Prophecies Pointing to Jesus
A young woman in the small town of Nazareth, going about her daily activities, received a visitor from Heaven. Our imaginations struggle to imagine the scene; however perhaps the most astounding detail of this visit is that she was not surprised to hear that salvation would come to Israel through the birth of a Messiah. Isn’t that something? Just consider what this young Mary knew deep within her heart, consider the hope that her life was built upon, just consider her reaction to the thought that she would bear a child who had been promised over 400 years before her birth. It is only when we pause to meditate, when we close our eyes and take ourselves to sit within the walls of that small home, only then, may we understand the powerful impact that the prophecies of a Messiah had on this young woman. Her surprise came not from the message of the arrival of a Savior, but from the revelation that she might be given the opportunity to serve as she was called. I wonder, did Mary call to mind the words of Isaiah in her head? Could she quote “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel”? (Isaiah 7:14).
The Jewish historian, Alfred Edersheim notes 456 Old Testament verses referring to the Messiah and His times. It is conservatively thought that Jesus answered at least 300 prophecies that laid in the hearts and minds of a religious people living in Galilee and Judea as the historical accounts of the New Testament begin. When we read the four gospels, we begin to know and understand the Pharisees and Sadducees; we grow to know of the Zealots who wished for an earthly King. However, most of the disciples of whom we read were part of “the multitude” - the faithful, who daily sought to be righteous by a prescribed and distorted law, who kept the Sabbath, who washed and sacrificed as commanded, who made the yearly pilgrimage to a Temple governed by the unjust and unworthy. The multitude hoped for the Messiah; they knew by heart the words of Moses, “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deut 18:15). Their lives were built on the hope of the Salvation to come, just as Mary’s was.
In a recent Bible class at my local congregation, we discussed the cry of John the baptizer along the Jordan River in the wilderness areas between Judea and Galilee. What an interesting man - how was it that John was able not just to attract but convince numbers of people that the promised time of the Messiah was at hand? The son of a priest who grew up, not in the Temple but in the wilderness, was now a voice of authority for all awaiting a Messiah and coming Kingdom. In John 10:41 we are told John never performed a miracle, yet Jesus confirms that he indeed had come in answer to the purpose Malichi had told them of over 400 years before: “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear let him hear!” (Matt 11:13-14).
And so, they came – they came to see if this could possibly be the voice in the wilderness that they so deeply believed would one day ring through the land. They came to hear this John talk of repentance, of forgiveness of sins, and of a Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Jesus came as an answer to all the prophecies that the faithful so deeply believed in; He came to validate the foundational faith in the God of Israel and His promises – and they believed. They believed that this Jesus, the son of a carpenter, would bring a new covenant (Jer 31:31), would be forsaken and pierced, but vindicated (Psalm 22:1-31), would be the rejected cornerstone (Psalm 118:22-24), would be the redeemer (Isaiah 61:1-2), would be born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), would come according to a timeline of the Almighty (Daniel 9:24-27), and would bear the sins and suffer in our place (Isaiah 52:13-53:12) among many other things.
Was it all crystal clear? No, even John, who witnessed the Holy Spirit confirming that Jesus was indeed the Son of God, never truly understood the entire nature of His ministry (Matt 11). The disciples never fully understood the nature of the Kingdom (Acts 1). The Apostles never fully understood the nature of the resurrection (I John 3). But there is no doubt that the prophecies brought them to Christ - they saw the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and they had great faith in the promises that came with the coming of the Kingdom. It was and is the prophecies that are embedded in the hearts and minds of believers that act as the cement for the foundation of a righteous life, though the details demand faith in the unseen.
And that brings us to ourselves. You see, hope in a promise, belief in the prophecies confirming our Lord, faith in a God of a covenant – this is what allows a heart to have eyes that see the answer to all prophecy. We, too, believe through the prophecies all that Jesus was, all that He promised and all that we place our hope in. We, too, know with certainty that we are redeemed through His blood as the prophets of old told us we would be. We, too, believe that He is the horn or our salvation, as the prophets of old told us. We, too, have faith that He is on His throne, that He has prepared a place for us and that He will come to receive us as a bridegroom receives His bride. We, too, are confident that there is a book, that it has names, that it will be opened by the Lamb of God, the only One worthy to provide access to that book.
Oh, the glorious promises, wonderful prophecies, and beautiful hope for all of us who come to understand the prophecies and promises through the ages. The same prophecies and promises that Mary believed in, the same prophecies and promises that John remembered, the same prophecies and promises the twelve left all for – they are all ours. They should drive us to answer the call as they did those before us, for if the prophecies prove the Messiah, if the prophecies confirm a resurrection for all, if the prophecies verify an eternal Kingdom - how can we resist such powerful truth?