Context for Matthew 2
Arguably, the foundation is the most important part of a building because without it, no other part of the building can stand. The first chapters of Matthew are a foundation, establishing Jesus as the Messiah by pointing out how He fulfilled the prophecies about Him. This continuity of promise fulfilled leaves no doubt as to whom Jesus was and establishes Him as the foundation for our own faith.
From the very beginning, Jesus proved Himself to be the fulfillment of everything that was promised about Him. The chronicle of Jesus’ life was a known quantity because it was foretold through prophecy, and Matthew’s Gospel merely records how that prophecy was fulfilled.
This fulfillment is important because that was what Jesus came to do. Jesus not only fulfilled prophecy, He also fulfilled the Law and the promise given from the beginning that God would redeem us from our sin through His own action.
Because we have this clear witness to Jesus’ fulfillment of prophecy and promise, we can rest surely on our faith in the nature of His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, and in the nature of the promises He will yet fulfill, that is bringing us into Heaven for eternity.
DLH
