a corporate and individual sense. Even if one sense is primary, the other could be present as well. This is true in Genesis 3:15 when “seed” is used in both a collective sense of mankind and an individual sense [“he”] of the one who would defeat the serpent.

 

So to answer the original question—how does Jesus “fulfill” Israel’s exodus from Egypt according to Matthew 2:15? The answer is that Jesus is the ultimate Israelite. He is related to Israel, and His return from Egypt is connected to corporate Israel’s exodus from Egypt centuries earlier. Jesus is Israel’s Messiah who can restore Israel and bring blessings to Gentiles (see Isa. 49:6). As Luke 2:32 states, Jesus is “A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.” (Michael Vlach, The Old in the New: Understanding How the New Testament Authors Quoted the Old Testament [The Woodlands, Tex.: Kress Biblical Resources/Sun Valley, Calif.: The Master’s Seminary Press, 2021], 140-41)