Dec. 2, 2022

180. Does ancient Old Testament prophecy point to Jesus?

180. Does ancient Old Testament prophecy point to Jesus?

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180. Does ancient Old Testament prophecy point to Jesus?

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Show Notes
Transcript

A look at two ancient passages (Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53) that are remarkably fulfilled in the trial and death of Jesus

Transcript

Bible Questions: Does God expect me to share my faith with others?

In episode 1 78, we asked the Bible question, did Jesus claim to be God? In episode 1 79, we asked the question, are the gospel accounts of Jesus claims and actions credible? Now, I'd like to examine the Bible question. Does the Old Testament prophecy point to Jesus? Some would say, we don't need Jesus claims to be God in the gospels, to conclude that Jesus was the promise Messiah, the seed of the woman from Genesis three, the descendant of Abraham who had blessed all nations from Genesis 12, the king who'd come out of the line of Judah or the eternal king in the line of David, the son of man described in Daniel seven, who would rule all nations forever.

1

00:00:48

Some would say Old Testament prophecies point distinctly to Jesus being that promised one. So does the first two thirds of our Bibles point to Jesus. People have estimated there are between 15 and 450 verses or passages in the Old Testament that are messianic in nature. They point to that coming Messiah. I will disclaim right up front. I am not a prophecy expert. Listening to or reading the experts on prophecies always made me just a bit uncomfortable. Here's why. In my 60 plus years in the church, on dozens of occasions, I've heard some punster within the church make this pun my apologies in advance.

1

00:01:36

Hey, did you know there are cars in the Bible? They quickly follow it up with, yeah, they're an Acts chapter two. They were all together in one accord. Puns really are the lowest form of humor. If you're around the church very long, you too will be subject to that terrible religious pun. Puns are when we exploit different possible meanings of a word or phrase. My discomfort with taking phrases or passages of the Old Testament as prophecies pointing to the Messiah have reminded me of that together in one accord, pun, you heard me earlier, say people estimate between 15 and 450 of these prophetic passages exist.

1

00:02:19

What they dub messianic prophecies, they're found in almost every one of the 39 books of the Old Testament. Are they pointing to Jesus? Well, maybe yes and maybe no. If you followed us through the first 80 word picture episodes or you spent time reading the Old Testament on your own, you know there is a clear thread from Genesis to Malachi. That thread is a promised one. That seed of the woman descendant of Abraham King in the line of David, that son of man suffering servant who would be the lamb of God to pay for our sins once for all, and to rule overall versus passages and incidents are hung on this thread leading us to a person, a person not yet revealed.

1

00:03:09

As you come to the end of the first two thirds of your Bible, the Old Testament, many of these verses, passages and events seem to be clear illustrations or even straight up predictions about this one. Who is coming this Messiah? Also, if you believe Jesus, Jesus made it clear. Many things in the Old Testament were pointing to the Messiah. He said to his critics, you searched the scriptures thinking in them. You may find eternal life. These scriptures speak of me by scriptures. Jesus clearly is referring to the Old Testament. In another place, Jesus says, the law, the prophets and the writings they speak of me.

1

00:03:54

Jesus is claiming to be at the end of that thread on which all these Old Testament pearls, these versus passages and events are hung. But sometimes you just wanna shake your head and wonder, is that really there to point us to the Messiah? In episode six, we learned who decides what any text means. The clear answer to that was the writer decides what it means. One of the most important Bible study principles for we students is we need to do all we can to go back and discover what the author meant. That author carried along by the Holy Spirit as he wrote. I'm sure if we could run some of the passages or the events that prophecy experts conclude are pointing to the Messiah past the original writers like Moses and David and Zacharia, they shake their head and go, yeah, that's a nice thought, but I wasn't thinking that when I wrote that down.

1

00:04:52

We get a check on this. However, in the New Testament, sometimes as these writers were carried along, God was doing a little double tundra on them. They were writing one thing and God was saying, yeah, peel that back a little. I'd like to take that a layer deeper. A vivid example of this, we studied in episode one 14, CAIS and the religious leaders around Jesus were ringing their hands. They didn't know what to do with him. Cas the leader of this group says this, you men know nothing. Don't you get it? It's expedient that one man die in order that the nation might live.

1

00:05:32

Cas was saying, Doug, guys, we gotta kill this guy to save our nation. Cas meant one thing, kill him and let's move on. But God was saying, Hey, CAAs, you see what you did there? You're the high priest and I just spoke through you. You're exactly right. You're spot on. It is expedient that one man died to save the nation. Jesus dying in our place to save all nations. Which brings us back to our original question. Does the Old Testament prophecy point to Jesus was Jesus that promised Messiah in the first two thirds of your Bible?

1

00:06:14

Most Jewish people today would say no, and they have good reason. They primarily say this because Jesus did not literally fulfill many of those Old Testament prophecies about him being that king who would rule all nations with righteousness and justice forever. By the way, many Christians agree believing Jesus is going to return and do that king thing to fulfill those other prophecies. Some Christians believe he's already doing that through dwelling in Christians, through Christians collected in local churches and through his Godly influence in the world. So which passages and events in the Old Testament are direct prophecies or illustrations, often called shadows of the coming Messiah?

1

00:07:04

I don't know if there's 15 or 450 or where in between, but I'd like to take a look for a few minutes at two passages talking about just one aspect of the Messiah, his death as the lamb of God for our sins. This death as a substitute is talked about in numbers of places in the Old Testament and it's illustrated in vivid things like the Jewish sacrificial system. The two passages I'd like to look at quickly and urge you to read in totality are Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53. Scholars believe Psalm 22 was written by King David about 1000 years before Jesus.

1

00:07:46

Isaiah 53, most scholars believe was written around 700 BC by the prophet Isaiah in Psalm 22. You'll discover David can't be talking about himself though he writes in the first person. This is one of those Caiaphas kind of moments. David describes the situation this way that he is utterly mocked and GED at by the crowd. His clothing is gambled away. He's dehydrated. His bones feel dislocated, and he feels as if his heart is being poured out like water. His hands and his feet are pierced. For the record crucifixion wasn't invented until 400 years after David and David cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, Jew or Christian?

1

00:08:38

Most see the entirety of Psalm 22 as a vivid prediction of the Messiah who had come. Then we moved to Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, this suffering servant who would come is said to be despised and rejected that he would be led like a lamb to the slaughter silent before his oppressors and pierced for our transgressions. That could be that crucifixion language. Again, a hundred plus years before crucifixion was invented, Isaiah goes on to say He will die with wicked men. He will be poured out onto death and a rich man in some way will be involved in his death or his internment in the grave, and Isaiah says he won't stay in the grave.

1

00:09:27

There are two Old Testament extended passages. Even if one questions some of the things written by the gospel writers, one has to wonder how could the historical Jesus have fulfilled so many of these predictions about his trial, torture, death, and resurrection, but someone might object. Wait a minute, Jesus did some of those things on purpose. He almost certainly knew what his ancestor David had written at the beginning of Psalm 22. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then on the cross quoted that if we back the tape up looking at the prophecy in Zacharia nine nine, almost certainly another Messianic prophecy, Zacharias said, the promise king would come to Jerusalem on a donkey.

1

00:10:18

If you know the gospels, Jesus asked his disciples to go get a young donkey for his ride into Jerusalem that fateful last week of his life. Clearly critics could say Jesus staged that he did it on purpose, and I believe you're right. Jesus did that intentionally. He wanted us to think he was at the end of that thread in the Old Testament of the coming Messiah, the seat of the woman, descendant of David, the son of man portrayed by Daniel and the king who would rule forever. He wanted us on purpose to think that was him. That in and of itself is a direct claim of Jesus to be God.

1

00:11:01

And that claim was either true or false, but if you think Jesus tried to stage this, you have to wrestle with the many things in these prophecies Jesus couldn't control like what the crowd did around him or in the rich man's tomb in which he was buried. A second objection I've heard is this, it's coincidence, but looking a little deeper into that, that's not even mathematically possible. Peter Stoner, a mathematician, took just eight prophecies wrapped around the coming Messiah, including the one about riding into Jerusalem on a donkey or a clear Messianic passage. I didn't talk about Mike of five two.

1

00:11:42

You've heard this at Christmas Bethlehem, out of you will arise a ruler taking just eight of these prophecies, whether you think there are 15 or 400 and Peter Stoner estimated the odds of one person out of the approximately 88 billion people who have walked this planet fulfilling just eight of these Old Testament prophecies was one times 10 to the 17th power. We're talking one in Quadrillions here. It can't be coincidence. Do a little research for yourself. Google Messianic prophecies, then read about the life of Jesus in Wikipedia.

1

00:12:22

Don't be surprised to find you may not need the New Testament gospel writers to conclude what God carried the prophet Isaiah along to say, you shall call his name Emmanuel God with us.

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