Matthew Chapter 2

• 

That It Might Be Fulfilled

Three times in this chapter, the Evangelist testified that events in Jesus’ early life “fulfilled” prophecy (2:15, 17, 23). Though these “fulfilments” do not seem to correspond to matching predictions, they are in fact intended realisations of Old Testament prophecies.

When Hosea recounted God’s deliverance of Israel out of Egypt (Hos 11:1), in what way was it a prophecy about Jesus’ sojourn in Egypt till Herod’s death (2:13-15)?

How was the massacre of male toddlers in Bethlehem (2:16-18) a fulfilment of Jeremiah’s description of Rachel weeping for her children (Jer 31:15)?

If we think that Matthew loosely applied Old Testament prophecies to Jesus, ignoring the contexts, we would have disregarded the sacredness of prophetic texts as well as the inspired nature of the Gospels.

If we deem the Evangelist inspired to cite unrelated prophecies to prove that Jesus is the Christ, we have not understood the integrity of the Bible. 

The word “fulfil” does not only mean to cause predicted events to happen, as in the virgin birth (1:18-23) of the divine King in Bethlehem (2:4-6). Jesus’ baptism was to “fulfil all righteousness”, where the same word means “to complete” or “to accomplish” something. God’s plan of salvation was previewed in the Old Testament and brought to its designed end in Jesus.

In this light, to “fulfil” is to “fully fill” (Acts 2:2; Rom 15:13) things predicted, foretold, foreshadowed, or prepared for in the Old Testament.

In simplest terms, Jesus’ flight to Egypt at a tender age was to re-enact Israel’s emergence from Egypt as a young nation. When God said “Israel is My son, My firstborn” (Ex 4:22), He certainly had in mind the plan conceived in eternity (Eph 3:11; Acts 15:18) for Jesus to be the representative of Israel, the beloved Son (Heb 1:2; 2:10-18) who would lead sinners out of spiritual bondage (Jn 8:34-35) into the glorious liberty of God’s children (Rom 8:21)!

The birth of a child was a sign of hope, yet Rachel refused to be comforted, naming her new-born “son of my sorrow”, and died on the way to Bethlehem (Gen 35:16-19).

Recalling the Assyrian conquest and predicting the Babylonian captivity, Jeremiah described Rachel as weeping from the place of her burial (cf. 1 Sam 10:2) – Ephraim (descended from her son Joseph) was gone, and now Benjamin would be led into captivity from the place of her burial (Jer 40:1). Jeremiah’s prophecy concluded with the hope of deliverance through the new covenant (Jer 31: 17, 31-40), so Matthew applied it to Jesus, our hope (12:21; Lk 24:21; 1 Tim 1:1). 

Jesus’ return from exile to be raised a despised Nazarene (Jn 1:46) was a composite prophecy of “the prophets” (2:23; Is 53:1-4).

•