In our previous study, we focused upon some identifying characteristics of Israel while begging the question: What makes Israel, Israel? We concluded that Israel could firstly be defined as the physical descendants of the patriarch Abraham. According to the stipulations of the Abrahamic covenant, the sons of promise would include Isaac, Jacob and the 12 tribes. This specific lineage would receive the promises made to Abraham by Yahweh. We then further identified the true descendant of Abraham in Jesus Christ, the true heir of the promises. Christ was the fulfilment of that covenant because of His faithfulness to its stipulations. Not only does He deserve the title the true Israel, but He shares His inheritance with those who are of the faith of Abraham, mainly believers in Jesus. The true Israel is identified as those who were circumcised by the Spirit and not the flesh (Romans 2:28-29).
Our second crucial identifying characteristic in what makes Israel, Israel, is Israel’s distinctiveness as a son of God. We know that this was an important title applied to Jesus and that it communicated His special relationship to God the Father, but this title is applied to others in the Old Testament (Genesis 6:2) and signifies a special relationship to God. In His command to let the people go, the Lord refers to Israel as His son:
“You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. (Deuteronomy 14:1)
When Yahweh confronted Pharaoh in relation to redeeming His people from slavery, God refers to the people as a collective group called His firstborn son:
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. (Exodus 4:22).
Israel had a special place as the firstborn, a preeminent position over all the nations of the earth as the inheritors of God’s promises. Yet, within the pages of the New Testament, the title seems to change hands. The Sonship or title “Son of God” seems to be reassigned to Jesus (John 3:18; 3:36; 5:25 etc.). It is crucial to understand the fulfilment of this Sonship and its expansion in the New Testament in Christ and in His people. But one point we want to stress is that, not only is Jesus the Son of God, but He is the Faithful Son of God. Unlike all others who bore that title, whether Israel, David or angels, Jesus was the only One to bear that title loyally.
Exodus From Egypt
Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.” So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”
In this text in Matthew 2:13-15, we have the story of Jesus’ flight to Egypt. This passage describes for us in Old Testament language the command of God to travel urgently to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod. There are three ways to look at Egypt in scripture: (1) as a place of refuge for the descendants of Jacob, (2) as an oppressor of its people. (3) Egypt was a place of idolatry. In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ flight to Egypt, he quotes from Hosea 11:1 which reads: When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. Notice that Matthew states that the word of the Lord in this passage was “fulfilled” in Christ’s return. Hosea was initially referring to the Exodus and the original subject was Old Testament Israel. In this segment, however, Matthew is focusing upon the return from Egypt rather than going into Egypt. In the context of Hosea 11, it is referring to God’s lament over Israel, His son, for their sacrifices to Baal after God had provided blessings to them (v.2). The language of v.3 is that of a father who saves His son from oppression (v.4). He then switches the terminology from Egypt as oppressor to a different tyrant, Assyria (v.5) insinuating that the upcoming Assyrian exile would be their Egypt. In v.8, God suddenly speaks of His compassion upon them by stating that He will not destroy them and that they will eventually return from Exile. (v.11). This “return” is, in essence, a new exodus from exile.
While the Jews did come out of exile as God promised through His prophets (Isaiah 44:26,28; Ezra 1:1-5), Matthew speaks of something new, of a new Son who would come out of Egypt and in return a true fulfillment of Hosea 11. While going into Egypt was a means of using an oppressor to punish Israel’s sin of idolatry, Jesus’ time on Egypt served as a refuge. Israel was called out of Egypt to be faithful, but they continuously failed, while Jesus’ call out of Egypt would be nothing less than full faithfulness. This true Son would not act like the Israelites of old who, like the Egyptians, committed idolatry and faced God’s judgment. He was the true Son because He lived in complete obedience to God. He was the Son that Israel should have been. The fulfillment of this new exodus would be in Jesus, the faithful Son. The application of the verse concerning “Israel” to the Lord Jesus demonstrates a final exodus of the faithful Israel. When Jesus “came out of Egypt”, that was to be the signal for a new exodus in which Jesus would fill the role not only of the God-sent deliverer but also of God’s “son” Israel himself[1].
The Wilderness Experience (Matthew 4:1-11)
One of the most recognized stories in the scriptures is the Exodus of the Hebrews from their oppressors in Egypt. After generations of hardships at the expense of their Egyptian masters, the Israelites were finally redeemed and their masters defeated. Lead by Moses, they left Egypt with the expectation of a better future in a promised land. On their journey however, they experienced the hardships of 40 years in the wilderness due to their sin. The reaction to that hardship would eventually lead to their demise. They committed many sins in the wilderness against the God who had freed them from bondage including idolatry and grumbling. Let’s take a look at this event and compare it to Jesus’ experience in the wilderness.
The Water & Bread
During the wilderness episode, the Hebrews grumbled at Moses because they didn’t have any water and were thirsty. Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with being thirsty in a desert. What was sinful was their lack of faith that God would provide and even further their incessant ill-tempered complaining against the One who had just freed them from slavery. Still, the Lord provided them with water (Exodus 15:22-25). It was there He made for them a statute/regulation and in return, the place where He tested them. And He said, if you will give earnest heed to the voice of the LORD you God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put non of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians. (vs. 25b-26). They were to obey the voice of God to be free from God’s judgment. Ignoring the warning of God, they then complained that they had no meat or bread (Exodus 16:2-3) and the Lord provided Manna and quail for them (vs.13-16).
The Purpose behind the Testing
The purpose behind their adversity in the wilderness was so that Yahweh could test their faith by seeing if they would trust the Lord who had lead them out of Egypt (Deuteronomy 8:2). This test openly demonstrated their failure in faith. They grumbled when they became hungry & thirsty and even turned their back on the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt in the worship of an idol. These things were done so that He humbled you and let you be hungry and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. (Deuteronomy 8:3)
Testing of the Lord
During their encampment at Rephidim, the Israelites quarreled with Moses over having no access to water (V.2) which prompted them further to complain about their redemption from slavery and even wishing they could return to Egypt (V.3). The Lord provided them with the rock that produced water (v.6). Moses calls this place Massah and Meribah because the quarrel of the sons of Israel and because they tested the LORD saying “Is the LORD among us, or not”. (Exodus 17:7). We have here Israel testing the Lord during their wilderness experience.
Idolatrous Worship
The episode of the Golden calf shows their true heart against the Lord. After all they saw, the pillar of clouds and pillar of fire and the parting of the sea, they still believed that a man, rather than God took them out of Egypt and requested to worship like the Egyptians (Exodus 32:1). They built a golden calf and worshipped it by offering sacrifices to it (v.8). Moses was left to intervene on their behalf so that Yahweh wouldn’t destroy them. They kept choosing the things of Egypt over the things of God!
The Testing of Christ
The testing that the Lord Jesus experienced is largely identical to that of Israel. He experienced hunger and thirst by fasting for 40 days and 40 nights (which is paralleled with the 40 years of Israel’s journey) and the devil attempted to persuade Him to worship him, but He remained faithful to His God. What the son of God in the form of Israel (Exodus 4:22) failed to do, the faithful Son of God (Matthew 3:17) succeeded. We’ll see how the Lord stood against the devil and at the same time uses Deuteronomy chapters 6 & 8 to demonstrate His identity as the True Son.
Holwerda writes:
Consequently, Jesus chooses to reject the temptations by quoting texts from Deuteronomy 6 & 8 which are part of a lengthy sermon in which Moses rehearses Israel’s history of sin and failure during the wandering in the wilderness and uses that history to admonish Israel and to encourage obedient living when Israel enters the promised land. Thus Jesus must be tempted as Israel had once been tempted to see whether he is in fact obedient Israel, the Son with whom the Father is well pleased[2].
The responses to the devil are descriptive of how Israel should have responded in the wilderness.
The Temptation of Bread (Matthew 4:2)
Firstly, the Israelites should have lived by faith in the Lord, “from ever word that comes out of the mouth of God”. The hunger they experienced was to “humble them” (Deuteronomy 8:3) so as to understand that they must live, not primarily by the sustenance of food such as bread, but by the words that God provides to them in faith.
The Temptation to Test the Lord (Matthew 4:6-7)
The second temptation of the Lord Jesus was to produce a test of whether or not God would be faithful if He threw Himself down. The devil even quotes scripture (Psalm 91:11-12) to validate the temptation.
There are two aspects to this temptation:
- That He should prove His sonship
- That He should test the Lord His God.
The Lord Jesus would not adhere to the wishes of the devil since it would have been a means to test God. The scriptures are clear that while God can test man, we are never to test God. In Israel’s wilderness experience, when they did not receive water, we are told that they tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us, or not?” (Exodus 17:7)
The Temptation to Worship Another (Matthew 4:8-9)
The third temptation was the offering of kingdoms of the world if only Jesus would worship the devil. While Christ would inherit the nations through His suffering, He refused to take a shortcut to inherit the kingdom of the world. (Carson P. 115).
The Lord remained faithful, and His response was that only Yahweh is to be worshipped. This was the opposite case for Israel. It wasn’t long that they were worshipping a golden calf at the foot of the Mountain of the Lord. Even once they entered the promised land, and after the warning of Deuteronomy 6:10-15, they would eventually worship Baal (Hosea 2).
Christ was the faithful Son and the true Israel, heir to the promises of Abraham’s covenant. The fulfillment of the Sonship and identity of the true Israel is found in the fulfillment of the responsibilities of Israel in Christ.
The New Covenant Children
The identity of Israel sonship to God is expanded in the New Testament.
The sons of God in the New Testament are as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12-13). John also expands the sonship of Israel outside the borders of Israel he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. (John 11:51-52). The sign of our sonship came in the form of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:16) through adoption (Romans 8:15). The new birth in Christ guarantees our sonship and results in these children practicing righteousness (1 John 3:1-11).
[1] The Gospel of Matthew, New International Commentary on the New Testament, R.T. France, Page 81
[2] Jesus & Israel: One Covenant or Two?, David E. Holwerda, WM B. Eerdmans Publishing, Page 45
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