Matthew borrowed heavily from the Old Testament, especially from the prophet, Isaiah. That may come as a word of comfort to writers, and especially to preachers, who borrow heavily from other sources and hope nobody finds out about it. You can get in trouble doing that. In some places it is called "plagiarism." It is at the least embarrassing, and perhaps even expensive, if the material you borrowed has been copyrighted.

But in Matthew's case, borrowing is not felonious, it is felicitous. Matthew, along with the other New Testament writers, believed that if you want to understand what God is doing now and here, then you look at what God was doing then and there, and it will be the same. Matthew turned back to the time when God revealed himself to the Jews, back to the prophets, to Isaiah,…