Isaiah 63:7-9, Psalm 148:1-14, Hebrews 2:10-18, Matthew 2:13-23.
A). IN ALL OUR AFFLICTIONS HE IS AFFLICTED.
Isaiah 63:7-9.
When we pray for the Lord’s people today, we should remember past mercies - mercies which are ‘new every morning’ (Lamentations 3:22-23). Similarly, as we look at Biblical and subsequent Church history, we should recollect the great deeds of the Holy Spirit through His servants, past and present. Neither should we forget our own experience of the Lord’s goodness.
The first motive in prayer is that God might be glorified. The prophet acknowledges the steadfast love of the LORD as seen in His gracious deeds, great goodness, and favour towards the house of Israel (Isaiah 63:7). The Church should acknowledge our deep indebtedness to ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ’ for our many spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3).
The prayer which begins in Isaiah 63:7 - and continues all the way to the end of the following chapter - recalls the past kindnesses of the LORD (Isaiah 63:7). Israel already knew the LORD as the One who had delivered them out of Egypt, who had parted the Red Sea (Isaiah 63:12), and led His people to their rest (Isaiah 63:14). The Church should recall the great deliverance which He has wrought on our behalf through the Cross of Jesus (cf. Luke 9:30-31).
The context of this prayer arises from the fury of the LORD against His, and Israel’s, enemies (Isaiah 63:1-6). When He looked for someone to help, there was none, so His own arm brought salvation (Isaiah 63:5; cf. Psalm 98:1). Surely there is a reference here to the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ (Isaiah 52:10): He also ‘trod the wine-press alone’ (Isaiah 63:3) when He vanquished our spiritual enemies, making an open show of them (Colossians 2:15).
Isaiah reflects on the saving act whereby the LORD gathered His children, and became a Saviour to them (Isaiah 63:8). ‘Jesus’ is so named ‘because He will save His people from their sins’ (Matthew 1:21). The Saviour of the world is come.
The LORD sees Israel as His people, and therefore “children that will not lie” (Isaiah 63:8). This is forensic, and anticipates His gracious attitude towards His Christian people. We are ‘made righteous’ by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:9).
The day of vengeance is also the year of His redeemed (Isaiah 63:4). This seems to link the redemption of Israel out of Egypt, to the Cross of Jesus Christ, via the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). In His love and pity He redeemed us (Isaiah 63:9).
The idea of the LORD lifting up, bearing, and carrying His people (Isaiah 63:9) echoes the birthing and carrying of the remnant (Isaiah 46:3-4). Has the Lord not also brought us to new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, and has He not carried us ever since through all the trials and challenges of life? In all our affliction He is afflicted, and it is His own presence which saves us (Isaiah 63:9; cf. Matthew 28:20).
B). THE SONG OF CREATION.
Psalm 148:1-14.
The whole of creation - from the cosmos (Psalm 148:1), to terra firma (Psalm 148:7) - is called to praise the LORD. This includes angels (Psalm 148:2), and animals (Psalm 148:10), and men (Psalm 148:12). Psalm 148 could be a sermon amplifying the text of Psalm 145:10 - “All your works shall praise you, O LORD: and your saints shall bless you.”
The Apostle Paul informs us that “the whole creation is groaning and travailing in pain together until now” (Romans 8:22). The Fall of man has had cosmic consequences, introducing death and disorder into creation. With bated breath, nature awaits “the revelation of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19).
The opening exclamation OF praise (Psalm 148:1) is followed by several imperative exhortations TO praise. One by one, the various strata of the created order are challenged to take a different attitude - until at last the final invitation of this cosmic ‘altar call’ is full of expectation and hope (Psalm 148:13-14).
The appeal reaches first to the heavens (Psalm 148:1). Beginning at the place where angels dwell (Psalm 148:2), and through the starry domain of the Hubble telescope and its successors (Psalm 148:3), the summons goes forth into the sky and clouds above us (Psalm 148:4). Let them praise the LORD, for when He spoke they were created, and He made a decree that sets their limits for ever (Psalm 148:5-6).
Then the appeal is made to the earth. The command reaches down into the depths of the sea (Psalm 148:7), through the weather systems (Psalm 148:8), and up into the mountains. Trees are called to break forth into praise (Psalm 148:9); as is animal life, insects and birds (Psalm 148:10).
Then the whole human race (Psalm 148:11-12) is commanded to join the joyful symphony. The highest king is not excused; nor is the smallest child. All must join this song of praise.
The overall reason is given. The LORD has raised up the “horn” OF His people Israel (Psalm 148:14). The horn represents strength. In the song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-69), the “horn of salvation” raised up FOR Israel is identified with Jesus.
There are no exceptions, no excuses. The LORD alone is worthy of our praise (Psalm 148:13). If mute things are able to praise God - and they are, for they “fulfil His word” (Psalm 148:8) - how much more should “a people near to Him” (Psalm 148:14).
When we worship and bless and praise God we add nothing to Him but, like the Old Testament priest, we magnify Him before the people. It is a command we should delight to obey. “Praise ye the LORD!”
C). A PERFECT SAVIOUR.
Hebrews 2:10-18.
I. The Father deemed it an appropriate method to secure our salvation by sending His Son into this world to be one with us (Hebrews 2:10-11). This was determined from all eternity, and was not some kind of afterthought (John 3:16). Jesus came willingly, knowing what must be done (Hebrews 10:5-7).
The pioneer of our salvation was “made perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10). This does not imply that Jesus was ever anything other than perfectly moral: but it suggests a level of experience which we all go through (sufferings) being experienced voluntarily by the divine Son. Given the vicarious nature of His sufferings, He thereby “brings many sons into glory” (Hebrews 2:10).
II. Jesus sanctifies us - sets us apart for God - by becoming one with us, and making us one with Him (Hebrews 2:11). ‘The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us’ (John 1:14). He drew us into the family of God, counting us as both brethren and sons (Hebrews 2:12-13).
There are three quotations indicated here in verses Hebrews 2:12-13. First, Psalm 22:22 reminds us, from its context, that we are drawn into the family of God only through the furnace of Jesus’ own sufferings. Secondly: because Jesus “put His trust in the LORD” (Hebrews 2:13; cf. Isaiah 8:17; Matthew 27:43), so can we (Psalm 16:1; Psalm 18:2; Psalm 36:7; Psalm 91:2; Isaiah 12:2; Isaiah 50:7). Third, the context of Isaiah 8:17-18 speaks of a remnant of God’s children who are redeemed out of the furnace of God’s judgment against ‘Immanuel’s land’ (cf. Isaiah 8:8).
As the One like unto Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15), yet greater than Moses (Hebrews 3:1-6), Jesus became one with His own people. ‘He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But to all the people who received Him, He gave the right (the power, the authority) to be sons of God: to everyone who trusts in His Name’ (John 1:11-12).
III. It was necessary that Jesus should partake of flesh and blood in order to procure our salvation (Hebrews 2:14).
1. Jesus overcomes death (Hebrews 2:14), and the fear of death (Hebrews 2:15), through His own death upon the Cross. Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). The Lord’s people are delivered out of the very jaws of hell (Hosea 13:14).
2. Jesus destroys him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). He breaks our bondage (Hebrews 2:15) in a new exodus (Luke 9:31), and leads us into everlasting life. No angel could have accomplished this, so it was necessary that He should become man (Hebrews 2:16).
IV. Jesus became man, taking upon Himself the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16) - in whom all nations are blessed (Genesis 22:18). He was made like unto His brethren, and therefore has the capacity to be a merciful and faithful high priest. As both High Priest and sacrifice, Jesus makes reconciliation with God for the sins of His people (Hebrews 2:17).
Jesus did not have His life taken from Him, but laid it down - and took it up again (John 10:17-18). The perfection of completion was punctuated in His last words upon the Cross: ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30).
V. Having undergone sufferings, and overcome temptations on our behalf (cf. Hebrews 4:15), Jesus continues to minister to us in the midst of the challenges and changes in our own lives (Hebrews 2:18).
Whether viewed as the babe in a manger, or as the man upon the Cross; as the risen Lord, or as the King upon the throne - Jesus is well able to identify with His people’s personal perplexities.
D). THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT AND THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS.
Matthew 2:13-23.
MATTHEW 2:13. Joseph was called into exile. It is important that we do not linger in the place where we have been, but continue to follow the leading of God in our spiritual walk. After all, wherever God places us we are but ‘strangers and pilgrims.’
Likewise it is important to wait in the next place for only so long as it takes God to “bring us word.” Joseph was called into exile, but only “until” that took place. There is a time to stand still, and a time to move forward.
MATTHEW 2:14. Christ’s humility was an exile, but it was also the path to His exaltation. For Him, going down “by night into Egypt” was a further step of descent towards the nether regions of death. When we are in darkness: physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually - even there our beloved Jesus is with us (cf. Psalm 23:4).
MATTHEW 2:15. Death is the great leveller. Even kings, governors, presidents and rulers must give an account of their actions before God: murderous tyrants all must also die, and face their maker. Jesus was in Egypt only until Herod died.
Matthew is an expert at demonstrating how the types and prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus. Israel is the type of our Lord, and our Lord is the ultimate manifestation of all that Israel typologically represented. Israel was called out of Egypt under Moses (cf. Hosea 11:1); Jesus was called out of Egypt under the guardianship of Joseph.
MATTHEW 2:16. Herod's reaction showed his true desire. Herod had no desire towards ‘the desire of all nations’ (cf. Haggai 2:7), whom Jewish women desired to mother. Herod had all the baby boys in Bethlehem murdered because he desired thereby to murder Jesus.
MATTHEW 2:17. Herod was too late. Jesus had escaped. But he unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy of Jeremiah.
MATTHEW 2:18. There seemed to be no consolation for the mothers in Bethlehem. Rachel, who was buried there after her own death in childbirth, is portrayed by Jeremiah as weeping for her children as they went into exile (cf. Jeremiah 31:15). Matthew sees her weeping again, in another fulfilment of this Scripture, when the infants in Bethlehem were so cruelly massacred.
MATTHEW 2:19. When Herod was dead, “an angel of the LORD” appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.
MATTHEW 2:20. Joseph was instructed to take his young family back to Israel, because Jesus had things to do there. After our exile in the dark places of Egypt we are summoned to return to the place we came from, chastened and upbuilt by the experience which we have been through, and equipped for whatever may lay ahead. Sometimes we need to unravel our past to see where we strayed from the path, and resume our lives (as best we can, under the new circumstances) from that place.
MATTHEW 2:21. Joseph did not delay in his obedience.
MATTHEW 2:22. Yet there did seem to be obstacles to overcome. Laying aside our fears, we may combine common sense with prayer and revelation to determine our route. The call home motivated Joseph to set out, but it was not to Israel per se, but into the region of ‘Galilee of the nations’ (cf. Isaiah 9:1) that Jesus thus came.
MATTHEW 2:23. So they came and dwelt in Nazareth. There may be a play on words when Matthew quotes an undisclosed source as saying, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” The Jews seemed to think it a term of contempt (cf. John 1:46; Acts 24:5), but it is possible that the name “Nazareth” signifies sprouts or shoots and makes the connection with our Lord being called “the Branch” (cf. Isaiah 11:1).
