Christmas Prophecy 6

The Messiah had to come out of Egypt.

Prophecy -

Hosea 11:1

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

Now this one seems to be a stretch, right? This is clearly talking of the Israelites being brought out of Egypt, out of their slavery, when they crossed the Red Sea, into their Promised Land. Right? So, are we taking it out of context? We don't have to wonder. Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, took this verse and tells us that Jesus was fulfilling it. I believe that the Holy Spirit is the true author of every single word of our Bible. If He allowed this in, then it is God's Word.

Fulfillment -

Matthew 2:13-15
Now when they had departed [the wise men], behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

Herod gave an edict (see verse 16) to put to death all male children two and under, for this was the time range that Jesus could have been born in, according to the information he had from the wise men. Mary and Joseph and Jesus stayed in Egypt until Herod was dead, then they came back to Israel (see verses 19 through 21). So we can see how Jesus could both be born in Bethlehem, but come out of Egypt, fulfilling two different prophecies.

This is a continuation of our Christmas Prophecy series. To read part one and two, click here:
Christmas Prophecy 1
Christmas Prophecy 2
Christmas Prophecy 3
Christmas Prophecy 4

Christmas Prophecy 5

Information

We just came home from church and it was a great message.

Our pastor taught us about how Jesus gave people information, He didn't just inspire them.  He was constantly teaching the people.

Inspiration is important, but you can't do much with it, unless you have information.  You will need information about how God's kingdom works in order for Him to work in your life, in order to have peace in your life, in order to have healing in your life, in order to have financial prosperity in your life.

Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

And this is exactly WHY I have started this blog--to inspire you to study God's Word for yourself!  That is where you get the information about who God is, what God's plan is and how you fit into it, and what your response should be.

So don't delay--first, you need to be in a church that is preaching the Word, not just making you feel good; and two, start a habit now of reading God's Word!

Prophecy

Update below 12/24/08

As an advent activity last year I decided to cover prophecy scriptures about Jesus, and their fulfillments, with my kids.  You can read about that here.  It didn't seem to have the impact that I was looking for so I wasn't going to do it again this Christmas, but have changed my mind.  I will tell you why.

A little while back (can't remember what we were reading), my son had a lightbulb go off in his head during Bible reading.  He said, "you mean the Bible not only tells us things that happened, but things that are going to happen, too?!?"  I thought I had explained that last Christmas with the prophecy scriptures.  Oh well, now that he understands this he thinks it's really cool.

I also got to thinking about the method I used last year.  I printed out the scriptures on red and green paper and cut them out with fancy scrapbook scissors and each day that we read them, I let the kids tape them on the fridge in a long string.  We alternated the red and green papers.  Well, since I was the one that did all the work, I was the one that learned!  None of the information stuck in my son's head.

So this year I am reading to him, but having him do a little notebooking.  I had him title his page, "Prophecy" and he is making a list.  We have one through nine so far (we do these on week days).  I have him write the basic synopsis of the prophecy (I usually help him think of it) and the scripture reference and then I ask him if it has been fulfilled or not.  This gets him to thinking of the fulfillment and usually he'll tell me what the story is for the fulfillment, sometimes I'll read the fulfillment, as well.

Now since I decided to do this again this year, I just pulled up my references from last year and figured I would go down the list.  But what most often happens when I open up the Bible, is I get led other places (I'm also more knowledgeable than I was last year).  So our list this year will vary a bit from last year (I got most of the references last year from a book, can't remember the title).  I will list them as we do them, in case we veer off our course again.

Here is what we have so far - 

virgin birth - Isaiah 7:14

despised and rejected - Isaiah 53:2-3

stone of stumbling - Isaiah 8:14-15

born in Bethlehem - Micah 5:2 (At this point I decided to try to keep them in chronological order)

out of Egypt - Hosea 11:1 (This one was neat because I could show my son that many verses have more than one meaning.  This one refers back to Israel's exodus from Egypt, but also forward to Christ.)

betrayed - Psalm 41:9 (Again, this one refers to Ahithophel betraying David, but also Judas betraying Jesus.)

suffering - Psalm 22

beaten and killed - Isaiah 53:4-9

no bone to be broken - Psalm 34:20 & John 19:31-36

as a lamb without spot - Exodus 12:5, John 1:29-41, I Peter 1:19 and we talked about Matthew 4

rises from the dead - Psalm 16:10 & John 20:1-18

bring salvation to the whole world - Isaiah 49:6

returning one day - Acts 1:11  (This is where I'm glad I didn't list all the verses at the beginning because this verse didn't come to me until I opened up my Bible to read--I was going to read from I Thessalonians.)

fights enemies - Isaiah 63:1-6

reign on the throne of David forever - Luke 1:32-33

Well, this is our completed list.  I am much happier this year with the retention and interest level of my son.  This makes me want to do a similar study of the verses that give detail about the family of the Messiah, starting in Genesis 3:15 (some call this the scarlet thread).  I think that for now we will get back to our character study of God.