Matthew 2:13-15 A New Exodus

Imagine watching the final episode of a TV show where the producers decide to leave the plot on a cliff-hanger right at the end of a long series, maybe a whole series of twelve episodes, and on the last episode, still with unresolved conflict, they decide, "We're just going to leave the whole thing on a cliff-hanger and not tell everyone how the story finishes". The main characters are in a dire situation; the major mystery remains unsolved. The fate of the story is uncertain. The show ends with a dramatic scene, and then nothing. The show leaves you in a state of complete suspense, and you're utterly clueless about how it all comes together in the end.

If you knew nothing about the Bible and you began reading in Genesis and kept reading, you would soon become engrossed in a story. If you stopped at the conclusion of the Old Testament and went no further, it would be like a suspenseful film missing its rightful ending. It is hard to overstate the level of suspense and tension that remains at the end of the Old Testament; so many questions are left unanswered before that Bible reader finds their way to the first pages of Matthew's gospel and the New Testament.

But once we arrive in Matthew's gospel, all our questions and the mystery begin to resolve themselves. We discover that despite appearances, God never halted His redemptive programme. The journey of redemption never ended; it never shifted. He never neglected His plans. The mission remained intact. God sent His son Jesus to fulfil all the promises and usher in the kingdom of God.

Matthew introduced this climactic fulfilment in his introductory heading. We have considered already in Matthew 1:1 the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. So here is the greater Davidic King; here is the greater son of Abraham, the father of the nation of the Jews. Here is the Messiah, Saviour, Christ for the nations. And so the tension begins to unwind, and we see now what God is doing. So I want to bring you a message this morning I have entitled "A New Exodus".

My choice of title for this message comes from Matthew's interpretation of the events that he narrates for us in verses 13 to 15 of Matthew 2, and specifically how he traces the journey of the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, down into Egypt in flight to escape Herod. Matthew, the divinely inspired interpreter of the Old Testament, states that these events, as they head down into Egypt and would come out of Egypt, occurred as a recapitulation of the story of the nation of Israel in the first Exodus. And so strong a connection, as Matthew says, it was to fulfil the first Exodus of Israel from Egypt.

Matthew, you see, friends, sees the story of Israel repeating itself in the life of the Messiah, even in His infancy. This is not without deep significance or purpose. In God's design, as another author has said, Israel is reduced to one. Now we see that this story of the Bible up to the first page of Matthew is not void or incomplete. The mould and mission held out to the nation of Israel, whom God brought out of Egypt in the first Exodus, is finding its completion and fulfilment in a single man, the true Davidic King, the true son of Abraham, the faithful son who brings God's rule and salvation to the nations and to us.

And so they say history repeats itself. You have heard that saying. Well, for Jesus, it really does. In fact, Matthew observes that this repetition of escape to Egypt and calling out from Egypt is to be understood beyond mere analogy, beyond simply a comparison, but very fulfilment is Matthew's choice of words; a completion, a perfecting in a single man. What was the calling of an entire people? God's ordering of history would see that the Messiah's life would be a retelling of Israel's history and communicate that the fulfilment of God's purposes given to the nation was always meant ultimately for the true servant son.

And so I have this heading: "A New Exodus", because it is Christ who shall lead God's people in the second Exodus, redemption from the captivity of slavery to our sin, which is against God. So how does this passage apply to our hearts as we continue forward? This passage applies through our recognition of the Lord Jesus as our Messiah, our Saviour King. Jesus is the one in whom the prophetic promises of God find their glorious climactic conclusion and soon to be consummation. He leads His people in Exodus out of their sins, out of a dying world, and into His new creation.

God promised Abraham, "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 22), and the seed is none other than Christ (Galatians 3:16). Matthew puts an end to our wondering of how this blessing would come. Matthew says to us, "Watch the Son. Fix your eyes on Him, the one of God's appointment, the one who fulfils the law and its perfect demands. Watch the one who relives the pilgrimage of my covenant nation. See how He fulfils what they could never". He says, "Here is the true servant of Yahweh, the one to whom the prophetic voice cried out in anticipation in Isaiah 42:6: 'I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations'". Matthew is telling us, "Watch the Son and see God's work".

Before we get into the biblical text, by way of brief reminder, we saw in the context of Matthew 2 that prior to the Holy Family's flight to Egypt, narrated for us here, worshippers, wise men, Magi from the east, have come seeking the one who was born King of the Jews. If Matthew 1 introduced us to the Messiah, the promised one of God, then the opening of Matthew 2 brings worshippers to the Messiah. Matthew has already indicated to us, albeit subtly, that this is no happily ever after story, though not yet. For these were the days, remember how we noted there in chapter 2, verse 1, these were the days of Herod the king. Anyone who knows anything about Herod, your ears are tickling as you read those words. Something is going to happen here. Here was a wicked and cruel envious man, a man who will soon, in the subsequent verses in Matthew, seek to crush the Lord's Christ.

God's Provision

And so to the biblical text. We will move through these briefly, then consider the doctrine. In verse 15, God's provision is the first heading: God's provision. Chapter 2, verse 13a: God's provision. We have already seen God's hand of provision over the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, ordering His steps. Often we forget who is really in control in the world. The mystery of God's providence is that the free actions of men and women are not outside God's sovereignty.

How is that for a statement? The author Arthur Pink speaks of the sovereignty of God this way: "What is sovereignty? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can say, 'Stay His hand' or say unto Him, 'What doest thou?'" (Daniel 4:35). And does the psalmist not agree when he writes, "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases" (Psalm 115). But God's sovereignty can be a mystery to us. God's provision for us can be a mystery to us because, simultaneously alongside God's sovereign providence and authority over all the affairs of men, is mankind's will and his morally culpable free will—free actions. Yet the Scripture presents man's will and God's sovereignty as mutually compatible; they do not disagree. Man has will; God has sovereignty. These go together. So we have to remind ourselves who is really in control as we consider God's provision for Joseph and the royal family.

God has nurtured the messianic line right through Abraham, David, and so on. He has chosen Mary and her husband Joseph to be the parents of the Messiah, conceived by immaculate conception. He has led wise men from the eastern lands by a supernatural light. Do you doubt God's sovereignty when He uses a supernatural star to lead people from eastern lands to find a child born in Bethlehem? He has brought provision through the wise men to Joseph to care for his family: frankincense, gold, myrrh presented before Christ but used undoubtedly for Joseph and Mary's sustenance. God is watching over them; He is providing for His people. As we see in Matthew 2:13, God will hear and even warn Joseph of Herod's wicked scheming and call Joseph to flee. It is as if one father is saying to another father to warn him that he needs to protect this family, especially infant Christ. He calls him, "Get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt." This is the Lord's provision in the life of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus.

Herod's Plot

The second heading is this: Herod's plot. We continue in verse 13, and we learn that Herod is going to seek the child to destroy him. Some say as many as one million Jews were living in Alexandria of Egypt, and that is where the Lord commands Joseph to flee. There was a large number of Jews living in Egypt already; this is why He sends him there. It is no surprise to anyone who knows the history of Herod that we find he wants to destroy the child Christ. Herod was the type of man we find in the Gospels, and soon we will see him enter into a rage after learning he has been tricked by the Magi. In verse 16 of Matthew 2, he will have all male children in Bethlehem under two years old killed in order to wipe out any threats to his own power. In the acts of the wicked King Herod, we find an even more sinister spirit working as if through him; it is of Satan himself.

In fact, we find in Herod, as he seeks to destroy Christ and plot to blot out from existence the Messiah, parallels in Revelation 12. In Revelation 12:1 to 4: "A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child, and she cried out, being in labour and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. His tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth, and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child." It is Satan's work that Herod would seek to destroy the child Christ. That is Herod's plot.

Joseph receives this call from the Lord to take Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt. We ask the question: why Egypt? I said earlier there is a good number of Jews living in Egypt already at this time; Egypt is not too far away, further along the Mediterranean Sea coastline. Egypt was outside Herod's rule. It had become almost a traditional country for Jews to flee to when there was trouble in the land of Palestine. There was the ultimate reason, of course, that their entry into the land of Egypt was by God's purpose for the life of Jesus; it was to overlay the life of the nation and to transcend the story of the nation of Israel.

Joseph's Obedience

So we have Herod's plot. The third and final heading is Joseph's obedience in verse 14: Joseph's obedience. By this point, perhaps Joseph is beginning to trust the Lord. It sometimes takes difficult situations that we cannot answer or explain ourselves to really learn how to trust the Lord. We can go our whole lives with ease and comfort and not learn how to trust the Lord and rely on Him to provide. Joseph is quickly learning how to trust in God. We already know that the Lord has spoken to him and told him that he does not have to fear being betrothed to Mary. Joseph was a God-fearing man, a righteous man who would have been looking for how the Lord would break into history, how the Messiah would come and what He would perform on behalf of His people. Ever since the angel of the Lord reassured him that he could take Mary as his wife, we have seen a man who has walked diligently in obedience before the Lord. Remember in Matthew 1:24 it says, "When he awoke, he did exactly as the Lord commanded him". In Matthew 2:14 we find that after hearing a warning from God in a dream, he immediately rises, even in the middle of the night. Look at what the Lord asks him to walk through: to leave in a rush and flee, to get out of Bethlehem, to head to Egypt, even in the darkness in the middle of the night. Joseph obeys. This is something of learning how to trust God even in the darkness.

This Was To Fulfil

So we have considered those headings: God's provision, Herod's plot, Joseph's obedience. Now I really want to drill down into what is key here in this section: why we are slowing down for just a few verses. The doctrinal focus is what we want to consider now. Let's press into Matthew 2:15 together, where Matthew explicitly uses this common turn of phrase that he does throughout his gospel: "This was to fulfil," and then quotes from an Old Testament passage. Matthew does this frequently; he is known for it. Here we find it again. So when Joseph leads Jesus and Mary down into Egypt to await such a time as Herod would die, which, as we understand, was not for long—some say they would only be in Egypt for a couple of weeks—he was almost already on his deathbed. Matthew tells us that as they go into Egypt and come back out, it was a prophetic fulfilment: "This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'"

So the story of entering and leaving Egypt is a fulfilment of what happened to the nation, as Matthew is demonstrating that God is repeating Israel's story in the Messiah. These events that happened to Israel are repeating themselves in the life of Jesus. That is what is going on here. The Messiah will retrace not only Adam's steps but Israel's steps and succeed where they failed. That is the point. This will not be the only time we see this theme of repeating or recapitulating the story of Israel in Jesus. We find many parallels in Jesus' life to the life of the nation. It is all there to tell us something, to show us something.

Remember how God referred to the nation of Israel as His son, His firstborn (Exodus 4:22). Israel is my son, my firstborn. But here it is Christ, the son, being called out of Egypt. But the nation was an unfaithful son. In fact, this is what we see in the context of the reference that Matthew makes. He is quoting here in verse 15 from Hosea 11:1. I encourage you to go and read right through Hosea in one sitting; it will help you immensely. There in Hosea 11:1, it says, "When Israel was a youth, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." The more they called them, the more they went from them. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. The prophet Hosea is reminding the wayward nation of Israel that when she was a youth, God had mercy on her. When she was nothing, I think there is this language in Hosea of them being like a grape in the wilderness—nothing. There is no hope for them. But God swoops in and He saves them. They would have been wiped out, but God, in His mercy, saves them for His own purposes and draws them out. Hosea is reminding Israel in her depravity and in her rebellion, "When Israel was a youth, the Lord loved you. Out of Egypt I called my son." This beautiful language of closeness and communion—sonship. But then we see that Israel was, in fact, an unfaithful son. In verse two, Hosea says there in chapter eleven, "They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols." They were unfaithful; they did not keep the Lord's Covenant.

This is their story right through the Old Testament. That is how the tension builds. How is this going to resolve? You get into a book like Judges, and it is just cycles of depravity. How is this going to end? We need a faithful son. The nation was in apostasy as a whole, and eventually we find both the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south in exile in Babylon. But God's promises are not void. He would raise up His faithful son, the Messiah, the man who would embody all that Israel was called to be. So down to Egypt, when Israel went down to Egypt, Jesus, the true faithful son, out of Egypt came. Israel out of Egypt came Christ. There is the patterning there, the repeating of history.

Think of other ways that Jesus repeats the life of the nation. We think of Pharaoh persecuting the nation of Jews down in Egypt. He persecuted them. Do we not find the same thing with Herod persecuting Christ? We think of the nation of Israel passing through the waters following Moses for their deliverance. Likewise, Christ too soon will pass through the waters of baptism, a corresponding type. Just as Israel wandered in the wilderness for forty years, in Matthew chapter four, we are going to find Jesus wandering in the wilderness for forty days. He is being tempted, but He has proven the faithful son in the wilderness. Just as the nation of Israel consisted of twelve tribes representing the twelve sons of Jacob or Israel, Jesus also, in Matthew chapter four, will call for Himself twelve disciples. Like Moses, after the first Exodus at Mount Sinai, he receives the law upon the mountain. In Matthew chapter five, what do we find but Christ ascending a mountain and giving the law, the Sermon on the Mount. He proclaims, "You have heard it was said, but I say to you." Just as the Lord commanded the nation of Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19 to be His own possession among all the peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, so too does Jesus call His people in the Great Commission (Matthew 28) to be witnesses to all nations of Him through the authority granted to Him.

It is repeating history. And who could forget Israel's three offices of prophet, priest, and king, all which come together in perfect harmony, completely and finally? This is the man of God's choosing, Israel reduced to one. It is a controversial point for many. If you know your theology, you will know that not all agree with this type of teaching. There are deeper levels to this again that we cannot touch for now. But I have little difficulty with this language of Israel reduced to one because it is all coming straight out of the text, the unfaithful son and the faithful son. The faithful Israelite man, God met the life of Christ onto the life of the nation. He is the faithful son. His life fulfilled Israel's calling. The mould given to Israel was of perfect righteousness, to live before the Lord, to keep His covenant and His laws, and they failed. So comes Christ, as Paul says in Galatians, born under the law. He is the faithful son. He keeps the covenant that Israel failed.

Isaiah further makes this point. Isaiah, more than any other of the Old Testament books, anticipates Israel's restoration from exile in Babylon as a second Exodus, and that it would occur through a singular figure, and it would trigger Israel's redemption. If you read in the servant songs, Isaiah 42:1–4: "Behold My servant whom I uphold, My chosen one in whom My soul delights." At this point in your reading in Isaiah, you might wonder, "Is this talking about the nation of Israel, or is this talking about the Messiah to come?" There is a deliberate ambiguity there in Isaiah because he is making us consider, "Was this about Israel, or is this actually about the Messiah?" Because both are considered the Lord's chosen. You keep reading, "I have put My Spirit upon Him." Is this the nation, or is this the Messiah? He will bring forth justice to the nations. That was Israel's calling to the world, but they failed in that. It keeps saying, "He will not cry out or raise His voice, nor will His voice be heard in the street. A bruised reed He will not break, and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law." But you start putting together the picture in Isaiah of the servant, and you realise that it is actually talking about the Messiah and what He would do in His ministry. You come to Isaiah 53, and it says that this servant was to be crushed for the sins of His people, and the Lord would put Him to death. He would carry in His body our iniquities. He would be the faithful son and die for the sins of His people.

A New Exodus

So let us apply this doctrinal consideration before we close. In our Lord Jesus, we witness the true image of God. The Bible often depicts sonship as a metaphor, and Luke 3:38 describes Adam as God's son. He was created in God's image, and Israel is called as a corporate Adam to bear likeness to their Creator, to walk before Him and be holy. But mankind is in sin, and we are darkened images of God. But not Christ. He is Emmanuel. He is God with us, greater than Adam, greater than Abraham, greater than Isaac, greater than Jacob, greater than the nation itself, greater than Moses, greater than David. Jesus, as Isaiah foretold, comes (Isaiah 42:7) to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from the prison. There is your second Exodus. We have a new Exodus here in Matthew 2:15 because the second Exodus is coming. Christ comes out of Egypt, and we are going to learn He is going to lead the captives free. He is going to die for our sins upon a cross and lead us out of bondage to sin and into His glorious light. There is your Exodus.

Jesus Christ is man's salvation because He leads us out of captivity to sin, and He takes those who are slaves to darkness, those who shrink from the light, those who blaspheme His name, those who rebel against Him in their hearts, those who want no part of Him, and He redeems them and restores them. He lives for them. He earns their righteousness. He dies for them. He suffers under a curse of judgement and sheds His blood on a cross so that we could become God's righteousness in Him. Ephesians 2:4–5 says, "But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. For by grace you have been saved." Jesus says to all who receive Him, "In Me, you are the children of God. In Me, you can know eternal life and everlasting peace." And so says Matthew, "Out of Egypt I called My son." As the son comes forth from Egypt, we will learn of His story that He is the one who leads the captives free. He is the faithful son who brings God's law, who brings God's justice, who brings God's light into the world. And if you are in Him this morning, I wish you could know the great inheritance that you have in Him. Rejoice and find your comfort in Christ. He is our deliverer.