An Old Story Retold

We have in our text 4 references to OT passages.

Some explicit and some not. None of them you would read through a simple reading and say, OH that’s talking about Jesus. Yet all the same, they speak about Christ.

Some people claim that you only see Jesus in the pages of the OT where he is explicity predicted. Matthew on the other hand takes a look back at the OT story and sees the bigger picture. That Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of Israel. Jesus is the true Israelite.

Some also believe that the God of the OT is not the God of the new. (Andy Stanley) A closer look at this section shows that this is not Matthew’s perspective at all, he sees in Jesus the pattern repeated in the OT. He see’s the redemptive story of Israel almost reinacted through the life of Jesus. This proves he is the Messiah and the same God of the OT.

The Story

The Flight From Egypt vs. 13-15

- Jesus’ Humanity Recognized

He was weak, vulnerable he needed protection.

-God Saves through unusual means

Matthew: A Mentor Commentary C. Joseph: Faithful Servant

His faithfulness to God and scrupulous obedience to his commands are the means whereby God protects the newborn King from the tyranny of Herod and Archelaus.

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 2:13–18

We are here taught, that God has more than one way of preserving his own people. Sometimes he makes astonishing displays of his power; while at other times he employs dark coverings or shadows, from which feeble rays of it escape.

-Fullfillment of Hosea

Hosea 11:1 ESV

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

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H

Not a prediction but a type.

The Massacre of Infants vs. 16-18

-The Opposition of a Tyrant

Jesus is despised

Isaiah 49:7 ESV

Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

-God Sovereignly Rules

Examples: Job, Jacob.

Sometimes in God’s providence includes terrible tragedy. It’s a mystery.

Application: Some of us in this room may be faced with a terrible tragedy, we can still trust him.

Psalm 2:1–4 ESV

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Psalm 2:1

-The Scriptures Fulfilled

Not a direct foretelling, but a picture a type fulfilled.

The Return to Nazareth vs. 19-23

-Jesus known as a Nazarene

A suffering servant, derided and scorned

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

John 1:46 ESV

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

Scripture Alluded To:

No passage

vs. 20, 23

Exodus 4:19 ESV

And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”

Jesus Is the Fulfillment of the Redemption Story

Jesus is the culmination of God’s Redemption Story

Matthew is showing us that Jesus is the repeat and fulfillment of God’s redemption story.

Everyone here as heard that Jesus fulfills OT predictions.

Illustration: Handwriting experts discerning a person’s signature.(Forensic Document Examiner)

Everyone here as heard that Jesus fulfills OT predictions.

-Jesus’s Life follows the Pattern of Former Redeemers.

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament Matthew 2:13–15

Like Moses rescued from the edict to kill the Israelites’ baby boys (Exod. 1:15–2:10), Jesus is spared from the slaughter of the “innocents” in Bethlehem

Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament Matthew 2:18

There may well be “new Moses” typology in baby Jesus, like baby Moses, being preserved from the threat of death ordered by a wicked ruler for the baby boys around him.

Matthew: A Mentor Commentary A. Egypt: A Place of Refuge

As God raised up Moses to rescue Israel from bondage, so he has appointed Jesus to save his people from their sins. As Pharaoh endangered the infant Moses, so Herod seeks to slay the child Jesus.5 When Pharaoh later tried to kill Moses, he fled to a foreign land, Midian; and following the death of that Pharaoh, he returned to Egypt in obedience to Yahweh’s commission. Similarly, Jesus escapes death by fleeing to a foreign country, Egypt; and once Herod dies, he returns to his own land to carry out his mission. As Israel was redeemed by the death of a Passover lamb, so Jesus will give his own life as ‘a ransom for many’ (Matt. 20:28).

The Signature is a Match

-Jesus Succeeds Where Other’s Didn’t

In Every OT Redeemer You Were Left Wanting

Moses didn’t enter the promised land.

Samson was unfaithful to his covenant.

David used his position to fulfill his lusts.

Jesus however heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased.” Jesus is greater than Moses. He is the true Israelite who was delivered from death so that he might deliver us from death!

Concusion

This shows us the trustworthiness of our God, and His Gospel.

He can save to the uttermost.

We have something to celebrate this Christmas. A deliverance from death so that he might eventually die and deliver us from death.