The flight to Egypt fulfilled several Old Testament types. Moses’ flight from Pharaoh (Exodus 2:15) foreshadowed the flight from Herod. Moses’ deliverance of Israel from Egypt is a type of Christ’s redeeming work (see Isaiah 11:1, Hosea 2:16, Hosea 12:10, and Micah 7:15). Jesus is the true Israel, the son called out of Egypt (Hosea 1:1–14:9). Israel’s oppression is a type of the suffering of the church (1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11). Egypt often sustained God’s people (Abraham, Israel, Jeremiah), and later Christ himself, protected from dying before his time (see John 10:39, John 13:1). Just as Israel was redeemed from slavery (Exodus 20:1), so Christ submitted to slavery to redeem his people from slavery to sin.
Just as Moses, the man who delivered Israel out of Egypt, once had to flee to be saved from Pharaoh (Exodus 2:15), so the Messiah, the great Redeemer, has to do the same to escape from Herod. The Old Testament deliverance of Israel from Egypt by Moses is therefore a shadow or a type of the redemption which would come through the Messiah (see in this regard Isaiah 11:1, Hosea 2:16, Hosea 12:10, and Micah 7:15). It is in light thereof that the quote from Hosea 11:1 (Out of Egypt I called my son
) must be understood. Jesus is the culmination and fulfillment of Israel’s history; he is the true Israel, the Messiah.1
Similarly, Israel is a type of the church, indicating the challenges that the church of Jesus Christ would face throughout its history (see 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11). The history of Israel is also typical of the Messiah, and what is more, Israel exists for the sake of bringing forth the Messiah. Christ is the purpose of Israel. When God preserved Israel through the ages he did so for the purposed blessing of all the nations of the earth through the seed of Abraham. The nation of Israel’s calling out of the land of Egypt is therefore a type of the calling of the Person of the Messiah out of the same land (see Hebrews 7:10). Egypt would first play a key role in terms of first sustaining God’s people (Abraham, Israel, Jeremiah) and then later also Christ himself. It was therefore not possible that Christ could die prior to the moment decreed therefore by the Father (see John 13:1). God protects him through Egypt. Furthermore, Egypt also symbolizes slavery to sin, and God himself speaks as follows from Sinai: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
These words introduce the Law, which serves as a rule for expressing our faith in and gratitude towards God for our salvation. Christ is without sin, and yet he, like his people, settles in the house of slavery—pointing his redemptive work in taking the sins of his people upon himself.2
14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt