March 3rd

Matthew 1; Luke 1

The Gospels tell us that Jesus comes to fulfill the words of the prophets that preceded him, though not in a way we might originally imagine. As Scribes in the Kingdom states, “The Scriptures present the abiding form of God’s providence, and if Jesus is their fulfillment, he is so because he realizes in himself the whole of God’s work in Israel.” However, In Hosea 11:1-2, God is speaking about Israel by looking backwards instead of forwards, which begs the question of what must be fulfilled. In Scripture, fulfillment is found by looking back and understanding the Old Testament in the lens of the New Testament. Hosea tells us that we are saved by “the Holy one present among you” (Hos 11:9), refering to Emmanuel, or “God with us”. In the Gospel of Matthew, he identifies Jesus as “Emmanuel”, which he gathers from the Book of Isaiah: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel” (Mt 1:23). This gives evidence to the ideas we discussed last class, as the New Testament can only be understood through the lens of the Old Testament. In Luke we see more connections to the Old testament. Miraculous pregnancies are a theme throughout Scripture. One example is obviously seen in Mary’s miraculous conception, though Elizabeth and Zechariah’s pregnancy is another key example. The birth of John the Baptist parallels the birth of Isaac, as both Elizabeth and Sarah miraculously conceived in their old age through God’s will.