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The Coming King
The Old Testament contains more than 300 passages that refer to the first coming of the Messiah. 48 of these are very specific descriptions concerning his life, death, and resurrection. These include the place of his birth, the place in which he would minister, his flight to Egypt as a child, his virgin birth, his betrayal for an exact price, the use of that money to buy a potter's field, his flogging and beatings, the crucifixion alongside thieves, the wine vinegar he would be offered on the cross, and even the gambling for his clothing.
Prophesy timing
These predictions were made by different Jewish prophets who lived in widely separated communities over a period of 1,000 years. They were fulfilled more than 500 years after they were recorded.
Some people have said that these predictions were added into the Scriptures after they happened. This is historically impossible, because archeology has given us copies of Scripture (such as the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran) dated before Christ. In addition, the entire Old Testament was translated into Greek around 250BC, known as the Septuagint. Also, the prophecies were such an integral part of the Jewish culture that references to them are everywhere. The Jewish people were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the promised Messiah who would redeem them from the tyranny of oppression under hostile cultures. They knew he would be a from the line of David, that he would be born in Bethlehem, that another prophet would precede him with a message to repent and "make straight in the desert a highway" for him, and that he would save his people from their sins.
What kind of predictions?
Here are the eight most dramatic prophecies about the Messiah the Jews were expecting:
1. He would be born in Bethlehem
"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times."
(Micah 5:2)
The prophet Micah wrote this sometime around 700BC. He pointed out that even though the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, his origins would be from the beginning of the world. The word often translated "from ancient times" is the Hebrew noun "olam" which actually refers to a time older than the flood, associated with creation. When used in a future tense, it means "forever" or "eternity."
2. He would be born of a virgin
"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel."
(Genesis 3:15)
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."
(Isaiah 7:14)
Isaiah was a contemporary of Micah, and wrote around the same time. Moses wrote Genesis around 1400BC, so these two messages are consistent despite a 700-year time gap. Both indicate that the Messiah's birth would be from a woman with no human male involvement. In Genesis 3:15 the word "seed" is the Hebrew noun "zera" used in a singular sense. Note that the passage refers to the seed of a woman, not a man, indicating a virgin birth.
The story of Mary's virginity was so well known during the ministry of Christ that the Babylonian Talmud scornfully referred to Jesus as "the bastard child of the adulteress." The Jewish leaders refused to accept that Jesus was actually born of a virgin.
3. He would be declared king riding the foal of a donkey
"Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
(Zechariah 9:9)
On April 6, AD32, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey while crowds of disciples waved palm branches and declared him "King of the Jews." Some people correctly point out that Jesus arranged this, and use that as an argument that it cannot be used as a legitimate prophecy. While the objection is well taken, it does not invalidate the prophecy. How many other people in Jewish history have been declared king while riding the foal of a donkey?
4. He would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver
"I told them, 'If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.' So they paid me thirty pieces of silver."
(Zechariah 11:12)
Here we have a very precise figure of 30 pieces of silver paid for the betrayal of the Messiah. The New Testament records that Judas Iscariot was paid exactly 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus.
5. The betrayal money would be used to buy a potter's field
"And the Lord said to me, 'Throw it to the potter'--the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord to the potter."
(Zechariah 11:13)
Matthew 27:6-7 records that after Judas threw the money on the temple floor in a moment of guilt, the chief priests were unable to put the funds back into the treasury because it was blood money. So they used it to buy a potter's field as a burial place for foreigners.
6. His hands, feet and side would be pierced
"Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet."
(Psalm 22:16)
"And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."
(Zechariah 12:10)
Both prophecies were written hundreds of years before crucifixion was invented. It was an idea borrowed by the Romans from the Babylonians around 200BC. Archeological evidence has confirmed that they would place the victim on a wooden cross, nailing each hand to the crossbeam and driving a nail into the side of each foot, just below the ankle bone. Death would usually take many hours--even days--ultimately the result not of the wounds, but of suffocation when the victim could no longer push himself up to let out his breath. Often the legs were broken to speed the process. Because Jesus died so suddenly (at the exact time of the afternoon sacrifice in the temple), a Roman soldier also slid a spear into his heart to make sure he was dead. A mixture of blood and water poured out, indicating that he had pierced the pericardium.
7. He would be given vinegar to drink
"They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst."
(Psalm 69:21)
This was written more than 900 years before Christ, yet it describes the scene at the cross where the soldiers soaked a sponge into a jar of wine vinegar, stuck it onto the tip of a long hyssop stalk and lifted it to Jesus' lips.
8. They would gamble for his clothing
"They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing."
(Psalm 22:18)
The Bible indicates that the Roman soldiers divided Jesus' clothing and cast lots to see what each would get.
There are many other prophecies, including his burial in the tomb of a rich man, the complete line of ancestors, his resurrection, and even his ascension into heaven.
Staggering odds
Peter Stoner, in his book "Science Speaks" analyzed the chances that the prophecies about the coming Messiah could all come true in just one person. The odds were staggering.
For just eight of these to be fulfilled through one man is one chance in 100,000,000,000,000,000. The possibility that only the 17 most dramatic of these could be fulfilled by any one person alone is one chance in 480 to the 30th power, or 480 followed by 30 zeros. The chance that 48 could be fulfilled by any one person becomes a staggering one chance in 10 to the 157th power! This number is considerably larger than the total number of atoms in the universe.
In all of history, with the chances being almost infinitely small that any single person could possibly fulfill all the Jewish predictions about the coming Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled every one of them.
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