Out Of Egypt I Have Called My Son

In the book of Matthew we find several prophecy fulfillment citations. In other words, a thing happened to fulfill a prior prophecy. I plan to take a look at all of these to see if they are accurate. Let’s start by looking at Matthew 2:15. Out of Egypt I have called my son. We’ll be asking and answering 2 questions. Was this a fulfillment of prophecy, and was it spoken of Jesus?

Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by Hashem through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”

Matthew 2:14-15

We can find this phrase in Hosea 11:1. Out of Egypt I called my son. So there you have it. Prophecy made, prophecy fulfilled. Presuming, of course, that you start and stop right there. If, however, on reads the whole verse they will get a slightly different picture. Let’s take a look.

Whom did God call out of Egypt?

When Israel was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Hosea 11:1

In fact, this statement by Hosea was not referring to a future event. Moreover, it was not talking about Jesus. It is rather talking about the exodus, when God brought the Israelites out of slavery. Let’s not stop there, however. Notice what Israel is called here? The nation is called the son of God.

Now at this point, any evangelical worth their salt will inject “dual fulfillment”. A prophecy is fulfilled twice. Once in the short term, again in the future. Could this prophecy be fulfilled twice? Let’s look at verses 1 and 2 to see. To do so, we will break them down to statements, then replace Israel with Jesus to see if it still works.

How many sons did God call out of Egypt?

• When Israel was a child I loved him. When Jesus was a child I loved him. These work.
• Out of Egypt I have called Israel my son. Out of Egypt I have called Jesus my son. Again, no problem.
• The more I called Israel, the more they went from me. The more I called Jesus, the more he went from me. Sketchy, but maybe he meant the incarnation? He went from heaven to earth?
• Israel kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Jesus kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. And now it completely breaks down.

Is Jesus the son God called out of Egypt?

To be clear, dual fulfillment is not a Biblical concept. However, even granting this notion we see that it is impossible that Jesus is the son called out of Egypt by God. Matthew completely twisted this saying to fit his narrative. Moreover, the only way to reach his conclusion is to isolate the second half of this verse from the surrounding context. Thus, that is precisely what he did.