Prophecies of Messiah Part 1

Prophetic Probability

As we dig into the Word of God let us do so with full assurance of truth. Look with me at a few Scriptures that reveal the truth of Messiah in prophecy.

Zechariah 9:9 ESV

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Matthew 21:1–2 ESV

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.

The prophet Zechariah prophecies it and in Matthew, Yeshua fulfills it. Let’s look at another.

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.

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.

And in the Book of Luke we see the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Messiah to come.

Luke 1:30–34 ESV

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

So, how do these fit together? The name “Immanuel” ties it all together. The name Immanuel you know means “God is with us.” However, there is more to it. In Hebrew it is עִמָּנוּאֵל. It is made up of two parent root words אֵל (‘el) meaning strength, might and power. Second, is the word עִם (‘im) meaning “between”.

These all fit together through the words of God in the beginning.

Genesis 3:15 ESV

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

In this passage God is speaking to the serpent. And He says that He would put “enmity” or אָיַב ‘ayab meaning to be treated as an enemy of man and God. Who is the serpent? He is the נָחַשׁ nachash, the enchanter or deceiving whisper. Jesus Christ is the one who God put between man and the serpent. Yeshua יְשׁוּעָה (salvation) came to redeem us from our sin, restore us to righteousness, and stand between us and the deceiving whispers of our fleshly desires that separate us from God’s holiness. And it is even more interesting that the word in the middle between ‘el and ‘im is nu נוּ meaning to neutralize. What does that reveal? It speaks of the power of the Christ overcoming the deceptive power of sin that separates us from a Holy God so that the presence and power of God may no longer be a part from us but a part of us, dwelling and living within us.

Jacob prophecies this in Genesis 49:18

Genesis 49:18 ESV

I wait for your salvation, O Lord.

Increasingly prophetically profound are examples such as Psalms 22:16-18

Psalm 22:16–18 ESV

For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet— I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

This prophecy of the crucifixion of the Messiah was given about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. Many scholars agree that there are over 300 Messianic prophesies in the Tanakh (Old Testament) that Jesus Christ fulfilled. These are all situations and circumstances that Jesus could have no control over such as His birth, ministry, miracles, lineage, historical existence, death and resurrection.

The probability of the fulfillment and accuracy of these prophetic details are so astronomical that it is hard to even comprehend. Let me try to give you an example. Say you took coins in the amount of 10^17 (10 to the 17th power), that is a total of 100,000,000,000,000,000. You then place a small mark on one side of one coin and randomly mix them all together. Then, blind folded and with no prior knowledge, have someone find that one coin with the mark. And this illustration would apply to Yeshua fulfilling only ten (10) of the 300 plus prophecies of the coming Messiah.

Here are just a few more prophecies from various prophets throughout history:

Micah 5:2 The Christ would be born in Bethlehem.

Genesis 49:10 The Christ would come from the Tribe of Judah.

2 Samuel 7:12-13 The Christ would be heir to the throne of King David.

Hosea 11:1 The Christ would flee to Egypt.

Isaiah 11:1 The Christ would be a Nazarene.

Isaiah 53:12 The Christ would be crucified with thieves.

Psalm 16:10 The Christ would rise from the dead.

And these are just a few of many ancient texts both of Scripture and other historical validated documents. Why is it important to know these things? There are some who might try to argue that the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ are all just another ancient myth. For example, Marduk is a mythical Assyrian and Babylonian god supposedly of miraculous birth. We see similar stories with gods of the Hittites, Egyptians and many others. And in Greek mythology we see Dionysus who is said to have been twice born. And there is Odin in Norse mythology who supposedly offered himself as a sacrifice then returns from the underworld. And Lemminkainen of Finnish mythology who is cut to pieces then reassembled by his special mother. And there are many more in Hinduism and many other false religions.

So what is our argument as believers and followers of Jesus Christ?

“First, most all of these examples given of Krishna, Attis, Dionysus, and other mythological gods, have the same result. In the end, the historical Jesus portrayed in the Bible is unique. The alleged similarities of Jesus’ story to pagan myths are greatly exaggerated, very inaccurate and often fabricated. Further, while tales of Horus, Mithras, and others pre-date Christianity, there is very little historical record of the pre-Christian beliefs of those religions. The vast majority of the earliest writings of these religions date from the third and fourth centuries A.D. To assume that the pre-Christian beliefs of these religions (of which there is no record) were identical to their post-Christian beliefs is naive. It is more logical to attribute any similarities between these religions and Christianity to the religions’ copying Christian teaching about Jesus” (Is Jesus a Myth? Found at Is Jesus a myth? Is Jesus just a copy of the pagan gods of other ancient religions? | GotQuestions.org).

“If one thing precedes another, some conclude that the first thing must have caused the second. This is the fallacy of the false cause. A rooster may crow before the sunrise every morning, but that does not mean the rooster causes the sun to rise. Even if pre-Christian accounts of mythological gods closely resembled Christ (and they do not), it does not mean they caused the Gospel writers to invent a false Jesus. Making such a claim is akin to saying the TV series Star Trek caused the NASA Space Shuttle program” (Is Jesus a Myth? Found at Is Jesus a myth? Is Jesus just a copy of the pagan gods of other ancient religions? | GotQuestions.org).

If that is not enough, the Scriptures predate them all. The Scriptures, even before written were handed down orally from from Adam to Moses and eventually into your hands. This is documented by the many historical documents of Judaism, Christianity, and others.

The bottom line is that there is more historical, literary, scientific, and other evidence of who Christ was and what He accomplished for you. Even in the mythical stories and false messiahs, there is no loving God who gave all to redeem you by His great mercies. None have the evidential probability of thousands of years of foretold prophecies in such unfathomable detail. Only the heart and mind that seeks his own lordship and is set in enmity against God seeks an alternative to the way, the truth and the life in the Christ Yeshua.

So, how does this impact your life in Christ today? I pray it strengthens it. But I also want you to see that if the Lord God Almighty, who is outside of our space and time, would so concern Himself with such details in our historical space and time to redeem us, how much love would He exert for you and the details of your life and heart today? The love of God is so evident in our past, I see it in my everyday present, and the prophetic probably of His amazing love in my future is assured.