Christ In Prophecy – The Coming Messiah

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Christ In Prophecy

Jesus fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

Christ is found in Prophecy throughout the Bible. We will only cover a few of the 324 or more prophecies related to the Messiah. This article will only address those related to His birth. However, fulfilling these prophecies proves that Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Messiah.

God revealed to the Prophets how He is to come, the time and place of birth. That He will go to Egypt to avoid being killed by Herod and that He will return to live in Nazareth.

God first announced His plan for a Messiah in Genesis when Adam and Eve were tempted by Satan in the Garden. He announces Jesus’s victory and Satan’s defeat.

¹⁵ And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” Genesis 3:15 NKJV

The first dated prophecy

The next prophecy, we find is from Moses’ writing in Deuteronomy around 1450 years before Jesus’ birth. After God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt He instructed Moses to write the following. ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. Deuteronomy 18:18 NKJV

However, most of the prophecies concerning Jesus’ birth were made from 500 to 700 years before He was born. They are very detailed predicting the exact date and place so there was no excuse for those who had studied the Scripture in Jesus’ day not to be expecting His birth.

As proof of this point, when the Magi showed up in Jerusalem and asked where the King was to be born, the leaders were able to tell them from the Scriptures. Sadly, those God had entrusted the prophecies to were not the first to go to Bethlehem.

But Keep this in mind!

Abraham received a promise from God that his seed would bless the world. This promise of the coming King was made before Isaac was born around 2000 BC. From 2000 BC up to 400 BC God gave many Prophets words to speak about the coming Messiah.

Prophecies foretold that God would refer to Him as His Son, where He was to be born, and where and how He was to die. Prophets even foretold that He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver and what it would be used for. We are told that his clothes would be gambled on at His death and many other things.

This is Unique in History!

History has not recorded anyone other than Jesus whose birth was foretold even 100 years before it happened. I can not find a record of anyone’s birth being prophecied even 10 years before. However, there have been many who were announced 9 months before birth.

The history of the coming of the Messiah started with the Prophets of God over 2000 years before it happened. It was repeated by many of God’s prophets until  400 years before His birth. During these 400 years, we do not have a record of God talking to the people of Israel.

Chapter 4 of Malachi is the last recorded prophecy of His coming. It also tells of the coming of John the Baptist or (Elijah). It says, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.  Malachi 4:5 NKJV

What are the odds?

You might ask yourself, what are the odds of someone fulfilling 324 prophecies? It is worth noting that a mathematician named Peter Stoner figured the probability of one person fulfilling even 7 of the 324 prophecies. The odds are astronomical.

Amazon carries his book, “Science Speaks” by Peter W. Stoner if you would like to expand your study of prophecies about Jesus.

One example I read and I believe that it was Stoner who gave the following example.

Suppose you covered the state of Texas with silver dollars several layers deep, marked one special, and mixed them all up. It would be impossible for one person to find that specially marked one.

However, it would not be any more impossible than Jesus fulfilling even seven of the 324 prophecies related to His birth. Yet Jesus not only fulfilled 7 but all 324.

Jesus walking on water is a small task in comparison to fulfilling the prophecies related to His birth and life. However, many witnessed Jesus fulfilling many of these events.

The Messiah would be born of a Virgin!

Let’s start with Jesus’ virgin birth. Isaiah, the prophet of God, gives us one example with this verse written in 760 BC, “¹⁴ Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel,” Isa 7:14 NJKV

This scripture tells us that God Himself will be the giver of this sign. Second, the sign will be something that has never happened before, a virgin giving birth. Third, the child will be a male child.

And finally, His name will be Immanuel. The name means ‘God with us’ or ‘Messiah.’

The coming of the Messiah was the hope of Israel for hundreds of years. Those Jews who have not accepted Jesus as the Messiah are still looking for the coming. While we rejoice that He came many have not accepted the fulfillment of this prophecy.

Virgin Birth.

Each Christmas when Jesus’ birth is celebrated I am still amazed at how God brought it all about. You may have heard the following verse hundreds of times. Did you think about it being foretold hundreds of years before it happened and in detail? Most people don’t. Matthew, however, gives a detailed account of the fulfillment of this prophecy as follows, In Matthew 1:18 KNJVit says, ‘¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit’.

I am always amazed when I consider that Jesus who took part in our creation chose to be born in a manger in human form. He gave up His throne in Heaven for you and me. He did it for those who would believe and become His disciples.

Mary is one of my favorites. She accepted God’s special task for her even though the cost was very high. She could have been stoned and certainly would have been looked down on. God, however, did not leave her alone, He sent an angel to speak to Joseph so he took her as his wife.

The story

You know this part, we tell it every Christmas. However, often Mary is portrayed as being perfect in her understanding of God. That was not the case.

The angel said, “she found favor with God” in Luke 1:30. She may have been very much like you. She was trying to do all God required of an Israelite. Thus, she was willing to serve as God requested.

Let’s not forget that God uses ordinary people to do His work. If you are willing to be used by God, He will use you. Mary said yes to God’s angel, and God did the rest.

We all need to practice saying ‘yes,’ to God. So, likewise, we need to learn to say ‘no’ to sin in our lives.

Birth Location – in Prophecy

Micah was a minor prophet during the Assyrian rule of Israel. First, he tells about the siege of Jerusalem about 700 years before Christ and then the place where the Ruler of Israel would be born.

God would send a new kind of ruler. A ruler who would be everlasting but born in the flesh.

He would not be born in a palace in Jerusalem but would come from a humbler abode.

Bethlehem in Judah is, of course, the place.

2″But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.” Micah 5:2 NKJV

Birth Location – Fulfillment

God tells us through His prophet Micah where the coming Messiah will be born, and Luke tells us where the prophecy took place.

⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. ⁶ So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. Luke 2:4-6 NKJV

And when was this birth to take place?

Time of Birth – in prophecy

For Jesus’s time of birth, we need to go back about 600 years before it happened to a land far away. The land of Babylon in the Assyrian Empire. It was from here that Daniel told of the coming of the Messiah in great detail.

When a baby is coming, we always want to know the date. In the case of the coming Messiah, we are given a very precise date over 600 years before the event. Daniel gave this prophecy around 607.

God gave Daniel this message in the first year of the rule of  Darius, the son of Xerxes, the ruler of the Babylonian kingdom. He gave Daniel a precise timetable starting when Darius gave the command to allow the Israelites to return to Jerusalem and start rebuilding the city.

From this point, the prophetic clock started ticking.

“Know therefore and understand,
That from the going forth of the command
To restore and build Jerusalem
Until Messiah the Prince,
There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks;
The street shall be built again, and the wall,
Even in troublesome times. Dan 9:25 NKJV

I believe that this is one of the best examples of Christ in prophecy. It is so exact and includes historical facts we can verify.

The seven weeks and sixty-two weeks or 69 weeks are understood to be prophetic years. The 69 weeks are computed based on the 360-day year or a prophetic year, also known as the Chaldee year.

The actual time of Jesus’ birth.

It is no surprise that Jesus was born in the year prophecied. So we have the starting point defined in history and how much time would transpire before the event.

It was 476 years before Caesar Augustus gave a decree that all the world would be counted or registered. Scripture points out that it took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.

Luke, the physician, tells us about the event in the following words, “2 And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.” Luke 2:1-2 NKJV

Luke tells us that Joseph did what the law required and went to Bethlehem to register. However, Mary was late in her pregnancy, and after the long donkey ride from Nazareth, she went into labor. She bore a Son just as the angel had told her.

⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. ⁶ So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. Luke 2:4-6 NIJV

Then Herod orders all the children up to two years old killed to prevent the new King from being a threat to him.

The Magi

2 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, ² saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1-2 NKJV

The coming of the Magi is one of the wonders of Christ’s birth. We don’t know a lot about them or even how many there were that came. All the Scripture gives us is that they came from the East and they were following His star.

The star did things that we don’t think of stars doing. However, now that we can do the complicated math we can create a simulation of years past. We can see how they may have been able to follow a star to Bethlehem.

We can not travel back in time, but we can create a representation of what the stars were doing 500, 1000, or thousands of years past. I will not try to explain how that is done, but if you are interested you can visit bethlehemstar.com and see a wonderful presentation of how far we have come in studying the solar system.

I am not a scientist and do not understand most of this, but it was very interesting to watch and it did touch me deeply.

Massacre of the Innocents prophesied

It would be nice if all examples of Christ in prophecy made you feel good. However, that is not how life is and God’s Word tells it like it is.

Satan tried to destroy Jesus the Messiah from the beginning. One of God’s prophets, Jeremiah, wrote the following scripture. Bible scholars believe this tells of the coming slaughter of the children in Bethlehem and the surrounding region. Ramah is a town on the way to Bethlehem.

¹⁵ Thus says the Lord: “A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted for her children,
Because they are no more.” Jer 31:15 NKJV  629 BC

This prophecy in Jeremiah, cited in Matthew 2:17-18, relates to the Babylonian captivity. During the invasion of Judea, they murdered the male children. The Jews considered Rachel the mother figure of the nation Israel. Her tomb is near Bethlehem  (Genesis 35:19)

Herod’s part

The wise men following the star came to Jerusalem seeking information about the birth of a prophesied king. So they asked Herod and he asked the priest and scholars of the scriptures about the coming King and where He would be born.

Herod thought that if he could kill the new king he would stay in power and his son after him. He instructed the Magi to report back to him so he could also go and worship the new King. Herod thought he could prevent any new claim to the throne. As we can see today evil men seek to stay in power by any means they can use.

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Mat 2:16 NKJV

Escape into Egypt

God, knowing Herod’s evil plan, warned the wise men in a dream not to return to Herod. So they left and returned home another way.

God also sent an angel to warn Joseph who had remained in Bethlehem after Jesus’s birth. After the Magi had departed they were instructed to leave.

¹³ Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.”

¹⁴ When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, ¹⁵ and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.” Mat 2:13-15 NKJV

The scripture referred to here in Matthew was Hosea’s.  11 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. Hosea 11:1 NKJV  This prophecy was about 785 BC and fulfilled after Jesus’ birth.

Conclusion:

These are only a few of the scriptures fulfilled of those related to Christ in prophecy. Many more confirm that Jesus is the Messiah, and we will cover some of them in the following article entitled, Christ in Ministry.

Note: The following articles will tell you more about Jesus Christ. Just click on the title you are interested in, Christ In Creation, Christ In Prophecy, Christ In Ministry, Christ In Sacrifice, Christ In History, and Christ In Revelation.

The last three I am still working on for later release.

Please leave a comment. Thank You!