Called My Son Out of Egypt

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #25

Called My Son Out of Egypt

“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My Son out of Egypt ” (Hos. xi. 1).

The latter portion of this verse is applied in Matthew ii. 15 to the journey of the infant Jesus into Egypt. Hosea clearly has the nation of Israel in mind.

“And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” (Mt 2:15 AV)

On what principle, then, is the verse applied to Jesus?

A consideration of a series of chapters in Isaiah, where reference is made to the servant of Jehovah, will lead to an answer. When the prophet says:

“Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth” (Isa. xlii. 1),

he is evidently referring to a personal Messiah who was to be given “for a covenant of the people” (verse 6). Yet in the following chapter it is said:

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen” (Isa. xliii. 10).

And in chapter xliv. we read:

“Ο Jacob, my servant”.

By this double line of thought we can only conclude, as we gather from many other passages, that Israel was a typical nation. Of them God had said:

“Israel is my son, my first born” (Exod. iv. 22);

hence they were, in some respects, representative of the first and only begotten Son of God, and on this principle prophecies which apparently would otherwise apply solely to Israel have an application to the personal Servant of Jehovah — Jesus Anointed.

On this view no violence is done to the language of the prophet in the application of the words of Hosea xi.1 to the journey of Jesus of Nazareth into Egypt.

W. H. Boulton.

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Preceding

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #1 Introduction: What is Prophecy? – Prophets, fortune-tellers and Prophecy

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #2 Shiloh

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #3 Job’s Redeemer

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #4 Judah — Gods Battle Axe

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #5 Evening Morning Period

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #6 Daniel’s Seventy Weeks

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #7 Toes of the Image

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #8 The Fourth Beast

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #9 Michael the Great Prince

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #10 Gog

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #11 King of the North

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #12 The Little Horn of the Goat

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #13 Antiochus Epiphanes

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #14 Tarshish

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #15 More about Tarshish

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #16 Weapons of War as Fuel

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #17 Temple of Ezekiel’s Prophecy

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #18 Shape of Ezekiel’s Temple

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #19 Annual Pilgrimage to Jerusalem

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #20 King of the South

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #21 Messiah the Prince

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #22 Micah’s Forty Years

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #22 Wounded in the House of My Friends

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #23 Elijah Before Christ

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #23 Riches of Egypt

Answers Concerning Prophecies and things future #24 One of a City, Two of a Family

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2. Jesus of Nazareth
3. The Second Blessing
4. Has Jesus’ childhood home in Nazareth been discovered?
5. Jesus Time in Egypt
6. A Jewish Jesus and his God