Thayer Thursday – Biblical ‘Fulfillment’
For many who have grown up in the church (and probably many who didn’t) the Biblical concept of “prophecy and fulfillment” is generally misunderstood.
In our culture, “prophecy” and its “fulfillment” are largely understood as consisting of a prediction which has its embodiment only and completely in the future. This is mostly due to Hollywood portrayals of prophecy, poor Christian teaching on the subject, and popular Christian novels which address it.
One of the unfortunate consequences of such a view is that we read the words “fulfillment” and “prophet” in Matthew’s Gospel (such as in 2:15) in light of what we think they mean, rather than allowing scripture to inform our understanding of what they actually mean. We use our own meaning rather than what the Biblical authors meant when they used these words.
This, then, causes us to miss one of the central themes of Matthew’s Gospel and one of the central themes of the entire New Testament.
Biblical prophets did not only talk about the future. In reality, they almost never talked strictly about the future outside of the light of present realities.
Prophets were God’s prosecuting attorneys, pronouncing God’s judgment and disapproval of His people’s behavior. When they spoke about the future, it was almost always in reference to God’s forthcoming judgment and hope for a future restoration of His people–a restoration that would be because of His faithfulness despite His people’s unfaithfulness.
Scattered throughout and central to God’s story of restoration in the Old Testament is that His people, Israel, would be a royal priesthood–God’s representatives to the world. They would point the world back to the one true God. Through Abraham’s offspring, the entire world would be blessed.
However, by the first century A.D., on top of falling into idolatry and injustice, Israel had been overrun by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and then ultimately Rome. The people were in disarray, and the flicker of hope for the world shining throughout the pages of the Old Testament seemed to be fading away into darkness.
Matthew, however, takes the story and mission of Israel and other bits and pieces along the way and retells them in and through the person of Jesus.
For Matthew, Jesus becomes the true Israel–the ultimate and complete embodiment of God’s purpose and plan for the restoration of all of creation. Throughout his Gospel, Matthew picks up on moments of Israel’s history and shows how the true Israelite – Jesus – fulfills the task, role, and history of all God’s people.
So when Matthew talks about the fulfillment of a prophet’s words (such as in 2:15 – “And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son.” [Hosea 11:1]), he’s not referring to a literal foretelling by the prophet Hosea of an event that would only take place much later in history (Hosea 11:1 is referencing Israel during the time of Moses). Instead he’s retelling the story of Israel through the person of Jesus:
- Just as Israel was in Egypt and God called them out; Jesus was in Egypt, and God called Him out.
- Just as Israel is in the desert for forty years; Jesus is in the desert for forty days.
- Just as Israel was God’s “son” among the nations; Jesus was literally God’s Son through the virgin conception.
Other stories that in the first century probably seemed insignificant in Israel’s history, Jesus brings significance to. Where Israel fails, Jesus succeeds.
Matthew’s theme of fulfillment is really best explained as Jesus filling fully Israel’s history and life – becoming the one in and through whom all nations of the earth would be blessed.
This is what Matthew means by Jesus being the “fulfillment” of so much of the Old Testament – a fulfillment much larger than a few scattered predictions about the future!
A fulfillment that embodies, retells, and breathes new life into a seemingly broken plan which was actually misunderstood along much of the way: God’s plan of restoration for all of humanity.
Chris Thayer
JM’s postscript: For more on this, see the fantastic new volume “Paul and the Faithfulness of God” by N.T. Wright–particularly chapter 10.
Categories: Biblical Theology, Blog, Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Thayer Thursday
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