by Brian Thomas, Ph.D.
“And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.” (Matthew 2:15)
What can this gospel writer’s phrase “spoken of the Lord by the prophet” teach us about how to read the Bible? We discover a clear pointer to interpreting Scripture and thus can have confidence that we can correctly understand what God is saying.
The pointer comes from Matthew’s emphasis on the prophet’s words as expressing what the Lord spoke. In today’s text, Matthew did not say that the prophet (Hosea) invented the message or that it merely might have included some divine content. Who said those words—the Lord or Hosea? Apparently, both! Hosea and the rest of the prophets wrote down the exact words the Lord wanted to say.
Fallible humans got to participate in the process of recording infallible words through this miracle of divine inspiration. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21). Matthew’s confidence that Hosea penned the speech of God Himself can give us the same assurance. Other Bible authors reinforce this.
The prophet Daniel wrote, “In the first year of [Darius’s] reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem” (9:2). Here again we see complete confidence that a prophet—in this case Jeremiah—wrote down “the word of the LORD,” not words that any mere man made up.
Rest assured that the prophets who penned their portions of Scripture wrote our Lord’s exact words. BDT
