The Slaughter of the Innocents: Jesus as the New Israel
In the story of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fleeing Israel and seeking refuge in Egypt, we see many allusions to Old Testament Scripture. The Slaughter of the Innocents mirrors pharaoh’s murder of the baby boys in the Exodus story. That one is easy to see. But Matthew ties in two other passages from the Hebrew Scriptures. And these are much more difficult to work with.
Matthew’s Gospel makes a lot more sense when we understand the way he applies the Old Testament prophecies. Everything changed after the life of Jesus. When the disciples looked back into the Hebrew Scriptures, they weren’t looking for one-to-one prophecies about the Messiah. Some of those are definitely there. But more commonly, they saw Jesus as the perfection of Israel. And His mission was to fulfill Israel’s calling.
Out Of Egypt I Called My Son
On the surface, the first of the three Old Testament allusions we’re looking at today would seem pretty clear. The Magi and their entourage of thousands left Bethlehem. Herod grew bolder. The threat of Parthia had passed. But now, Herod needed to deal with the potential usurper living less than five miles south of Jerusalem.
After they had gone, 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 stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to look for the child to kill him.” Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” (Matthew 2:13-15 NET)
The prophecy is obvious: The Messiah comes out of Egypt. There’s just one problem. The Old Testament prophecy isn’t about the Messiah; it’s about Israel. And it’s really, really condemning.
When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt. But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images. (Hosea 11:1-2 NET)
Is Matthew really saying these verses are about Jesus? We’ll come back to that in a few minutes.
Herod’s Murder of the Children in Bethlehem
Traditionally, this is seen as a parallel to the story of Moses. There is a good reason for this. Matthew is going to show Jesus as the Prophet like Moses from Deuteronomy 18, as we looked at in the first episode of this series. But when he talks of what has become known as The Slaughter of the Innocents, I don’t think he’s speaking of Moses individually. I believe he’s thinking of the thousands of little boys murdered by pharoah. Matthew is emphasizing the death of these children.
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he became enraged. He sent men to kill all the children in Bethlehem and throughout the surrounding region from the age of two and under, according to the time he had learned from the wise men. (Matthew 2:16 NET)
On a side-note, historians consider this story as made-up. No other Gospels mention it, or any other non-Christian documents. But what we do know is that history records similar events from Herod’s reign of terror which we looked at in our episode about him earlier in the series. There’s a good reason this tragedy would have escaped the notice of the historians of Herod’s day. I’ve always envisioned hundreds of baby boys being murdered. But Bethlehem was a small village at this time. It’s most likely that only a dozen boys were killed. In contrast to Herod’s other atrocities, this really wasn’t noteworthy.
Rachel Weeping For Her Children
The last Old Testament verse quoted is really bizarre. When we read it, it seems to be about the death of these children. Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, died in childbirth just a few miles from Bethlehem. It seems like Matthew is waxing a bit poetic here. He’s not.
The LORD says: “A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone.” (Jeremiah 31:15 NET)
Matthew quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy of the exile of Israel. Jeremiah’s prophecy is very poetic. In fact, it’s formatted in most modern translations that way. But once again, just like we saw with the rest of these passages, it isn’t about the Messiah. It’s about Israel.
Remez
I shared a few weeks ago on Bible Nerds Daily about a tool the ancient Jewish rabbis used to point their disciples to a larger portion of Scripture, called “remez.” The original manuscripts of the Old Testament don’t have chapter and verse markings. Instead of telling a listener to turn in their Bible to Jeremiah 31, the rabbi quoted a small section of the passage. The disciple knew the passage. Most had memorized massive sections of the Hebrew Bible. So, when the rabbi quotes a small section, he’s really bringing the larger portion to the listener’s mind. This is exactly what Matthew is doing in this story.
YHWH Hears Rachel’s Weeping
Think of a song you’re really familiar with. TV show themes are great examples for this. If I say, “Come and listen to my story about a man named Jed…” you’re probably going to finish the next line in your head “…A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.” Every Jewish reader of the Gospel of Matthew did the same thing with Jeremiah 31:15.
Matthew wrote – “The LORD says: ‘A sound is heard in Ramah, a sound of crying in bitter grief. It is the sound of Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because her children are gone’.” (Jeremiah 31:15 NET)
His readers continued with: “The LORD says to her, ‘Stop crying! Do not shed any more tears. For your heartfelt repentance will be rewarded. Your children will return from the land of the enemy. I, the LORD, affirm it! Indeed, there is hope for your posterity. Your children will return to their own territory. I, the LORD, affirm it’!” (Jeremiah 31:16-17 NET)
Matthew says the tragedy of the Slaughter of the Innocents isn’t the end of the story an the Messiah wasn’t killed! Instead, He was supernaturally delivered. And He will be the one to lead Israel’s exiles back to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The Exile Will End
This is the same thing he’s doing with Hosea 11:1.
Matthew wrote: “When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt. But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images.” (Hosea 11:1-2 NET)
His readers finished with: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? And How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? I have had a change of heart. All my tender compassions are aroused. I cannot carry out my fierce anger! I cannot totally destroy Ephraim! Because I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you— I will not come in wrath! (Hosea 11:8-9 NET)
Matthew sees Jesus as the new Israel. God created Israel to be a light to the nations. They failed miserably. The Prophets of the Old Testament proved this over and over again. God is judging Israel for their disobedience. The Assyrians drove the Northern Kingdom into exile. Later, the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom and exiled them too. And even though Babylon permitted the exiles to return to Jerusalem, they were still being ruled by foreign powers. All looked hopeless.
But these same Prophets declared that a New King would come. A Son of David, who would redeem them from their slavery and bring them out of Egypt. YHWH has heard Rachel’s weeping. He is bringing restoration. The evil Herod – a new pharaoh – isn’t going to win. He will be defeated. The true King of the Jews has come.
