Throughout his Gospel, Matthew has explained how Jesus was fulfilling prophesy. In 1:22
Matthew wrote, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet,” and then referenced Isaiah 7:14. In 2:15 Matthew referenced Hosea. In 2:17 he referenced Jeremiah. In 2:23, unnamed prophets. In 4:14, 8:17, 12:17 and 13:14 he again references Jesus fulfilling things Isaiah had said. Now in chapter 13 verse 35, Matthew once again notes how Jesus is fulfilling prophesy, “So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”” This is a direct reference to Psalm 78:2, where David wrote, “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old.”
Sometimes we forget that prophesy eventually comes to pass. It is true of course that all prophesy may see echoes of fulfillment. They can appear from the moment it is spoken, and they can reappear as waves of fulfillment over time. So when we read of Daniel writing about “a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then,” we can remember how the Jews were subsequently greatly distressed during the fall of Jerusalem in AD70. We can remember how the whole world was greatly distressed in both WWI and WWII. But such times are not the final fulfillment of Daniel’s prophesy. They are only echoes. The final and full fulfillment of that Word is yet to pass. We can know that because when God’s Word is fulfilled, God’s Himself notes that it is so.
We see this over and over in Scripture. When Isaiah wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel,” he himself would’ve thought it was referring to his own son, who clearly fulfilled in part what Isaiah was writing about at the time (see Isaiah 7:14-16, 8:3-4). But it was not totally fulfilled till Matthew writes, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”” Likewise, Hosea wrote, “out of Egypt I called my son,” primarily (at the time) meaning the Jewish nation. But Matthew subsequently writes of Christ, “so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.””
The final and full fulfillment of prophesy is always both exacting to the literal meaning of the written words, and recorded as fulfilled by God Himself. That record might not be written immediately, just as Matthew’s Gospel was not written the moment Christ was born. But it will be recorded all the same, for God declares both the end and the beginning. As Isaiah 46 records, “I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning.”
So let it be. Amen.
It is not our responsibility to control our circumstances; it’s God’s.
Micca Campbell
APPLICATION: Worship
At a certain point the decision to act for God’s glory must be taken. The thinking about it, the praying about it and the planning in our minds must bear the fruit of action, or we willing waste all of it.