Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17). The first book in the New Testament repeatedly highlights points of fulfillment (Matt. 1:22; 2:15, 17, 23; 4:14; 8:17; 12:17;13:35; 21:4; 26:54, 56; 27:9). When we think of fulfillment of prophecy, we often have in mind a direct fulfillment of Old Testament passages looking forward to the Messiah such as Matthew 21:4, 5: “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” Jesus’ triumphal entry on a donkey fulfilled Zechariah 9:9 and Isaiah 62:11.
However, Matthew by inspiration also uses the word “fulfilled” to emphasize Jesus’ connection to the history of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel through typology. One of the first examples of this in Matthew is the significance of the flight into Egypt by Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus (Matt. 2:13-15). Hosea 11:1 is a verse that is not set in prophetic terms at all, but rather looks back to God’s calling Israel out of Egypt to remind His people of His love, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” No direct reference is made to the Messiah in Hosea 11:1, but nevertheless Matthew quotes it to show the points of similarity and declare how God’s redemptive purpose throughout history points to Christ. On page 54 of his commentary on Matthew, H. Leo Boles noted, “Joseph and the holy family going into Egypt and returning from Egypt were the antitypes of Israel’s entrance into Egypt and the departure from Egyptian bondage….Both Israel and Joseph with his family went into Egypt at the command of God; both came out of Egypt at the command of God. Israel was figuratively God’s son (Ex. 4:22), and was considered by the Jews a type of the Messiah.” Thus, Matthew demonstrates how Israel in the Old Testament is the type and Jesus the corresponding antitype.
Matthew 2:18 notes, “In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” This quotation of Jeremiah 31:15 highlights a point of similarity between Rachel’s weeping for her children at Ramah—a waystation on their deportation to Babylon—and the weeping of the mothers of the children who were slain by Herod in his attempt to exterminate the baby Jesus. Matthew 2:17 claims the words of the prophet Jeremiah were fulfilled. How? These words are understood as a fulfillment once we grasp the type/antitype connection between Israel and Jesus.
Matthew’s point, it seems, is to show Jesus succeeding spiritually where Israel failed, and that He is a greater lawgiver than Moses. Once we start noticing similarities, we see a lot of them. Some suggest all sorts of antitypes in the initial chapters of Matthew that reflect the beginning of the nation of Israel such as God’s son in Egypt, a king who slaughters children, Jesus’ baptism as the antitype of crossing the Red Sea, his forty days of fasting recalling the forty-year wilderness sojourn, his ascending a mountain to instruct God’s people, etc. But we should not devolve into allegorizing every detail when God is telling us something plainly in His word. Wisdom’s course is to use balance and caution in typology to avoid both extremes: seeing types in everything or missing them altogether. If we stick with what is explicitly stated in the scriptures, we remain on safe ground. Let us notice a couple of other more difficult statements in Matthew that use typology.
Typology is at work in Jesus’ fulfillment of Psalm 78:2 by use of parables as Matthew 13:35 states, “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” In the Old Testament, God’s prophets spoke by inspiration to make known details that had been previously hidden from His people. Jesus likewise—as the antitype—indeed spoke by inspiration the mysteries of God. His parables in Matthew 13 reveal previously hidden details about the kingdom of heaven.
Consider also how Matthew highlights the similarity between Judas’ thirty pieces of silver being used to purchase the potter’s field and the language of Zechariah 11:12-13 and Jeremiah 18:1-19:13: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; and gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me” (Matt. 27:9, 10). These two passages in the prophets combine to form Matthew’s reference to “thirty pieces of silver” and the “potter” in the context of betrayal. Typology is the approach in this passage. Jesus’ betrayal for only thirty pieces of silver showed how He was meagerly valued and rejected by His own people just as the Lord was in the days of the prophets.
Jesus is the true purpose and goal of the Old Testament. He fulfilled all righteousness (Matt. 3:15). None of us were in attendance when the resurrected Lord opened the understanding of His disciples so that they made understand the scriptures—what the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms said concerning Him (Luke 24:44-46). However, we do have the New Testament, with books like Matthew to tell us how Jesus fulfilled the scriptures. These points of resonance that we label as types and antitypes are to be expected since the scriptures are inspired of God (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). The Holy Spirit, who wrote the Old Testament (2 Pet. 1:20, 21), was also behind the writing of Matthew’s Gospel. It is understandable that the Spirit should use Matthew to show glimpses of God’s omniscient mind and pick up themes He earlier introduced in His word. God’s foreknowledge of and involvement in the affairs of human history to bring about our redemption through His Son are truly unfathomable!
–Mark Day