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The Life and Ministry of Jesus Christ Seen from the Old Testament (1)
by Samson Hutagalung

The Slaughter of the Innocent (Jer. 31:15; ref. Matt. 2:16-18)

It was a great joy for the shepherds and the Magi to see the birth of the Saviour. They praised and glorified the Almighty God for the fulfilment of the prophecy before their eyes. Nevertheless, Matthew recorded that soon after the birth of Jesus Christ, there was great sorrow in Bethlehem. Every family had to weep for their baby boy two years old and under.[1]

What was happening in the city of Bethlehem? Matthew recorded that Herod slaughtered the innocent (every baby boy two years old and under) (Matt 2:16). Herod did this foolish act because he realised that he had been deceived. The Magi who had promised that they would come back to him after their visit to the newborn King, never appeared. He was kept waiting like a fool for news from the magi, while they had gone another way as “being warned of God in a dream that they should not returned to Herod (Matt. 2:12). As a result, he “judged them by his own standard.”[2] He slaughtered every baby boy in Bethlehem in order to make sure that the newborn King would die. This was the jealousy of Herod, for he knew that he was the only king that reigned in Israel. His hatred grew when he knew that the writings of the prophet Micah had prophesied that there would be a king born in Bethlehem who would lead His people (Matt. 2:6). Christ will be the only king who will lead His people to victory and prosperity. He was chosen by the Father to be the King for Israel before the foundation of the world.

The Old Testament book shows that the slaughtering of the innocent in Bethlehem had been predicted by the prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before. In other words, it was the fulfilment of the prophesy given in Jeremiah 31:15 that says, “Thus saith the Lord; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.” Although the context of the book of Jeremiah is talking about the calamities that would happen to Israel for her unbelief and wickedness, it was also a prophecy that would be fulfilled as recorded in the gospel of Matthew. Many people might not agree on this truth and claim that Matthew had made a mistake in this issue but the truth is he did not. One may rightly say that “the idea is not merely superficial; inconsolable weeping in Bethlehem. The inner cause of the two weepings is identical, and thus the one is poured into the other make the vessel full.”[3]

Matthew understood the context of the book of Jeremiah and saw its fulfilment in the early life of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. The name Rachel was mentioned by Jeremiah to show how eager she was to have children, but in Jeremiah 31:15 she is figuratively pictured as being alive, watching the wretched multitude gathering in Ramah, listening to their weeping and seeing how some of them are being killed.[4] Matthew saw an identical event happening in Bethlehem as he quoted from the book of Jeremiah.

Therefore the prophecy in Jeremiah 31:15 clearly shows what would happen during the early life of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. The slaughter of the innocent by king Herod was predicted in the Old Testament long before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly Rachel is pictured as being alive once again to weep for the slaughtering of those infants, because during her lifetime, she desired so much to have children.

Flight to Egypt (Hos. 11:1 ref. Matt. 2:14-5)

The prophecy of the childhood of Jesus Christ found in Hosea 11:1 is disputable. The writer of the gospel of Matthew has taken this truth to be applied absolutely to Jesus Himself. Matthew indeed knew Jesus to be the Messiah. “He saw the parallels between Israel and Jesus. Both are spoken of as a son of God, a chosen servant, and a light to the Gentiles. Both are given roles of prophet, priest, and king."[5] Nevertheless Matthew, in quoting the writings of prophet Hosea, understood the differences between Israel and Jesus. So when Matthew wrote his gospel, he believed that Jesus Christ was a fulfillment of Hosea 11:1. “Jesus is therefore the ideal “ Israel,” who experienced in principle some of Israel’s experiences in coming out of Egypt, being tested in the wilderness, and then showing the power of God to a watching world.”[6]

The context of the book of Hosea indicates that God was speaking to the nation of Israel. The phrase “when Israel was a child, then I loved him” shows that Jehovah was talking about the childhood period of Israel when the young nation was growing up in Egypt. Matthew reads Hosea 11:1 in exactly that sense and changes nothing. He says that this statement of the prophet found its fulfillment when the child Jesus dwelt in Egypt.[7] Matthew saw that what was written in Hosea 11:1 was fulfilled in the early life of Jesus. As Lenski puts it,

[It] was more than a mere coincident resemblance between the childhood of Israel as Jehovah’s son or chosen nation and the childhood of Jesus, the divine Son, both spending their early days in Egypt and thus being called back from Egypt into the Holy Land. Mere accidental coincidences amount to little. Matthew sees far more here. Mere escape from Herod was not nearly all that God had in mind for Jesus. . . . What Matthew points out is an inner and divinely intended connection between the two sojourns in Egypt. God brought about the first sojourn and made that first sojourn a factual prophecy of the second, which he also brought about. The first is thus a divinely intended type of the second.[8]

The writing of Matthew leaves no doubt that what the prophet Hosea said has been fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Matthew emphasized this truth when he said, “it might be fulfilled” (Matt. 2:15). In other words, Matthew saw that Israel was a type of the Messiah because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The cruelty of Pharaoh toward the Israelites is pictured as having an equal in king Herod who attempted to destroy the Son of God, Jesus Christ. God had protected His people in their exodus from the wrath of Pharaoh, in the same way God had protected His Only Begotten Son, on His way to Egypt and during His temporary residence there and even on His way back to His home town.[9] This is to say that the Lord had shown to His people what His Son would do when He came into this world. The truth was given to the Old Testament believers so that they might know what God had planned for His people.

The Way Prepared (Is. 40:3-5; ref. Luke 3:3-6)

When When the Lord gave His words to the prophet Isaiah in Is. 40:3-5, in the literal sense it meant the anticipation of the return of the exiles from Babylon. It was a prophecy given by Isaiah to the Israelites who hardened their hearts and disobeyed the Lord. The Lord had to punish the Israelites for their wickedness and disobedience by allowing Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the city of Jerusalem and to bring them into captivity for seventy years. And Isaiah wrote this prophecy almost two hundreds years before the real event happened.

It is true that there was a need to prepare a way for the returnees from Babylon in the Syrian Desert, between Babylonia and Palestine.[10] However, the prophet Isaiah exaggerated when he said, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God, every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Is. 40:3-4). What Isaiah described here never occurred during the return of the exiles from Babylon.

Although Isaiah 40:3-5 seems to have been fulfilled when the returnees came back to their land, in reality it has not. God had seen and prepared this event as a picture or symbol for the coming of the Messiah. Lenski said, “The desert is, being used figuratively by Isaiah to denote the hindrances and obstacles which separate the people from Jehovah. Hence a road must be prepared through them, on which Jehovah was to come to His people in order to deliver them.”[11] Thus, Isaiah 40:3-5 is the heart of the message heralding the coming of the Messiah.

Since references were made to Isaiah 40:3-5 in Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3 and Luke 3:4-6, there is no doubt that Isaiah 40:3-5 was fulfilled in the ministry of John the Baptist. John himself said deliberately to those who desired to know who he was, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Esaias” (John 1:23). John the Baptist was a herald who shouted in the wilderness, preaching baptism for the remission of sins. In other words the deliverance of the Israelites from Babylon was only a type for our redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ.[12]

The Lord had prepared John the Baptist to be a herald for the coming of Jesus Christ. He must prepare the way for Him so that when He comes to bring the message of salvation, the people would receive it with gladness and recognize Him as the Messiah. The world that is full of wickedness and depravity must know the Lord Jesus Christ that they may have eternal life. For apart from knowing Him as their Lord and Saviour, they will be lost in sins. John the Baptist knew and saw crisis in the ruined lives of those who lived in the time of Jesus Christ. The fact was that though he had proclaimed what the Lord had commanded him to do as a herald, few people responded to his calling. The hardening of the hearts of the people had caused them to continue living in their sins.[13]

Thus, John the Baptist had a great responsibility during his ministry as a herald of the Messiah. He did not exalt himself as a Prophet as he realized that he was the way-preparer. As Hendriksen rightly opines,

He was to be the Lord's "voice" to the people, all of that but not more than that (cf. John 3:22-30). As such he must not only announce Christ's approach and presence but also urge the people to prepare the way of the Lord, that is, by God's grace and power to effect a complete change of mind and heart. This applies that they must make straight his paths, meaning that they must provide the Lord with a ready access into their hearts and lives. They must make straight whatever was crooked, not in line with God's holy will. They must clear away all the obstacles which they had thrown into his path; such obstructions as self-righteousness and smug complacency ("We have Abraham as our father," Matt. 3:9), greed, cruelty, slander, etc. (Luke 3:13,14).[14]

It is clearly seen in the Old Testament that a herald of Christ had been foretold in order that His people might accept and realize the truth that the Messiah, the Christ, was the Lord Jesus. Everyone who believes in Him will see Him in the glorious day when He returns in His second Coming.

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[1]Lenski continued to say, “This age limit Herod arrived at on the basis of what he had quietly ascertained from the magi regarding the time of the star’s appearance in Babylon (v. 7). We may take it that Herod set the limit sufficiently high so as to e sure to include Jesus. “From two years old” includes all that were not yet three years old and all below that age. The number killed is not given and is estimated from the probable population and from the average number of baby boys in such a population.” R.C.H.Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augusburg Publishing House, 1943), 80-1.

[2]Ibid, 80.

[3]Ibid, 81. However Lenski also said that the quoting of the name of the prophet Jeremiah was “due to the circumstance that Jeremiah is the prophet of sorrow and weeping.” Ibid, 82.

[4]William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew: New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1973), 181.

[5]Herb Vander Lught, The Infancy Events of Matthew 2, Accessed on March 3rd 2000, available from http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/ds/q1208/point4.html.  Internet.

[6]Ibid.

[7]Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, 77.

[8]Ibid, 77-8.

[9]Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew, 178.

[10]William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke: New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1975), 202.

[11]R.C.H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel, (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augusburg Publishing House, 1943), 181-2.

[12]Calvin, Isaiah,  (Software), 48.

[13]Calvin continues to say, “But because, in the midst of a nation which was ignorant and almost sunk in stupidity, there were few that sincerely grieved for their ruinous condition, John sought a wilderness, that the very sight of the place might arouse careless persons to hope and desire the promised deliverance. As to his denying that he was a Prophet, substance of his doctrine; for he was not sent to discharge apart any continued office, but, as a herald, to gain an audience for Christ his Master and Lord. What is here said about removing obstructions, he applies skillfully to individuals, on this ground, that the depravity of our nature, the windings of a crooked mind, and obstinacy of heart, shut up the way of the Lord, and hinder them from preparing, by true self-denial, to yield obedience.” Ibid, 48.

[14]Hendriksen, Exposition of the Gospel According to Luke, 203.