“Out of Egypt I called my Son.”

Hosea 11.1.

When we fulfill scripture, we’re doing as it says. When Jesus says “Love one another,” Jn 13.34 and we do it, we’re fulfilling it.

I know: When people usually talk about fulfillment, we assume it means someone’s doing as predicted. When Jesus fulfilled the scriptures, we assume this means the scriptures prophesied specifically about Jesus, and Jesus did as the prophesies foretold. Sometimes that’s absolutely true. But sometimes it’s really not, and this confuses Christians all the time.

Confused me too, when I was a kid and first learned about taking the scriptures in context. Because I actually read the Old Testament, and read those passages in context… and wondered, “How on earth is that a prophecy about Jesus?” Well, turns out it wasn’t. The author wasn’t writing about Jesus at all. Nor was the Holy Spirit secretly dropping clues about stuff Jesus would eventually do.

Yet Jesus did fulfill these scriptures. Because he did as the scriptures say. True, the scriptures weren’t saying it about him. Yet Jesus did those things too—and in a greater way than the original situation. A fully-filled way, if you wanna be corny about it: A fulfilled way.

Or in some cases a less full way. Take this passage from Hosea, which is about the LORD’s difficult relationship with rebellious Israel.

Hosea 11.1-8 KWL

1 “For I love Israel. I called my son from Egypt.

2 But the Baals called to them, so they turned their faces from me.

They sacrificed to Baals and burned incense to idols.

3 I taught Efraim to walk—and he took hold of the Baals’ arms.

The Ephraimites don’t even know I cured them!

4 I dragged them from their slave chains with ropes of love.

To them I became like those who take the bit from their mouths, loose them, and feed them.

5 Israel won’t return to Egypt’s territory: Assyria is the king of those who refuse to repent.

6 Assyria’s sword wounds Israel’s cities, destroys his limbs, and eats up his plans.

7 My people insist on quitting me. They call upon the One God, but I can’t exalt them.

8 How can I give to you, Efraim? Can I reward you, Israel?

Must I give you what I did Admah? Must I place you where I placed the Chevohites?

My heart is overthrown within me: My compassion is all hot.”

The LORD freed Israel, whom here he calls “my son,” Ho 11.1 and freed him from Egypt and raised him… and Israel/Ephraim instead worshiped the nasty Baals and shattered their relationship with God into pieces. Much of Hosea is about this very topic, although sometimes it compares Israel to an adulterous wife, and here to a rebellious son.

And yet Matthew decided to quote Hosea in speaking of the LORD’s absolutely-not-rebellious-at-all Son:

Matthew 2.13-15 KWL

13 As the Zoroastrians returned, look: The Lord’s angel appeared to Joseph in a dream,

saying, “Get up. Take the child and his mother. Go to Egypt. Be there as long as I tell you.

Herod is about to look for the child, to destroy him.“

14 Getting up, Joseph took the child and his mother that night,

and escaped to Egypt, 15 and was there till Herod’s death.

Thus might the Lord’s word through his prophet be fulfilled,

saying, “I called my son out of Egypt.” Ho 11.1

Um… when the LORD said that bit in Hosea, he wasn’t talking about Jesus. It says right there in verse 1, “When Israel was a child…” Not Jesus; Israel. Not the good son who never, ever rebelled against his Father; the nation which arguably did nothing but rebel.

So is Matthew quoting Hosea out of context? Nah. Because Jesus didn’t accomplish the prophecy; he only fulfilled it. He did the same thing. He was in Egypt, same as Israel was once in Egypt, though as a political refugee not a slave. And at the right time, Jesus’s heavenly Father had Jesus’s adoptive father take their Son back to the promised land.