An angel appeared to Joseph to tell him to go ahead
and marry his virgin yet pregnant bride. As a result, and with Herod’s command
to return to the city of his birth, Joseph and Mary arrived in Bethlehem, where
Mary has given birth. Matthew made it clear that this was to fulfill the
prophetic Word of God in Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small
among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler
over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”[1] Now
another angel has appeared to Joseph. This one tells him to “take the child and
his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going
to search for the child to kill him.”[2] Verses 14 and 15 continue the story, “So he got up, took
the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where
he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said
through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”[3]
Whereas Matthew quoted Micah before, here he quotes Hosea (11:1).
Micah spoke to the southern
kingdom of Judah, but Hosea prophesied largely to the northern kingdom of
divided Israel. His – like Micah’s - was a message of indictment and judgment
mixed with hope and instruction. They were contemporaries, ministering some 700
years prior to Matthew and well over a hundred years before the exile. This
particular verse from Hosea was given in the context of God’s remembrance of
His original call to Israel, in a stanza dripping with melancholy, “When Israel was a
child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more I called
Israel, the further they went from me.”[4]
Although the original context speaks of Jacob’s descendants in the Exodus from
Egypt hundreds of years before Hosea, Matthew correctly applies the prophesy
here to Christ, hundreds of years after Hosea.
God’s Word is true, whether
heard in its entirety by the original hearer, or as single fact of prophesy addressed
to a reader hundreds or even thousands of years later. This is an unavoidable
truth of our timeless God. Another unavoidable truth is that originally
fulfilled prophesy still has application in the life of a believer, no matter
the timeline. What is more, He uses the actions of simple ordinary believers –
sometimes as unlikely a man as Joseph, sometimes as unlikely a woman as Mary –
to fulfill that same word – sometimes in a greater manner than when it was
originally given!
· God uses
ancient prophesy to speak His truth into in our lives too. How has today’s devotion spoken to you?
· God may well
use you to fulfill His Word. How does
that fact change how you listen to Him today?
[1] The Holy Bible:
New International Version. (1984). (Mic 5:2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[2] The Holy Bible:
New International Version. (1984). (Mt 2:13). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
[3] The Holy Bible:
New International Version. (1984). (Mt 2:14–15). Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
[4] The Holy Bible:
New International Version. (1984). (Ho 11:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan.
No comments:
Post a Comment