The true Israel are those who have the faith of Abraham. Israel is reduced to one person, and that is Jesus Christ, the shoot from the stump of Jesse. He fulfills the Mosaic covenant for us. Jesus is the true Israel; He is the vine, and Christians are the branches grafted into Christ by faith. And again, Jesus is Israel reduced to one, the second Adam, who replaces the old and brings the new in Himself. Truly the one for whom God fights, the one who fulfills all the promises to get given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You have to be inside of Him, inside this Jesus, inside literally His flesh and blood, which He does give you to eat and drink. This is the New Jerusalem already coming down from heaven, preparing you for the life made up of heaven rather than of dust which is coming when He comes again." (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15; Isaiah 11:1; Galatians 3. Romans 11:17).
Hosea is replete with both images that God uses to describe love for his people, that of a wife and that of a child. He highlights Yahweh's faithfulness in both images and Israel's unfaithfulness as either Yahweh's betrothed or as his child. Jesus is a foil to Israel's failure. If they are disobedient son, He is a faithful Son who does all His Father's bidding.
In his own day, John Chrysostom heard the Jews objecting to this citation by St. Matthew, insisting that is not what Hosea was talking about at all! He was talking about Israel, not Jesus. Chrysostom points out to Matthew's detractors, though, how very often throughout the Old Testament of a nearer fulfillment nests inside a greater and more distant one. He argues this is of a piece with that since St. Matthew had already introduced us to the very notion that the entirety of the Old Testament is actually Jesus' story, His genealogy, His book. He undergirds this point with all of those citations from the prophets that punctuate his Gospel and show how the whole finally comes home to roost in Jesus. But this one is of particular importance; it shows that Jesus is Israel reduced to one and Israel as faithful Son. Thus He will relive the whole of Israel's story in His own life.
If Israel (quite literally Israel) Jacob and his sons went out of the Promiseland to Eygpt for a period of time, then so will Jesus. If Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness and endured temptations and trials, so will Jesus wander forty days in the wilderness and endure various temptations and trials. Said another way - Jesus and His whole life, from birth to death, from resurrection to ascension, is at work bringing the actual meaning of the Old Testament to light as the revelation of Himself. No single bit of the Old Testament can give you the whole you find in Jesus, but taken all together in light of His story as St. Matthew and the other Evangelists tell it, you begin to see that it was no exaggeration to speak of the Old Testament as His own book (John 5:39) whose job was to proclaim Him as the Savior of sinners and reveal Him as the God who is with us!
- Pr. Will Weedon
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