Look at this prophecy that’s quoted in Mathew 2 verse 18, which Hosea gave many hundreds of years before, about Joseph bringing the Lord Jesus to Egypt and then bringing him back. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy: “Out of Egypt I called my Son.” This had always been the plan.
Now, that verse in Hosea is set in reference to Israel, Israel is spoken of as God’s son.
You do hear people talk about the Lord Jesus in the New Testament and say he was the first to speak of God as Father, yet that is not the case. Clearly, there are repeated times where God is spoken of as Father, and Israel is spoken of as his son, and this is one such example. But we must go beyond that—fulfilled prophecies are not just there to be cool examples of how neat and impressive a prophet’s star there is. As Jesus Himself explained in Luke 24:27, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” He later says in Luke 24:44, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
But if Hosea prophesied that Israel, God’s son, was called out of Egypt, we now see that that was a prophecy that spoke not of the past this time—as with other statements about Israel being delivered from slavery in Egypt—but of the future. And if it was a prophecy concerning the future of Israel and the Lord Jesus fulfilled it.
Have you appreciated, as Matthew keeps bringing out, the fulfilment of history in the life of the Lord Jesus? Prophecy from the past being fulfilled in the future has, as one of its purposes, to assure us of the fact that God makes plans in eternity and fulfils them in history. As Isaiah 46:10 says, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.’”
Then here is the Lord Jesus associating himself with his people, uniting himself with his people. He is the one who is part of his people…
If Israel is called out of Egypt, then Jesus is called out of Egypt too. Up until this point, the Lord Jesus had not been a member of the church. He had led his church from the very beginning, yet he had not yet dwelt in flesh, being one of his people.
But once we get to the flight to Egypt, he can now say with his people, “I too have been called out of Egypt,” just like you my church were.
The big idea with Matthew’s quote from Hosea is that the Lord Jesus becomes one of his people, as well as being one with his people. He becomes part of Israel, he becomes a member of the church, and so, he stands with us. He stood with His Old Testament people in his willingness to associate with them and their deliverance from Egypt.
But he also stands with us, his future people, in saying to us: ‘you are in me, and I am in you.’ John 14:20. As 1 Corinthians 6:17 assures us, “But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” Look to Me as your head, as Paul writes in Colossians 1:18, “And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.” Look to Me as your husband, as Ephesians 5:25-27 explains, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Look to Me as the one to whom you are united, as Romans 6:5 states, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
“As you come with me to Egypt, as you read this passage in church over the generations, you must also remember that you are not only with me as you hear about My flight to Egypt as a baby, but you are with me as you die with me on the cross. As Romans 6:6 says, ‘For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin,’ and Galatians 2:20 affirms, ‘I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’
“And you were with me as I was buried. As Romans 6:4 explains, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
“You were with me as I rose again from the dead. Romans 6:5— ‘as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
“You were with me as I ascended to heaven too. ‘And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.’ (Ephesians 2:6).
