There is no prophecy that the messiah will flee to Egypt. It is also interesting to note that while Matthew mentions this “flight” Luke does not. Again, this is not the list maker’s fault – this is an outright lie on the part of the author of Matthew. There is no prophecy of a flight to Egypt (the line from Matthew 2:14). "So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt." Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 -- the supposed prophecy fulfilled by Matthew 2:14 speaks of the Jews leaving Egypt -- not fleeing to Egypt. Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 begins with line 2 when בִּלְעָם / Balaam begins to speak. בִּלְעָם / Balaam was a non-Jewish magician and seer. He is speaking about the Jews and how G-d freed us from Egyptian slavery. This sentence is not a prophecy, it is a historical fact. “Since G-d brought them (the Jewish nation) out of Egypt (where they were slaves under Pharaoh), they are like His highest expression of strength.” Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8. Yet Matthew 2:14 speaks of a flight TO Egypt. Not leaving FROM Egypt. An anti-prophecy perhaps? Up really means down? Going really means returning??? Perhaps the list maker got his (her?) numbers confused and meant to reference Matthew 2:15, not 14, which speaks of Jesus' being called from Egypt to return to Judah. “So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the L-rd had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Sure SOUNDS like a prophetic fulfillment, doesn’t it? Matthew’s author even says that the prophecy was fulfilled “out of Egypt I called my son.” Except this is not a prophecy, and it is not even about the messiah. Remember that Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 begins with line 2 when בִּלְעָם / Balaam (the non-Jewish magician and seer) begins to speak. “Since G-d brought them (the Jewish nation) out of Egypt (where they were slaves under Pharaoh), they are like His highest expression of strength.” Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8. Obviously G-d did not bring Jesus out of Egypt in front of Balaam. Balaam is speaking in the past tense of G-d freeing the Jews from Egypt – and he is speaking in the plural (THEM / THEY). Big difference between going TO Egypt (Matthew 2:14) and Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 which speaks of the Jewish slaves leaving Egypt! Let's return to Matthew 2:15, giving the list maker the benefit of the doubt that perhaps he/she listed the wrong line and meant to say "FROM Egypt" not "TO" Egypt. . . There is a line in the T’nach that does say “out of Egypt I called my son” and it is interesting that the list maker does not tie it to Matthew 2 (at least not “yet”). This is only the first half of the sentence. Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 goes on to say “[G-d] shall devour His enemy nations, grinding their bones and piercing them with His arrows.” When did Jesus do this? Rather than Jesus devouring enemy nations, the Roman nation killed HIM. Jesus did not grind anyone’s bones or pierced anyone with arrows. . . This is typical with proof texting by missionaries. They lift a word or sentence completely out of context – because the context easily disproves their claims that it fits Jesus. Quite obviously Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8 does not fit Jesus. There is a line that Matthew 2:15 claims is a prophetic fulfillment and that quote is “And so was fulfilled what the L-rd had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” The passage that is quoted is not Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8, it is Hoshea / Hosea 11:1 – and it still is not a messianic prophecy let alone about Jesus. This line is: “For, when Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called to My son.” Hoshea / Hosea 11:1. The missionaries also overlook the letter ל (lamed) in Hoshea 11:1. Hoshea 11:1 actually says וממצרים קראתי לבני - "from [meaning from the time of their enslavement in] Egypt I have been calling out TO My son." Note that it is ISRAEL (the Jews) who are G-d’s son. It is Israel whom G-d called out of Egypt (Egyptian slavery). Yet again we have a supposed prophecy in the T’nach (Jewish bible) which is not a prophecy (Balaam’s statement in Bamidbar / Numbers 24:8. Yet again only part of the quote is used by the missionary – ignoring the last half of the sentence which Jesus obviously did not fulfill (devouring enemy nations). . . This passage is not a messianic prophecy, it most definitely does not fit Jesus – and it does not even fit Matthew 2:14-15 (out of Egypt I called my son). Considering that 3 million Jews left Egypt with Moses and that, at the time Jesus supposedly lived, there was a very large Jewish community living in Egypt – just how many Jews over the past 3500 years could claimed to have “fulfilled” a prophecy that they came out of Egypt? 3 million + how many more? We Jews are called G-d’s first born son many times in the bible. . . ergo yet another “prophecy” about Jesus which fails to meet the test of actually comparing the supposed prophecy to the claim. Hopefully if any of you readers are Jews who have turned to Christianity you will start to ask some questions and wonder why, for 2000 years, your ancestors rejected the claims of the Christians. . .
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