I think all of the prophecies relating to the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ are extremely impressive, but to choose individual ones, there are a couple that come to mind.
First, the Book of Psalms, chapter 22 verses 1-18 describes the details behind and during the crucifixion of Christ very vividly. This Psalm reads almost like David was there experiencing the horrors of the pain and suffering of the crucifixion himself.
Psalm 22:1-18 To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Deer of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. MY God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, “He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. (NKJV)
Wow! This extremely powerful and graphic portrayal of crucifixion upon a cross written seven centuries before Mary gave birth to our Christ and two centuries before crucifixion became a form of capital punishment*1, gives me the shivers every time I read it. Christ himself told his disciples what was to happen to him and that he would be crucified to fulfill prophecy in John chapter 3. John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (NKJV). Here he was talking about fulfilling prophecy by comparing himself to the serpent on a staff that was recorded in Numbers 21 where Moses raised a serpent upon a staff to heal those that looked upon it.
Numbers 21:6-9 And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD, and against thee; pray unto the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (NKJV)
Another prophecy that blows me away is the specific time-line that Gabriel gave Daniel concerning Jesus, our Messiah’s,’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem in Daniel 9:25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. (KJV) The prophecy of these 173,880 days*2 was given five centuries before the birth of our Lord *3. This gave the Israelites plenty of time to prepare for the Messiah’s arrival.
Christ was very well aware of this specific time-line for his disciples tried to get him to go to Jerusalem on several occasions, as in this example when they attempted to get him to go for the Feast of Tabernacles but Christ refused their requests as we are told in Johnchapter7 verses 6Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. (KJV), and also again in verse 8Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come. (KJV). We are also told that he expected the chosen children of God to have read and remembered Gabriel’s prophecy because Luke 19 tells us so in verses 41–44And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things [which belong] unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. (KJV).
In the time of Christ, very few Jewish household would have owned a copy of the Tanakh because every copy would have been handwritten mainly on one-sided scrolls. Most of the copies would have been at the Synagogues and with the Rabbis who would read to the population from the scriptures. In my opinion, this one of the major reasons that Christ and the Holy Spirit gave the instructions “everyone who has an ear, let him hear” to emphasis a point because most of the population learned the Word through hearing. I wonder what percentage of the common Jew understood the time-line of the prophecy that Gabriel gave Daniel. The leadership in Jerusalem may have been clueless or in denial to the prophecy but every Jew wasn’t and I suspect that many of the early followers of Christ sought him out because of the prophecy. After all, we are told in the gospels a multitude turned out for Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Here is a couple of verses from John’s account.
John 12:12-12The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ The King of Israel!” (NKJV)
At this point I am going to digress. Even though the future of the Church has nothing to do with this subject, it does relate in a way because the religion of my youth teaches that the events of Luke 19 is the moment that the Jews shot their chance at the brass ring and that we are now the the ‘new Israelites’ and all references to the Jews after this, such as Romans 11:26 actually refers to us, the replacement Jews. Really? What does God have to say about this? Verse 42 of Luke 19 says that “they are hid from thine eyes”…it doesn’t say you had your chance, but you blew it, it says God is declaring judicial blindness upon the nation of his people. The last two-thirds of the book of Revelation is almost all about the nation of Israel in the future, so how can that be if they gave up their inheritance unless you allegorize the whole book? The bible is consistent in it’s references and idioms, and references such as verse 42 implies that there is a time period involved in this punishment for not paying attention to the prophecy of Gabriel. Therefore we need to look and see if we can find the other end of the string, so to speak. If we look at Romans 11:25, we find the other end of the string and there is a definite end to Israel’s punishment.
Romans 11:25For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (KJV)
There are many, many more prophecies one could choose from but these two are great examples of prophecy, even though they just scrape the surface of proof and veracity of the accuracy and infallibility of the Holy Word of Our Lord.
God Bless, Jim
3-20-11
*1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion
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