Hosea 11:1 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. Bengel translates, 'From the time that he (Israel) was in Egypt, I called him my son,' which the parallelism ("When Israel was a child, then I loved him") proves. So Hosea 12:9 ("I, that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt" i:e., from the time that thou wast in Egypt), and Hosea 13:4, use "from ... Egypt," for "from the time that thou didst sojourn in Egypt." Exodus 4:22 ("Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born") also shows that Israel was called by God "My son," from the time of his Egyptian sojourn, (Isaiah 43:1, "Thus saith the Lord that created thee ... O Israel ... I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine;" Jeremiah 31:20, "Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child?") God is always said to have led or brought forth, not to have "called," Israel from Egypt. Matthew 2:15, therefore, in quoting this prophecy, typically and primarily referring to Israel, antitypically and fully to Messiah, applies it to Jesus' sojourn IN Egypt, not His return from it. Even from his infancy, partly spent in Egypt, God called Him His son. God included Messiah, and Israel for Messiah's sake, in one common love, and therefore in one common prophecy. Messiah's people and Himself are one, as the Head and the body. Isaiah 49:3 calls Him "Israel." The same general reason, danger of extinction, caused the infant Jesus, and Israel in its national infancy (cf. Genesis 42:1-38; Genesis 43:1-34; Genesis 45:18; Genesis 46:3-4; Ezekiel 16:4-6), to sojourn in Egypt. Jacob's son Joseph provided the patriarch and his family with food in Egypt, amidst the general famine, that they should "live and not die." So He and His spiritual Israel are already called 'God's sons,' while yet in the Egypt of the world.