Exodus reloaded (3)

The Son that God calls out of Egypt (Matt. 2:13-15)

See part 1 and part 2 here.

Now we come to the significance of The Great Escape. This is a passage that has perplexed scholars. Let me explain. We often think of prophets as foretelling the future, predicting things that will happen. These predictions then either come true, confirming that the prophet is from God, or they fail to be fulfilled, and we know that we are dealing with a false prophet. However, when we look up this quotation in the book of Hosea (11:1-2), what we find is that it doesn’t appear to be a prophecy at all:

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. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

In the original context this is not an obvious prophecy that can be fulfilled. In fact it doesn’t look forward at all. Hosea is looking backwards to the events of the Exodus, the time back then when God called Israel out of Egypt. Has Matthew then got this wrong? Some OT scholars think so, but they are mistaken. In the OT God refers to the whole nation of Israel as if it were one person, His ‘son’. We see this in Exodus 4:22-23:

Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me”…’

Israel is God’s son. So what is Matthew doing here? How is he using Hosea’s words? He is saying that Jesus, God’s Son, is Israel, the true Israel. And that Jesus will retrace Israel’s steps. They went down to Egypt and so will He. They were tested in the wilderness and so will He be (Matt. 1:11). But where the nation of Israel failed, Jesus the true Israel, the obedient Son, will prevail. This is the biblical background to the doctrine of the active obedience of Christ.

Israel is God’s son. So what is Matthew doing here? How is he using Hosea’s words? He is saying that Jesus, God’s Son, is Israel, the true Israel. And that Jesus will retrace Israel’s steps. They went down to Egypt and so will He. They were tested in the wilderness and so will He be (Matt. 4:1-11). But where the nation of Israel failed, Jesus the true Israel, the obedient Son, will prevail.

This is the biblical background to the doctrine of the active obedience of Christ. He was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law. Whereas Adam and Israel were law-breakers, Christ was the true law-keeper and this not for His own sake but for ours. R. Scott Clark summarises this well in these words:

The gospel is not just that we are forgiven, but that believers are reckoned as law keepers for the sake of Christ’s law keeping credited to them (Rom. 4:3; 2 Cor. 5:19-21; Gal. 3:6). Whoever trusts in Jesus and rests in his finished work alone is righteous before God. It is as if the Christian has performed all that the law requires.