Daily Devotions – Prophecies

Daily Devotions – Prophecies

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

 

Matthew 2:19-23 (NIV)
The Return to Nazareth
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

 

In Matthew’s Gospel he talks a lot about Old Testament prophecies being fulfilled by Jesus. This would have been quite odd for many Jewish people because many of those prophecies had already been fulfilled! Or so they thought. What Matthew realized as he looked back at the Old Testament is that yes, some of those prophecies had been fulfilled at one time, but God had something bigger planned: Jesus. Jesus changes everything about the Old Testament. When you start with Jesus all those prophecies now make much more sense. Sometimes what we read in the Bible is not going to make sense. We might know that we should read the Bible, but it is confusing and frustrating. Try to think like Matthew and ask, “how does this point to Jesus”? Or “how does knowing Jesus change things”? Don’t worry if you get stuck. Focus on Jesus.