Tamil Christian Sermon

Matthew 2:13-15

Matthew 2:13-15 Prophecy being Fulfilled.

Matthew 2:13-15, Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” 14 When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Matthew is presenting Jesus Christ as the king in his Gospel. Not only as the king, but as the king of kings. Not only as the king of kings, but as the anointed of God. Jesus is God’s special choice as king, the monarch of all men, the monarch of all time, the ruler of the universe. Matthew is starting out from the very beginning of this gospel of his look at Jesus Christ to do this. He just begins that way in the flow of the kingship of Christ, the royalty of Christ, the regency of Christ, just goes right on through all ²⁸ chapters.

In chapter 1, he introduced Jesus as king by virtue of his birth right traced very carefully the royal genealogy in first 17 verses. Jesus virgin birth in Verses 18 to 25 was a confirmation of his royal right. God bypassed a certain curse in the virgin birth, which freed Christ from being disqualified and left him with the right again to the throne.

So, in the genealogy, as well as the uniqueness of the virgin birth, we learn that Matthew is emphasizing Christ as king. In Chapter2 Matthew is he shows us that He is King by the recognition of Magi, who were the king makers of the east.

The Persian kingmakers saw Him as a king, and they came and worshiped Him and giving Him gifts. Another way Matthew makes us to recognise that Jesus is king by the hatred shown by Herod. Herod, who has no right to reign in Israel, who is an Edomite, not even a Jew, is threatened seriously by the existence of one that he fears really has the right to be the king of Israel.

Both by recognition and by hatred, Matthew is pointing to the royalty of Jesus Christ.

Now Matthew is presenting in the rest of the chapters presenting the royalty of Jesus Christ by Jesus fulfilling the Messianic prophecy. In the Old Testament, God laid down some prophecies regarding the coming king. Matthew selects four of these prophecies to say that this is indeed the king.

✓ He is a king because he is born a king. ✓ He is a king through the virgin birth. ✓ He is a king because he has the genealogy of a king. ✓ He is a king because the Persian kingmakers saw him as one. ✓ He is a king evidenced by Herod’s fear of his taking his throne. He is a king because he fulfils the royal prophecies, the prophecies that spoke of this one who was to come.

Matthew reinforces the kinship of Jesus Christ. Somewhere around 332 Old Testament prophecies are made concerning Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ fulfils something about 332 prophecies. Matthew just picks out four of them, but these four are so unique and so complex that there is literally no way they could have happened by accident.

There is no possibility that these four things could have been true of any one individual just by chance. Matthew picks these four to show that He is indeed King. Each one of them is attached to a geographical location. All of them focus on Jesus Christ.

1. Bethlehem, 2. Egypt,

3. Rama, and

4. Nazareth. These four places will be significant in the birth of Christ. Most people in their birth are associated with only one location. Jesus it says in the Old Testament, the Anointed, the Messiah, the Christ, the King, the One Who is to Come, the Great Prophet will be associated with Bethlehem, Egypt, Ramah, and Nazareth.

All four of those things will have a place of significance in his birth. The chance of anybody having that in that order, in that sequence is impossible! It is certainly the plan and purposed by God Himself. This becomes one of the greatest evidences in all of the Gospel of Matthew to the royalty of Jesus Christ.

1. Bethlehem

The birth at Bethlehem.

Matthew 2:4-6, And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. ⁵ So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 6 ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.’ ” Herod is upset as the magi arrive in Jerusalem looking for this king that they say has been born. They have seen his star in the east and they know that he has arrived.

They arrive with this entourage of Persian soldiers and steeds and the whole thing, and Herod is really upset. In Herod’s mind is to determine where this threatening king is to be born. He has got to find this baby and kill it. Even though he is at the end of his life, he is so paranoid about his power and position that he wants to do the baby in.

Herod gathers the chief priests, the scribes of the people together and demanded of them where the Christ should be born.

Herod must have heard enough of Jewish prophecy. He had been exposed enough to Judaism in his years in the position of authority that he had to know that they were anticipating a Messiah. When he knew the Messiah came or feared that he came, he wanted to know where so that he could kill that baby. He called a high-level meeting of the chief priests, who were the politicians, and the scribes, who were the theologians, and demanded where he was, would be born.

A little about Micah because we need to know this as we look at the prophecy. Micah was a prophet who thundered judgment! Micah’s judgments were directed against the false prophets, the false rulers, and the false teachers of his day.

Micah 2:1-3, Woe to those who devise iniquity, And work out evil on their beds! At morning light they practice it, Because it is in the power of their hand. ² They covet fields and take them by violence, Also houses, and seize them. So they oppress a man and his house, A man and his inheritance. ³ Therefore thus says the Lord: “Behold, against this family I am devising disaster, From which you cannot remove your necks; Nor shall you walk haughtily, For this is an evil time.

Micah looks at these leaders, these lords, these princes, these rulers, who are usurping lands and taking fields and taking homes, like a dictator.

Micah 3:1-3, And I said: “Hear now, O heads of Jacob, And you rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice? ² You who hate good and love evil; Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones; ³ Who also eat the flesh of My people, Flay their skin from them, Break their bones, And chop them in pieces Like meat for the pot, Like flesh in the caldron.”

They were ripping the people of God apart, tearing their skin off, tearing their flesh off their bones and eating them and boiling them in a pot. This is the beginning of God’s judgment.

Micah 3:9-12, Now hear this, You heads of the house of Jacob And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice And pervert all equity, ¹⁰ Who build up Zion with bloodshed And Jerusalem with iniquity: ¹¹ Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.” ¹² Therefore because of you Zion shall be ploughed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.

It is going to become barren. Now these are the judgments that Micah thunders against the false teachers. Having done that, he moves to an era in the future where there will come a true teacher, when there will come a true ruler and a true king who will reign with goodness and justice.

Prophesying of that one who is to come, that great and glorious one who is to come in the last days as he begins chapter 4, he opens to look at the last days. Micah speaks of the one who is to come, we come down.

Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.”

The eternal king, the Son of God, the eternal second person of the Trinity, who is to be born and He is to be born in one little place called Bethlehem, little among the thousands of Judean cities and villages. So as Micah looks down through the centuries, he sees the birth of the king, sees the birth of the king in connection with an obscure place.

So that is the first prophecy that Matthew deals with Bethlehem. Matthew quotes Micah 5:2 and says out of Bethlehem Jesus comes. Little insignificant Bethlehem, from which no one would expect a great monarch, from which no one would look for a king.

Precisely from where the king will come. The king comes to Bethlehem. The birth is Bethlehem. Nobody throughout all the history of God’s dealing with Israel who ever claimed to be the Messiah has any right to that claim if he was not born in Bethlehem.

2. Egypt. The exodus to Egypt. V 13, Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

The magi finally got to Bethlehem and they were in a house by then and the child was some months old.

Time of great joy, a time of great comfort because Joseph and Mary, up to that point, had not, as far as we know biblically had really no confirmation of that great message they had heard from the angel. They had known from God through the angel that this child was the be the Son of God, Emmanuel, God with us, and the Saviour.

When the magi came and affirmed that and confirmed that that it was a great time of confidence, and great time of joy. They must have remembered then the wonderful words spoken by the angel to Joseph, by Gabriel to Mary, by Elisabeth to Mary, by the shepherds to Joseph and Mary, by Simeon and thought and it is all true.

But Simeon had also said that a sword was going to pierce Mary’s soul.

Luke 2:35, (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Not long after the wise men arrived that it was all confirmation, joy, happiness, and the sword was drawn, and it began the beginning of its piercing.

There is an actual confrontation with an angel. It happened to Peter when he was trying to get some sleep up on the rooftop in Joppa.

It happened to Daniel, Abimelech, Jacob, Joseph, Laban, the butler, and the baker. It even happened to Pharaoh. There are times when God does this, and this is one of those times. There are multiple times that he spoke in a dream around the birth of Christ.

An angel appeared to Joseph. “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt. Every time we will see those two together, the child named first, because He is the story! Now the magi departed. When they got away, they were warned of God, in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

The devices of men can never thwart the plans of God. As Pharaoh was prevented by God from destroying the Israelites by a divine intervention on God’s part, so Joseph is divinely warned to escape just as the wise men were.

God is protecting his son. God is protecting the Messiah. The land of Egypt, which had once been a place of bondage and a place of oppression, now becomes a haven. It now becomes

a home. It now becomes a hiding place. It now becomes a refuge for the little family escaping from imminent danger. The word “departed” is anachre, in Greek, it is used elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew twice. Both times it means to run away from danger. It is a specific word that implies danger. To run away or to move away or depart from danger.

It was a long trip, 75 miles to the border of Egypt and at least 100 miles further into the heart of the land. Could be 175 miles that they went, and that would take weeks because they could not move too fast with a baby. They were to flee to Egypt, a trip of many days.

Egypt history

Egypt was a natural asylum for the Jews, especially from the time of the Maccabean revolt. Between the Old Testament and the New Testament there was a period of rule in Israel in which the Greek government ruled. Rome, we find ruling in the New Testament.

The powers in the Old are Babylon and Medo-Persia. That little gap in the middle is Greek power. During the Greek period there was a revolution. That revolution was led by some people named the Maccabees, a Jewish family.

The Maccabean revolution happened during the intertestamental period, many Jews at that time began to flee into Egypt. Even prior to that, Alexander the Great had set up the fact that Jews could live in Egypt. One city of Egypt, which was his special city of Alexandria because he named it after himself. So, when he conquered Egypt, he set this city together, Alexandria, and he allowed the Jews to have that city as a place of refuge. They could go there. They could come there. They could populate that area. Many Jews had fled.

Most historians believe that the Qumran community was located. It was an ascetic sort of monastic sort of hermit type group of Jews that lived on the edge of the Dead Sea. They were the scribes who copied down the Old Testament which was found and is now called the Dead Sea Scrolls. That came out of the Qumran community.

The Qumran community never even came, they fled long ago, and they never even came back until long after Herod was dead. As long as Herod was ruling there, more and more Jews were fleeing into Egypt. It started in the Maccabean period, and then there was a trickle.

Then under Herod there was a bigger than a trickle. Most people believed that it was not until about 31 BC that the

Qumran community finally bailed out and then they came back after Herod was dead. So normally the fleeing people went right south into Egypt. So, it became filled with Jewish residents from the period of the Maccabees on. They had equal privilege.

Alexander the Great said, “We will give them equal privilege with Macedonians.” Alexander the Great was a Macedonian. About 150 years before Christ the Jews were given their own temple in Egypt, a separate temple was built for them there so that they could prosper as a community.

In 40 A.D., which would be just after the death of Christ, Philo the historian says there were at least 1 million Jews living in Egypt. So, Egypt became rather highly populated with Jews, and it was a place of refuge and a place of safety and security where he would not have to fear anything.

The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh were God’s provision for the little family so that they could dwell in Egypt, because that would be very valuable. Until Joseph could find some work for the months in which he was there.

But the main reason they were directed there was not because it was a nice place for Jews to live, not because could get out from under the oppression of Herod. The main reason they went there was simply because that was exactly where the Old Testament said the Messiah had to go.

They may not even know that because of the obscurity of the Old Testament text. But God knew it and God was working out the plan. Why didn’t God take the family just like that? Like Philip in Acts 8 Part of the humanness. This was a child like every other child, dependent upon its father and mother’s care. They had to make the move, and they had to walk and carry the baby the way any normal child would be carried.

That is part of God becoming man and human experience was required in all points. Herod wanted to kill them, and Herod was just a pawn. It was not really Herod but the devil. It was Satan, who is a murdered. Revelation 12 we will how the devil continues to want to murder Christ. You have got the dragon chasing the child in Revelation 12 trying to kill him.

stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” God knew Herod’s mind. God knew Herod’s plot. He could not be a hypocrite with God. There are literally volumes written on what went on in Egypt.

There is a book called The Gospel of the Infancy of Our Lord It is a spurious or a phony work, like many phony books that grew up in early times. It says that wherever the little child walked, idols automatically fell apart.

It says that Jesus, when he was just very little in Egypt, ran across an Egyptian priest who had a three-year-old possessed of demons, and Jesus took a piece of his swaddling clothes – this time he was still crawling and put the swaddling clothes on the head of this demon-possessed three-year-old and it was instantly delivered.

Anywhere Mary went, anybody who looked at her was healed. Anywhere the child went, robbers fled into the desert. All manner of diseases were healed wherever he went. Now that’s just craziness.

What the Talmud says?

The Jewish Talmud says this, “Ten measures of sorcery descended into the world. Egypt received nine of them and the rest of the world, one.” Now the Jewish rabbis in the Talmud believed that Egypt was the centre of sorcery. There were many Jews that taught that Jesus went into Egypt when he was young, learned sorcery, came back out and conned the world into believing he was the Messiah.

That was a Jewish teaching about Jesus Christ. He went into Egypt and stayed there. Jesus did not learn sorcery and come out and con the world by his magic. He went to Egypt because that was a part of the prophecy. Joseph obeyed the angel.

He went in the darkness because if the word got out at the pace they could go, which would be so slow, Herod’s soldiers would be hot on their trail. It would be a disaster. Matthew omits the details because he is not concerned with the details, he is concerned with the prophecy.

V 15, and was there until the death of Herod, They stayed until Herod died. Herod died shortly before the Passover in March or April of 4 BC. It would just be a very brief time.

V 19, Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, So, it was when Herod died that the angel came back and said, “now you can go.” So sometime after they left, Herod died. Then the angel appeared.

Why did they go to Egypt?

What was the prophecy? God wanted to verify the credentials of the Messiah. V 15, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” One of the most important statements we will find anywhere in the Bible, because it tells us that the prophets who wrote the pages of the Word of God were inspired by God Himself.

The Old Testament prophet was saying that the Son, the king, the Anointed, the Christ is to come out of Egypt. How could the child come out of Bethlehem and out of Egypt unless God works in marvellous circumstances? God had set it all up long ago with Alexander the Great.

God got Egypt ready for a Christ to stay when He came there as a child. God runs history and it all comes together in his plan.

Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. To whom does he refer in Hosea 11:1?

Who is the son there? Israel.

Who is the Son here? Christ.

How can that be? When the prophecy was given, it was given in reference to a historical statement about Israel. There is not even a prophecy there. It was a past thing.” “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”

Any Bible scholar who studies the Book of Hosea will simply tell you God is reflecting upon the time when he called Israel out of bondage in Egypt.

Now what is the prophecy? It is not future.

How does it relate to this thing? Hosea is one of our favourite prophets. The message of Hosea is one of failure. It is one of tragedy in Israel. Hosea looks at Israel and says,

• You have been disobedient.
• You have been unfaithful.
• You have been sinful.
• You have been corrupted.
• You are a spiritual harlot.
• You are a spiritual prostitute.
• You are a spiritual adulteress.

This is the worst condition Israel has ever been in when Hosea writes. Now he is pouring out against Israel these judgments. Hosea dramatically illustrates this with his own life. God brought into his life the most tragic personal experience you could ever imagine. He married a woman. Her name was Gomer.

Gomer was untrue and she became what the Bible calls a “wife of prostitute.” She ran off after every lover that she wanted. She went after so many lovers. She conceived children by these

lovers and dear Hosea’s heart was so filled with love for her he just waited and took all this abuse, and it shattered his heart. She was a slave to the sins of sex, but he deeply loved her. Hosea, instead of rejecting her, instead of turning her off, instead of walking away, found her at the haunt of her shame, sought her out, went in there, and laid out 15 pieces of silver and brought in a homer and a half of barley.

Hosea bought her and bought her back from the harlotry. He, restored her to the place of his wife, restored her to the place of honour, and gave back to her all the love that she had spurned. That was his own personal experience.

Hosea says to Israel, When I talk to you about how God’s heart is broken by your spiritual idolatry, I know what God feels. I have been there. ✓ Just as Hosea had married Gomer, God had become Israel’s husband. ✓ Just as Hosea loved her, God loved Israel.

✓ Just as Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea, so was Israel unfaithful to God. ✓ Just as Gomer was enslaved by her lovers, so was Israel enslaved by her idolatrous idols. ✓ Gomer put her trust in lovers, and they made her a slave.

Israel put her trust in idols, and they made her a slave.

✓ Just as Hosea’s tender love reached out and bought back his wife, so God reached out in love and took back the remnant that was willing to come back. That is the message of Hosea. So, when Hosea’s heart was broken, when he had seen the idol and the ideal of his dreams wrecked before his eyes, when he had suffered the worst agony that a human being could ever know.

God said to Hosea, “Hosea, now you know how I feel. Now be my preacher. Now tell them what is in my heart. Now make them understand.” This tragic training of the prophet is at the heart of his message. God wants Israel to know how much He loves him, and God wants Hosea to know how much He loves him.

God wants Hosea to know how much this hurts.

Hosea 11:1, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

This love affair for an adulteress wife goes all the way back to when Israel was a child. This is not something late. This is not way down the line. This is not sort of the last lover in a long line. This is the one that I started to love when Israel was a child.

This passage emphasizes the incredible love that God has for Israel and always has had, from the time Israel was just a child

and in bondage in Egypt. Israel held under the power of Pharaoh, it was then that God set his love and sought to redeem his people.

Deuteronomy 32:9, For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and he kept him as the apple of his eye.

Exodus 4:22, Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn.

When Matthew quotes Hosea and applies it to Christ, what is that saying? We have been introduced to one of the most fabulous concepts in all the Bible. We call it “types.”

Israel is a type of whom? Christ. A prophecy is a verbal prediction of a future event. A type is a non-verbal prediction. There are texts in the Old Testament that tell us God is going to send a saviour who will die.

There are other texts that do not say that they just tell us about the sacrifice of a lamb, but every little lamb that ever died was a picture of Jesus Christ. A non-verbal picture. Types are ultimately fulfilled in and only in the New Testament writers’ definition. So that Israel is a type because Matthew, inspired by the Spirit of God here, makes Israel a picture of Christ.

What they were without even saying it is a picture of what he will be as God called his son Israel out of Egypt, that is a picture of what he will do when his Son the Lord Jesus Christ is called out of Egypt. Christ and Israel are often closely identified in the prophetic word.

For example, in the Book of Isaiah, sometimes it is hard to tell whether the servant is Israel or the Messiah because he calls both of them the servant of the Lord. Israel is God’s child and God’s firstborn, and so is Christ. Israel is called out of Egypt, and so is Christ. Beautiful picture.

• Joseph, was a type of Christ because the New Testament says that.
• Jonah was a type of Christ because the New Testament says that as Jonah was three days and three nights.

➢ Jesus went back through the history of his people to fulfil the type, the picture. ➢ Just as Pharaoh, that cruel king, had tried to destroy Israel, so another cruel king by the name of Herod was attempting to kill the Son of God.

Just as God protected his son Israel in Egypt and delivered them, so God protected Christ his Son in Egypt and delivered him. The Messiah is a recapitulation of the picture in Israel, a type. Israel is not only a type of Christ, but there is also a bond that is indivisible. Christ was in the loins of Israel then, and if Israel had never been brought out of Egypt, he would never have even been born.

So, He was there, in a sense. Had Israel been destroyed, the Messianic prophecy could never have been fulfilled at all. When Israel was called out, Christ came out then with them. So, the message of Hosea was long forgotten. The time of degeneration went on even to Jesus’ day. The days of Israel’s prostitution were still going on. But finally, the prophecy of Hosea came back like a bolt of lightning out of the sky.

God loved Israel when a child and brought him out of Egypt. So now His love centres on the Messiah and brings Him out of Egypt. The great prototype of salvation in the Old Testament is the act of God delivering Israel from Egypt.

When the Lord Jesus returns in righteousness to reign over the earth, when he comes as king of kings and Lord of Lords. Isaiah 19, and Zephaniah 3. When the Lord Jesus returns to reign in righteousness over the earth, one of the nations that is going to be given a special place of blessing in the millennium kingdom is Egypt.

Why world would Egypt ever have a place in the millennium? They have been so hostile to Israel. Could it be that the blessing of Egypt in the millennium is a token of divine gratitude for a country that granted sanctuary to the Son of God when he was a baby?

Maybe.