I. These words, spoken by the prophet Hosea, were not accommodated to Christ, but were most truly fulfilled in Him. They had thus a double fulfilment, the second more glorious than the first. Nor should we err if we ascribed to them one fulfilment more. That which was on two occasions literally fulfilled, "Out of Egypt have I called My Son," is evermore finding its spiritual fulfilment in the Church of the Redeemed. It collectively is God's Son, even as one by one the true members who compose it are His sons; and they, too, have been called out of Egypt, and are living members of His Church, in so far as they have not been disobedient to that heavenly calling.
II. If we have been called out of Egypt by the voice of God to be His children, what are some of the duties which flow out from our high vocation as in this light regarded? (1) And, first, surely this is one to leave Egypt altogether behind us, to have no going back to it even in thought, much less drawing back to it in deed. The temptation is common to all, to cast after a while a longing, lingering look on that which has been foregone and renounced, yea, even to loathe, as light food, the heavenly manna, and to yearn for some coarser fare, some of the sinful dainties of the world, in its stead. Let us watch against this temptation. Our course is onward; our salvation is before us, not behind, above us, and not beneath; behind and beneath are slavery and darkness, despair and death; before us and above us is the light of life, with Him who is Himself that light for our guardian and our guide. (2) Again, let us remember that if we have been called out of Egypt it is not that we may enter the promised land at once; that there is a time and span between, in which our God will prove us, and humble us, and show us what is in our hearts; and that this, being a proving time, is also a sifting time; a separating of the true members of the Church from the false. Fretfulness, irritation of spirit, discontent at God's dealings with us, not, it may be, manifested without, but nourished and entertained within, is a sin against which it behoves us, partakers of a heavenly calling, travellers to a heavenly country, to be very much on our guard. It needs to be watched against the more because it may be nourished within, and seen there of God, while it is concealed from every human eye.
R. C. Trench., Sermons in Westminster Abbey,p. 91.
References: Matthew 2:16. Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 22; S. Baring-Gould, The Birth of Jesus,p. 89. Matthew 2:16-23. Parker, Inner Life of Christ,vol. i., p. 50. Matthew 2:18. J. N. Norton, Old Paths,p. 46; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 88. Matthew 2:23. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1632; Preacher's Monthly,vol. viii., p. 358; H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2648. Matthew 2 Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 381.