Christmas according to the Old Testament

Big idea: The Bible prophesied Jesus’ birth and many other aspects of His life, and He fulfilled them all. The Bible also prophesied that Jesus will come again. If he fulfilled the first, He will most certainly fulfill the second.

Introduction

In a couple weeks we will celebrate a uniquely Christian holiday—Christmas. Sure, we’ll have to ignore a fair bit of secularization and the consumerism it has brought, but the holy part of the holiday is all about Jesus.

Around the time that Jesus was born the Jewish nation was itching for the Messiah to appear. And yet, today, we still find Jews waiting for the Messiah. To them, Jesus was an imposter.

Are they right? Do we have this all wrong?

It doesn’t take much poking around to figure out that the Jews today have the same objections to Jesus as the Jewish leader’s in the time of Jesus. To them, Jesus didn’t fulfill the most important Messianic prophecies—the prophecies of victory and conquering and vindication of the Jewish nation. Add to that all the stuff that’s happened since the destruction of the Jewish temple and this is what they see:

Jesus didn’t build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).

He didn’t gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).

He didn’t usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)

He didn’t spread a universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which would unite humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world – on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).

Now, from my reading of the Bible, all these prophecies will be fulfilled by the Messiah, but the Messiah wasn’t suppose to come as a conquering king the first time, He was to be a suffering servant, and then later come back as the conquering king, but we’ll explore that in detail in a minute.

Jews also believe that the gift of prophecy ended with Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi when pretty much all the Jews were together. That was over 350 years before Jesus, and so Jesus couldn’t be the prophet/messiah since there were no more prophets. My question is, how do they come to the conclusion that there can only be a prophet if the majority of Jews are living in Israel? Noah, Abraham and Moses all lived a large portion of their lives as prophets outside of the land of Israel—and before there were any Jews. And there’s Balaam who lived in the general area of the promised land, and was a prophet of the Lord, but likely wasn’t even a descendent of Abraham. And what about Melchizedek, who was a priest/prophet of the Lord who even Abraham paid tithe to. So… lots of prophets existed before any Jew walked the earth or lived in the land of Israel. I don’t see this as a compelling argument.

They also argue that Jesus wasn’t a descendant of David on his father’s side. An interesting argument seeing as the Bible points to a divine conception in a virgin. How could Jesus be a descendant of David on his father’s side if he didn’t have an earthly father?

There are a few other arguments they make but we’ll stop with this one: they say that the Messiah would need to fulfill the Torah. In other words, He would lead all people to fully observe the Torah. And, according to their thinking, Jesus was a false prophet because He disobeyed the Sabbath on multiple occasions, including the time he made a paste to heal a man’s eyes. He also contradicted the Torah when he talked about the law in the sermon on the mount— “you have heard it said… but I say to you...” As I read the Bible I find that Jesus didn’t contradict the Torah or break the Sabbath, he fully revealed the character of God and exposed the doctrines of men that the teachers of the law had introduced into the Jewish services. Sure, he defied the laws of men, but he magnified the law of God.

I’m intrigued by the Jewish response to Jesus because it was the Jews who held the oracles of God—it was to them that the prophets came, and it was their responsibility to be the caretakers of God’s prophetic revelations. But most of us here aren’t Jews and likely don’t have that line of thinking about Jesus. But… what about those in our day who dismiss Jesus as just another charismatic, religious leader? Do we have a basis to truly believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah and the incarnate, Creator God? Was He more than just a good man?

I believe we do have a basis to believe that Jesus was much more than a good man. There are clear and significant prophecies of the Messiah’s birth that make it impossible for Jesus to be just another man. And, if Jesus fulfilled those prophecies of the Messiah’s birth, how much more confidence can we have that He will also fulfill the amazing prophecies about the end of sin and suffering and death?

Let’s look at these prophecies from the Old Testament and see what we discover.

Prophecies of Jesus birth

1. The Messiah would come as a child

Handel popularized Isaiah 9 in his work, Messiah. Many of you will hear the orchestration as I read this passage:

Isaiah 9:6 ESV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This first prophecy points to a child. Not a long-reigning king, but a son. And yet, it says that His name will be “mighty God,” and “everlasting father.” In other words, if you’re looking for the Messiah, you need to start looking for a child.

2. Born of a Virgin

Isaiah was told to go to Ahaz, the father of Hezekiah, and a king which happened to not like the God of Israel. God said, “go out to meet Ahaz…” and tell him to not be afraid because of Syria and Ephraim who were marshaling to fight against Judah. “do not let your heart be afraid because of these two smoldering stumps...” God said.

Then God told Isaiah to tell Ahaz to ask a sign from God. “It can be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven,” he said. But Ahaz refused to ask for a sign from God. So Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also?”

Isaiah 7:14 ESV

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

That word, virgin, is the same word used by Abraham’s servant when he asked the Lord that whichever virgin comes out and gives him water and offers water to his camels too would be the girl God had chosen to marry Isaac. Virgin means, young woman, and when the Bible authors use it they always mean an unmarried girl, with only two exceptions. There are two places in the Bible where this word is used in the context of a style of music. No place is this word used of a girl who has been with a man or who is married.

The author of the Gospel of Matthew repeated this prophecy from Isaiah and applied it to Jesus Matthew 1:23 ““Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).”

It’s interesting to point out that very few people in history had their birth predicted. This is the only birth of significance in all prophecy—and it had to be predicted in order for this abnormal situation to have any meaning. If it weren’t predicted ahead of time, no one could have believed it.

3. Bethlehem

Let’s look at Micah 5:2 which says the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem:

Micah 5:2 ESV

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

This verse was quoted in Matthew 2:6, as the author is very careful to demonstrate to the Jews that Jesus fulfilled all these old testament prophecies.

When Jesus was in the middle of his ministry, some of the people heard him preaching and said, “this is the Christ.” But others doubted and said,

John 7:42 ESV

Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”

Since Jesus was raised in Nazareth, they considered him a Galileean, but Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem because of the Census.

4. The Star

Back when Israel was wandering the wilderness they came across an enemy king. While they rested in a valley near his kingdom, Balaak sought a sorcerer who could put a curse on them. What he got instead was Balaam, a not-always-faithful prophet of God. God only allowed him to speak when God’s own words were coming out of his mouth. And this is one of the things he said about Israel:

Numbers 24:17 (ESV)

I see him, but not now;

I behold him, but not near:

a star shall come out of Jacob,

and a scepter shall rise out of Israel;

That word, star, was so interesting to a group of astronomers in Persia around the time of Jesus birth. They had apparently gotten a hold of some Hebrew scriptures—maybe because Daniel had brought them into the royal libraries when he was the counselor to the king. They were familiar with this verse, and then they saw a new and strange star that seemed to hover over the land of Israel. It was such a compelling thing to them that they took the long journey to find out who the new king was going to be.

Matthew 2:1–2 ESV

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, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

5. Mourning for the children

Unfortunately, the Bible also predicted the mourning that would happen because of Herod’s jealous anger:

Jeremiah 31:15 ESV

Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

Ramah was the place where Rachael, Jacob’s favorite wife, was buried. This verse pictures Rachel weeping for “her children,” even though she’s been long dead by Jeremiah’s time. The context of this verse is a promise to restore God’s people. It talks about the people coming back to Jerusalem with God saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” He said the people would come with repentance. He said, “He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.”

He talks about the young women rejoicing and dancing over the goodness of the Lord. The young men and old men will be merry, he said. “My people will be satisfied with my goodness, declares the Lord.”

None of this would happen until Jesus came. They would return from Babylon, they would have some good things, but just read the stories from the minor prophets and you’ll know that this prophecy wasn’t fulfilled before Jesus. But then Jesus was born and while many failed to recognize him, he was celebrated by shepherds and wise men and angels.

But because of these celebrations King Herod got jealous and he murdered the children of Bethlehem, causing much mourning and bitter weeping, just like the prophet had foretold.

Matthew 2:16–18 ESV

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

6. Came out of Egypt

Before Herod killed the children, Mary and Joseph were warned by an angel and they fled to nearby Egypt to get away from King Herod’s rule:

Matthew 2:14–15 (ESV)

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

While Joseph and Mary may not have remembered it, this move was prophesied several hundred years before in Hosea 11:1

Hosea 11:1 ESV

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

This passage wasn’t looking backwards to the origins of the Israelite nation, but forward to the prophesied Messiah—spiritual Israel, and God’s son. A very heinous threat forced Jesus’ family into exile, but God called them back when Herod died and they returned to Nazareth in Galilee.

7. The Branch — Nazareth

In Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 23:5, Jer 33:15, Zech 3:8 and Zech 6:12 the Bible calls the Messiah the “righteous branch.”

Interestingly, Matt 2:23 tell us:

Matthew 2:23 ESV

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

There is no clear prophecy that says the Messiah would live in Nazareth, but there’s something really cool about the name Nazareth. It coms from the Hebrew netzer, which means “branch” or “shoot”—like a shoot that comes up from the stump of a tree that’s been cut down. This is the same word that was used in the Old Testament to describe the Messiah as a “righteous branch.”

Interestingly, in John 1:46 Nathaniel asked the question, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” and the Old Testament tells us,

Isaiah 53:3 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

So, we might not have a specific prophecy that points to Jesus living in Nazareth, but the similarities between his experience as a Nazarene and the prophecies are not coincidental.

8. Line of David

Matthew chapter 1 spends a whole lot of energy showing that Jesus comes from the lineage of David. There are actually two family trees listed in the gospels. Both Matthew and Luke’s family tree ends in Joseph, but scholars speculate that Luke’s family tree was really Mary’s family but listed as Joseph’s because he’s part of the family by marriage—so Joseph, the son in law of Heli is what they suggest. Others suggest that the Joseph listed at the end of Matthew’s family tree is actually Mary’s father, not her husband like many translations suggest. I like this explanation. It’s simple, rational, and supported by the text. But I have to admit that it is not a widely accepted theory. Here’s how that genealogy ends:

Matthew 1:15–16 ESV

and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

Notice the emphasis when it says, “…Mary, of whom Jesus was born…” The focus ins’t on the Joseph character, it’s on Mary. When you look at the word that connects Joseph and Mary it literally says, “Joseph, the man of Mary.” In Greek this could be used for a husband, but it could also used for a father—especially for a girl who was not yet married. Either way, Matthew and Luke both try to show that Jesus is in the line of King David. This is critical because the Bible says that the Messiah would come through David, the son of Jesse:

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Jeremiah 23:5 ESV

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

We can even go back farther than David because God gave this promise to Judah:

Genesis 49:8–12 (ESV)

“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;

your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;

your father’s sons shall bow down before you.

...The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,

until tribute comes to him;

and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

And to Isaac:

Genesis 26:4 ESV

I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,

And to Abraham:

Genesis 12:3 ESV

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Matthew and Luke both demonstrate that through his mother and his adopted father he is in the line of king David, and all the way back to Abraham. But there’s one more important point to this lineage thing. Jesus said it this way when someone was complaining about his lineage—and when Jesus says “calls him Lord,” he’s talking about the Messiah:

Matthew 22:43–45 ESV

He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet” ’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

Not only is the Messiah David’s son, He is David’s creator and so therefore, David’s father. The Messiah didn’t need to have David as a father through his father’s family tree because the Messiah was ultimately David’s father. Luke makes this point for us when He goes all the way back to Adam and says, “the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.” (Luke 3:38)

9. Prophecies of Jesus ministry

Many other prophecies point to Jesus as the Messiah, including Isaiah 53 which describes Jesus suffering as a sacrificial lamb. Then there’s the 490 year prophecy of Daniel 9 that predicts that Jesus would begin his ministry in 27 AD, and be “cut off” for His people in 31 AD—the dates that perfectly correspond to Jesus’ baptism and crucifixion.

We can add a whole slew of other prophecies to those we’ve already mentioned, such as:

He would enter Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt (Matthew 21:4–10; Zechariah 9:9).

He would be betrayed by a friend (John 13:18; Psalm 41:9).

The betrayal would be for 30 pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14–16; Zechariah 11:12).

The money would be used to purchase the potter’s field (Matthew 27:3–10; Zechariah 11:13).

The Messiah would die a sacrificial death for us (Matthew 27:50; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Daniel 9:26; Isaiah 53:8).

He would die with criminals but His burial would be with the wealthy (Matthew 27:57–60; Luke 23:33; Isaiah 53:9).

He would rise from the dead (Matthew 28:6; Psalm 16:8–11; Isaiah 53:10).

He would say certain words on the Cross. He would be mocked, and people would gamble for His clothes (Psalm 22:1, 8, 18).

Conclusion

For Jesus to fulfill even a small handful of these prophecies it would be an incredible statistical feat. A group of 600 university students across 12 classes at Westmont College attempted to calculate the probability of any one man fulfilling just 8 of these prophecies. They debated and evaluated until even the most skeptical were confident with the numbers.

After examining only eight different prophecies, they conservatively estimated that the chance of one man fulfilling all eight prophecies was one in 10^17. To illustrate how large the number 10^17 is (a figure with 17 zeros), the professor gave this illustration: If you mark one of ten tickets, and place all the tickets in a hat, and thoroughly stir them, and then ask a blindfolded man to draw one, his chance of getting the right ticket is one in ten. Suppose that we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up the one silver dollar that has the special mark on it. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would’ve had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time.

It is rational to recognize that Jesus was not just a mere man from history. But Jesus invites us to a much deeper relationship with him than an intellectual curiosity. You see, Jesus claimed to be God. What will we do with that?

C.S. Lewis has a poignant statement about this reality:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse."

I believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of a large number of detailed prophecies. As I study them in their context I see a God who’s greatest desire is to be reunited with humanity—a humanity who continually rejects Him.

He is full of steadfast love, but keeps getting repulsed by the object of His love.

You are the object of God’s love.

John 3:16 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that if [you believe] in him [you will] not perish but have eternal life.

What will you do with Jesus?

He is called, Immanuel, God with us. Not an impersonal God out there in the universe, but a God who walked among us and felt the pain of our broken world. He knew what it was like to be beaten up, abandoned, hungry, homeless, reviled and rejected.

And, if you believe that Jesus is who He says He is, then the logical thing to do is to bow your knee and give Him your allegiance and your love.

This Christmas, Jesus is standing at your door. He’s not the UPS guy bringing your amazon packages, He’s the Savior of the world, your Creator. Not only that, like Jesus, you and I can trace our lineage all the way back to Adam, the son of God. Which means, Jesus, the one knocking at your door, is your Father and He loves you with a never-failing, everlasting love.

Won’t you open your door to Jesus this Christmas?