about Psalm every once in a while. Stretch you a little. Well, as we come to the hearing of God’s word read, I would invite you to turn to the prophet Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah 63, we’ll be reading verses seven through nine. Isaiah 63, beginning in verse seven. Hear now God’s word.
I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them, according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. For he said, surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely. And he became their Savior. In all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity, he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Thus far the reading of God’s word.
And now for our New Testament reading and also our sermon texts tonight, I would invite you to turn to the gospel of Matthew chapter two. Matthew chapter two will be beginning in verse 13. Matthew 2, beginning in verse 13, hear now God’s word.
Now, when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son.
Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under. according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah. A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted because they are no more.
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead. And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelios was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there and being warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.” Thus far, the reading of God’s word.
Would you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, as we do come to your word this evening, oh Lord, have mercy upon us. Christ, have mercy upon us. We pray that you would be with both the speaker and the hearers this evening, for we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps like you or like myself, many of you are still kind of in the Christmas mode, the Christmas spirit, hopefully wanting that to linger as long as possible, while at the same time wanting all the leftovers to be eaten and the toy wrappers to be cleaned up. But nonetheless, we enjoy kind of lingering. Those of us who celebrate, who acknowledge the season, kind of like to extend it as long as possible, even historically going as far as doing 12 days of Christmas, right? But nonetheless, we are quickly reminded in any holiday season that life snaps us back to reality, that the real world is still waiting. All those chores and all those things that were left undone over the last few weeks are still waiting to be done and taken care of. And just like in real life, the beautiful scene of Christmas that we have in Matthew 1 and 2, right? And then, you know, the visit of the wise men and all the wonderful things revolving around the birth of our Lord. Even those quickly snap back into reality, right? Things don’t stay as they so often look so peaceful and beautiful in the nativity scenes.
You know, they are just like we are. We’re there in a real-world situation that even our Lord, even after His birth, He is in real and imminent danger that shortly after his birth, after this angelic announcement, after the worship of the wise men and the shepherds, Well, Jesus’s father gets a message and says, your son is in danger. Your son is going to be killed, reminding us that in this age, that there is a hostility that we face as Christians. There’s a fragility to the peace that we long for and that we, from time to time, experience. That just like our own lives, it seems that even in Jesus’s life, there were some detours, there were some bumps along the way, if you will, And yet we see throughout the text that we just read God’s control, God intervenes to save his son, to save this holy family, to of course accomplish his plan for salvation later on in the life of Jesus.
But notice how Matthew tells this story, this story of the danger surrounding Jesus of all these twists and turns that he has to go through In his early life, you might have noticed that throughout the telling of this story, Matthew keeps repeating this refrain where he says, you know, this was to fulfill what the prophet says. He keeps listing, you know, time after time that this happened, but this was actually planned. This was to fulfill what was spoken long ago. Matthew has a clear intention of revealing to us the prophetic undergirding of the life of our Savior, even at his earliest days.
And as we consider this text this evening, I do want us to see that this evening, that just as the whole of Christ’s life was a fulfillment of prophecy, that even this chapter of his life, that every aspect of Christ’s life was to fulfill what was promised to God’s people throughout the Old Testament.
And I want us to see that fulfillment under three headings this evening. The first is this, that Jesus is the true Israel, that the prophecy was being fulfilled in this text, that Jesus is the true Israel.
So, you know, we come to this text and there’s this urgency, this angel comes, an angel’s already come in Matthew’s gospel, but the first time the angel came, it was good news, it was delightful, right? He said, Joseph, don’t divorce Mary, she’s gonna have a son by the Holy Spirit, and you’re going to name him Jesus, for he is going to save his people. from their sins, but now the angel’s more pressing. He says, you need to get out of town. You need to flee the city of Bethlehem. You need to go all the way down to the land of Egypt.
And in doing so, Matthew picks up. He says, even in this kind of middle of the night getaway, they’re fleeing town. Matthew says, no, this was actually part of prophecy. Matthew says, this was to fulfill the prophecy that my son will go down to Egypt, the prophecy being referenced here is from Hosea chapter 11.
And if you go back and look at that prophecy, at the time that was being spoken of regarding Israel, regarding God’s collective son, right? This language that my son going down to Israel is this reference to the people of Israel. After the time of the patriarchs going down to live in the land of Goshen, and spend many years, almost 450 years in a foreign land. And so at first glance, really, the prophecy being referenced here really doesn’t even seem to be a prophecy. It’s just a description of a historical reality that God is saying, my son lived in the land of Egypt, and then I called him out of the land of Egypt.
We could spend time looking at this prophecy, and there’s a bit more context that we would want to see, but at least for this evening’s sake, I want to read a little bit of the context of this quotation that Matthew is referencing. In Hosea it says, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.
And so it’s Hosea, I mean, if you know the story of the book of Hosea as a whole, I mean, it’s not a pleasant story, right? It’s a reminder of the waywardness of God’s people. His beloved son, you know, that over and over he calls to them, he rescues them, he summons them to himself. And really this text, as God is recalling the precious memories of his young child that he calls out of Egypt, his young son, is really a lament, right? He’s saying, the more that I called them, the more love I poured upon them, the more they were wayward, the more they went away from me.
And so in retelling the story, he’s also talking about the pattern that will lead to their exile, that they are going to forsake me, and in doing so, they’re actually going to go back to the very places that I called them from. They’re gonna go to Assyria, specifically, he’s talking about the northern kingdom, but also some go back to the land of Egypt. And yet here, this is where the prophetic point comes. God is saying, you know, they were in Egypt, I called them out, and the point being, even though they go back to Egypt, even though they go into exile again, or they go away from the promised land, God’s saying, I’m going to bring them out of Israel, or excuse me, bring them out of Egypt once again, that as often as they stray, I will be gracious to them.
And here we in a sense see there’s some prophetic tension here, right? There’s this tension between God’s continual perpetual compassion to his people, right? His desire to save them, to draw them out from the hand of their oppressors, but also this reminder of the people’s constant failing over and over, having to be saved, having to be redeemed. And here Matthew says, you know, that really that pattern needed to be broken, right? That’s the point of the text. In Hosea, that’s the point of Jesus’s coming and mimicking the pattern that we see in Israel.
Jesus didn’t have to go to Egypt for his own sins, but in doing so, really, Matthew’s saying this is the beginning of a new Israel story. Just as the first Israel went away from the promised land and then God brings them back from wherever they were scattered, here too, Jesus, he goes, he starts his life in the land of Egypt, away from the land of promise. and he too, he will be drawn back. He will be brought back in, this time as the true Israel, as the one who would fulfill all that the first Israel could not. I mean, did you hear that? I tried to make that argument that this is what is all contained in this one prophetic reference that Matthew is making. I mean, maybe it seems like a stretch to you. that he’s tying all this in, but at least in part, this is what Matthew is pointing at, not just this one specific prophecy, which is how we often deal with prophecy, that it’s kind of this proving, this proof texting, that this historical event happened, therefore God is true, and that is certainly the case.
There’s so many fulfillments that we can never guess in a million years, we can never predict, and yet God says this is gonna happen. But the point of prophecy is more than that. It’s more than just God predicting things, but it is the fact that God is making promises to his people. And even more so, Matthew’s point here is saying that the Old Testament is all about Jesus. That Matthew’s not adding something new here, a new interpretation of this, but in other words, that this was the point all along, that the true Israel was going to come.
That’s all that the Old Testament prophets were hoping for. That Israel throughout the Old Testament, as they saw their failure, their sin, as they saw their real exile away from God’s face. I mean, even if they didn’t know the name of the one they were hoping for, they were hoping for this day. They were hoping for this time when the true Israel would come. And this is what Matthew was announcing here. Israel has come, the true Israel who follows the pattern of the first Israel by going to Egypt, he has arrived.
But the good news is that this time it will be a faithful Israel, an obedient son. This one who will do all that Israel failed to do and succeed where they could not. I mean, this is, as Matthew has already pointed, this is why his name would be Jesus, that God saves, God redeems, God will rescue his people. And Matthew has to make the point that in order to do so, he has to start from the beginning, right? From the very earliest days of his life, he will follow that same pattern and he will be the redeemer of his people.
Well, Matthew goes on, Jesus and his family, they’re waiting, they’re kind of twiddling their thumbs in the land of Egypt for a while. And it’s interesting, Matthew doesn’t follow their journey exactly. He takes a little detour, or at least he remains in the land of Bethlehem for a second. And as we see this little stop that Matthew makes, this little narrative break, we come to our second point this evening, that we see Jesus as he is the true comforter.
We see Jesus as the true comforter. So Jesus, well, Jesus doesn’t flee. His mother and father flee with him. We linger in Bethlehem, and again, just like with the nativity scenes that we so often picture, we think of, oh, little town of Bethlehem, how still we see the lie. But Bethlehem, too, is not immune from the crashing in realities of this present evil age. This day, this Sunday, the Sunday after Christmas typically or historically has been demarcated as the Sunday of the murder of the innocents. And it refers to this event that we read this evening, this horrible slaughter by King Herod of these innocent young boys in Bethlehem.
If you know anything about Herod, you probably know that he was known for his cruelty and for his paranoia. There was a saying about Herod during this time that it was better to be Herod’s pig than to be Herod’s son, because he observed kosher laws, but he was very quick to kill a son if he thought that that son was a threat to his power, or anyone else in his sphere of influence who might be seen as a threat.
And of course, Herod sees Jesus, Jesus Christ, as a threat to his throne, this one who is announced to be the true king of Israel. The wise men tell him that they’re seeking this one who is from the line of David. And so to avoid any threat, to avoid any competition to his throne, he sends out his soldiers and they overnight slaughter young children under the age of two, toddlers, in the town of Bethlehem and in the surrounding region.
Conservatively, it’s guessed that there were probably around 12 to 20 children that were killed in this event, which isn’t to minimize the atrocity of it, but right in one night, the lives of these children were taken, all for some king, all for some ruler to maintain his semblance of power. And of course, this cry, you can imagine the cries and the agony of this town. All the people would have known each other.
Matthew says this too, this was to fulfill a prophecy in the Old Testament. This reference he makes to Jeremiah chapter 31, thus says the Lord, a voice is heard in Rama, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children because they are no more.
So on the surface, you know, if you would have seen this event in the newspaper, it would have probably seemed like, you know, a senseless tragedy, just a cruel act of, of evil by this, this evil wicked man. And yet we see this too, this in God’s sovereign plan, this was foretold, this was known that it was going to take place. And even this prophecy, it reveals or it teaches us something about what God is doing in the world.
And to understand this, we have to ask, who is Rachel? Who’s being talked about in this prophecy? Well, you’ll recall Rachel was buried in Bethlehem in the Old Testament, right? There was a plot of land that was allocated for her tomb. And here, Bethlehem itself, Rachel and Bethlehem are kind of being personified as this woman mourning for her lost children.
And in the context of Jeremiah 31, the weeping that’s taking place specifically is weeping for the sons of Israel being taken away into exile. That’s why Rachel’s weeping, that her children are being killed and taken away, and she has no comfort. And here too, this prophecy is a reminder to us that we are in exile. This prophecy is a picture to us of death, of being sent away from the presence of the Lord.
And if just the reality of death itself, that the innocents die, that we too in this age, that we are sojourners and exiles, that we are not in a promised land yet. I mean, just like in our age, that this time period, 2000 years ago when Jesus was on the earth, that even he was not immune to the threat of death.
I mean, last week, you know, at Christmas time, people are rejoicing the birth of a Savior, and then this week, right, acknowledging the fact that children die, that evil things happen. And even more so, reminded of the fact that there are true enemies to God’s people, right? There was this man who would stop at nothing, not just to wipe out this threat to his throne, but to wipe out the Savior of the world. to kill God’s chosen one, to kill the Son of God Himself, that He would be high-handed enough to think that He could do that. Really, this is a very visible picture of that ever-present hostility between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, that that is a present reality in every age.
For as beautiful as the nativity is, I mean, this scene really helps to keep things in our life from getting too sentimental, that this is the real world that Jesus came into. But for as dark and bleak as this scene is, and Matthew certainly doesn’t shy away from showing the tragedy of this scene, I mean, even in pointing us to this fulfillment of this prophecy, Matthew is giving us so much more. He’s saying there’s much more happening than just the fact that we live in a sad, evil world.
I wanna continue the quote that he’s referencing here. So Rachel’s weeping for her lost children, but then hear God’s response, hear God’s word of comfort that he gives just after this sad cry. Jeremiah says this, thus says the Lord, Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.
So even in the midst of the weeping, the fact that God’s people are being brought into exile, God is reminding them there is a future beyond the exile. Indeed, there is a future even for God’s people beyond the grave. And God can promise his people that there is a hope for your future, that your children will come back to the promised land.
And if you know how Jeremiah 31 continues, how does that actually play itself out? Well, God will go on to describe the solution to that problem. And he does so in describing this wonderful, this well-known picture of the new covenant. that God will establish an everlasting, unbreakable covenant with his people. And who does he do that through? Well, the very child that we read about. Jesus Christ comes to accomplish this new covenant reality, to wipe away our tears, to bring about the new creation.
The congregation hear this this evening, that God is not unaware of your suffering, He acknowledges it in this text, but he also gives you a promise that he will comfort you and he will bring life. He will restore all those who are downcast and who are broken. Or in other words, Matthew’s not just showing us that sin and death are real, but that there is a reality to that, or there is an answer to that reality of evil. There’s an answer to the reality of death, and it comes in the form of Jesus Christ, God who takes on flesh.
not just to console, not just to comfort, to say it’s going to be okay, but to actually do something to end these things. That brings us to our third point this evening. You know, as we consider this one, who is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, we see third, Matthew wants us to see him as Jesus, the true Nazarene.
We see Jesus, the true Nazarene, So we come back to the family in Egypt, Joseph and Mary, they’re waiting, and finally an angel comes again and says, okay, it’s safe now, you can go back to the land of Israel. But then on the way back, he says, well, a little detour, don’t go back to Bethlehem, you have to go to the north now, to the Galilee region, and I want you to dwell in the city of Nazareth. And again, in doing so, in living in Nazareth, Matthew wants to highlight again, this is to fulfill the prophecy that Jesus would be a Nazarene. And as we come to that prophecy, as Matthew points us to the Old Testament, the question then is, okay, what prophecy is Matthew saying is being fulfilled here?
And the answer to that question is nobody knows. Nobody knows what prophecy specifically Matthew is referring to, and that is because Nazareth is not mentioned in the Old Testament at all. That city is not mentioned once, you can’t find it in the Old Testament. And this is even why if you read in John’s gospel, Nathaniel hears that Jesus is from Nazareth, and he being a good scholar of the Old Testament says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Because there’s no reference, there’s no hyperlink for him as to what God might do through Nazareth.
And so there’s really four options, four solutions to this question. Either the first one is that it refers to this Hebrew word nezer, which is the word for branch. And so this one might be where you’d hear of Jesus as the branch of David, this one who is an offshoot of David. It could be just the idea that Matthew is saying he’s a nobody. Nazareth is kind of this backwater place. Jesus would be something like a country bumpkin. That’s kind of the idea that Matthew was getting at, that he would be of no status. As the Beatles say, he would be a nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land making all of his nowhere plans for nobody.
Possibly Isaiah 42, this another Hebrew word that he’s kind of this kept one, this preserved one, this chosen one or kind of a covenant keeper. not quite clear. Or finally, this idea that he is a Nazirite. So you think of someone like, you know, Samson in the Old Testament, this one who was specifically set apart or devoted. You know, think of Samuel as well, this one who is set apart for the Lord’s service, but specifically with Samson, this one who was set apart for a purpose of really suffering and death, this one who would be kind of a, one who would take upon him the people’s guilt, this one who would die for the people’s sake, as Samson does at the end of his life.
So which is it? Which of those four options sounds best to you? Again, we don’t know, but is Jesus a nobody? Is he a covenant keeper? Is he the branch of David, or is he the true Samson, the true Nazarite? And the answer is yes, to all those things. He is all of those things. He is, you know, so well summed up. I think if you can tie all these four ideas together, I think the best place would be Isaiah 53, you know, in that section of Isaiah that talks about this suffering servant, right? This one who is a set-apart one, a servant of God for a specific purpose. but this one who is a nobody. He’s not one who is outwardly attractive or glorious. This one who is a root, it speaks of. This one who is despised and rejected. This chosen servant who will suffer for the sake of his people. It’s all of those things, right?
And that’s not to say Matthew’s just kind of being ambiguous and we’re left to kind of put the pieces together, at least not in part, it’s just unclear what he’s talking about. But what we can say definitively, despite the ambiguity, and what Matthew makes abundantly clear is that Jesus is the sum of all the promises of the Old Testament. That is what he’s teaching us in this text. And really Matthew is inviting us to do the very same thing that he’s doing, to see the life of Jesus and to search the scriptures in faith and to see how Jesus fulfills those promises. He’s almost inviting us to dig in. Here’s a little puzzle for you. Try and figure out what I’m getting at. Try and figure out how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament.
We need some caution. Reformed people were known to see Jesus everywhere, so we want to have some level of caution. But nonetheless, Matthew is giving us a way of reading scripture. right, to see that truly all scripture points to Christ, and how he will fulfill all that is needed for our salvation. Not just for speculation, right, not just that we can see a prophecy fulfilled and say, wow, that’s amazing. But for our faith to be encouraged by that to see that God is working, right, that God is fulfilling his purposes.
So brothers and sisters, even in his infancy, we see Matthew shows us that Christ is beginning to accomplish all that is necessary to be accomplished in scripture, that he is the true Israel as he stands in our place and accomplishes what we could not, as he is our true comforter, though the one who tasted death on our behalf, the one who was cut off, the one who was truly exiled for our sake, and who comforts us even now. And then lastly, the true Nazarene, this one who fulfills all the promises, all the words of comfort in the Old Testament.
So as we hear this, as we hear this one who is that fulfillment, let us look once again to Christ this evening, who has accomplished all that is necessary for our redemption, and who is our Redeemer, who is our Israel. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we give you great thanks for your word and for the fact that you have, from before the foundations of the earth, set a plan in place to redeem your people. Oh God, we thank you for the fact that Christ’s whole life was a fulfillment of this, that every step of the way, Lord, he was working out our salvation and earning what we could not. Lord, help us to be comforted in that. Help us to know that even now, as he has, as he sits at your right hand, that he is our high priest and mediator. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.