Statements from the Old Testament which the New Testament applies to Jesus are seldom as blatantly relevant as some will assert from a distance. At the same time, the New Testament does not necessarily claim Jesus has distinctly predictive connection to every Old Testament verse referenced. One example is how Matthew 2 brings up Hosea 11:1. In Hosea, God's son is said to leave Egypt; in Matthew, Jesus, God's Son, is said to go to Egypt and come out right before Hosea 11:1 is quoted. Here is what the Old Testament selection says:
Hosea 11:1-2—"'When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.'"
The "son" here is treated as collective Israel, the group of people that God does bring out of Egypt in the book of Exodus in an event referenced many times throughout the subsequent books of the Torah and the prophetic books. And the following words like those of verse 2 only reinforce that God is speaking of literal historical Israelites, whom he says then sacrificed to the Baals. Does Jesus sacrifice to the Baals after leaving Egypt? No, and if the gospels said he did, this would absolutely contradict the idea that Jesus is utterly sinless at all points in his life (something that is not emphasized nearly as much as some Christians act).
What does Matthew say when it references how God called his son out of Egypt and ascribes a fulfillment of this to Christ?
Matthew 2:13-15—"When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 'Get up,' he said, 'take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.'
So he got up, took the child and his mother in the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'"
Nowhere does Matthew claim that Jesus entering and leaving Egypt is the main or exclusive fulfillment of Hosea 11. In a very specific way, yes, the content of Hosea 11:1 could be "fulfilled" by Jesus even as the words of Hosea are clearly about the people of Israel coming out of Egypt during the Exodus, with no hint of any sort of Christological or messianic application whatsoever. Parallels do not mean the original concept or statement was really about Jesus in a primary sense—or at all.
This happens in the gospel accounts frequently. These New Testament books cite an Old Testament passage, such as from Hosea or Psalms, and comment on how it is relevant to the situation of Jesus as a parallel. But often, they never actually claim that the Old Testament verse in question was some Christological prophecy, whether obvious or subtle. If you read the Old Testament without making assumptions, it would never even seem like many such passages cited in the New Testament have anything to do with a singular Messiah figure. Then, why have alleged prophecies about Christ become characterized as incredibly clear or pivotal in circles like that of evangelicals?
Certain people who identify as Christians, parroting the assumptions they foolishly chose to inherit from others or desperate to find a multitude of stark prophetic connections between the Old Testament and the Jesus of the gospels, act like the entire possibility and/or evidential probability of Christianity being true depend on whether every single one of these Old Testament parallels with Jesus is actually a fulfilled prophecy. When masses of assumption-driven Christians or pseudo-Christians embrace this hollow philosophical idea, it becomes held up as if it is far more central and accurate than it really is.
Hosea does not specifically predict that Jesus would go to Egypt in the time of the gospels and later come out of that land. Upon reading the verse cited by Matthew 2:15, this really should be apparent. Like Isaiah 7 with the virgin birth prophecy, Hosea 11:1 speaks of something separate from Jesus that happens to parallel what the gospels say about Jesus in an important way. In no way does the New Testament citation about God calling his son out of Egypt strictly contradict Hosea.
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