We recently commemorated Jesus’ birth, but let’s not forget how significant his life was. Jesus was the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy concerning the Messiah. His birth, life, death, and resurrection match all the biblical prophecies for the Messiah. No one else in history even comes close. I’ve reviewed some of the relevant Bible passages below.

Three days after Jesus’ crucifixion, he was resurrected from the dead. That very evening, after having been seen by Mary Magdalene and two other of his followers, he appeared to a group of disciples and other believers in a closed, locked room. Luke 24:44 tells us, “And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.“

Here are some of the scriptures from Moses (the first five books of the Old Testament), the Prophets (the latter section of the Old Testament), and the Psalms.

Moses

About 1,500 years before Jesus was born, Moses wrote Genesis. In Genesis 3:15, we find God making a promise to Adam and Eve after they had disobeyed Him. This was probably 55,000 to 120,000 years ago. Speaking regarding the serpent (Satan), God said, “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.” The word “he” is singular, meaning one single individual.

Still writing the origins narrative, Moses describes Abraham receiving this promise from God about 2,100 years before Jesus’ birth. Genesis 12:3 says, “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.”

Twenty-five years after that, in Genesis 17:19-21 God told Abraham, “Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac.”

About one hundred years later (or about 1,950 years before the birth of Jesus) God reaffirmed His promise to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob in Genesis 28:14 – “Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.“

Jacob, whose name was changed by God to Israel, issued blessings on his deathbed to his twelve sons (the namesakes of the tribes of the nation of Israel). In Genesis 49:10 (about 1,900 years before Jesus’ birth), Israel said, “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.“

After the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt for about 400 years (or to about 1,450 years before Jesus’ birth), we learn about the establishment of Passover in Exodus 12. The Passover Lamb was described here for the first time. “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it…. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” The Passover Lamb was God’s way of symbolizing his mercy and forgiveness of the sins of his people through the sacrificed blood of the lamb.

Just a few years later God clarified the necessity of a blood sacrifice in Leviticus 17:11 – “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.“

God used another picture of mercy and forgiveness in Numbers 21:4-9: “From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, ‘Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.’ Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died. And the people came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he take away the serpents from us.’ So Moses prayed for the people. And the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.” Jesus used this passage (in John 3:14-15) to foretell the way he would die and how his death would provide something that people could look to to be healed (from their sin).

After spending forty years exiled in the desert outside the promised land (now about 1,400 years before Jesus’ birth), Moses wrote in Deuteronomy 18:15-19, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.“

Books of the Prophets

Four hundred years passed from the time of Moses to the time of King David. When David became king (about 1,000 years before Jesus was born) God said to him in a vision recorded in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” This was a direct reference to David’s son Solomon, but it also pointed to a future occupant of the throne who would hold it forever.

Another 250 or so years passed before Isaiah wrote this (about 700 years before Jesus’ birth). Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Immanuel means “God with us.”

Isaiah also wrote, in Isaiah 9:1-3, 6-7, “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone…. 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. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” Note that the human child being foretold is going to be called “God” and “Everlasting Father.” God shares his name with no one but himself, indicating that the human Messiah (Jesus) is God Himself.

Isaiah also spoke about John the Baptist (as did Malachi later on) in Isaiah 40:3, “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'”

Isaiah had a lot to reveal about the Messiah and the following four passages give us clear descriptions of what his life and death would be like. Isaiah 42:1-4 – “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.“

Isaiah 44:1-4 – “But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the LORD who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.“

Isaiah 53:1-12 – “Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 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. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall bthe righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.“

Isaiah 61:1-2 – “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;“

Micah wrote about the same time as Isaiah, in Micah 5:2-5, “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. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.” Jesus was born in Bethlehem about 650 years after this. Notice that the ruler who comes from Bethlehem is referred to as coming from ancient days, existing both before and after his coming.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 tells us, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This was written about 600 years before Jesus’ birth.

Daniel wrote about 550 years before Jesus’ birth. He saw visions of the final judgment (still to come) in Daniel 7:13-14 – “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.“

Daniel saw a vision that laid out essentially all of human history from his time to the final judgment. In Daniel 9:24-27 he described, “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.” Daniel’s “weeks” are 7-year periods and coincide with the time from his writing to the time of Jesus’ life. The last week described, though, concerns the end times when God’s judgment will fall on the earth.

Zechariah prophesied about 500 years before Jesus’ birth. In Zechariah 9:9 he wrote “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.” This was fulfilled the week before Jesus died on the cross.

Then in Zechariah 11:12-13 he wrote, “Then I said to them, ‘If it seems good to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.’ And they weighed out as my wages thirty pieces of silver. Then the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—the lordly price at which I was priced by them. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD, to the potter.” This visual picture carried out in Zechariah’s day was a foreshadowing of exactly what would happen when the Messiah was betrayed.

The Psalms

The Psalms were written and collected over a number of years by various people and are largely undated. They do however contain a number of word pictures of events associated with the coming Messiah.

Psalm 9:7-10 – “But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.” This is the concept of trusting in a name (of the Lord) for salvation.

Psalm 16:10 – “For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.” This is the concept of the possibility of resurrection from the dead.

Psalm 22:1-8 – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; ‘He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!‘” This Psalm not only paints a picture similar to that surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion, but Jesus himself quoted this Psalm from the cross before he died.

Psalm 22:16-18 – “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 one also depicts events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion.

Psalm 30:3 – “O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.” This is a confident statement that the Messiah would be resurrected from the dead!

Psalm 41:9 – “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” Hmmm. That sounds just like what Judas did at and following the last supper (recorded in Matthew 26:14-25).

Psalm 110:1 – “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Jesus referenced this Psalm as pointing to himself in Matthew 22:42-26.

Psalm 118:22 – “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” Jesus used this one as well to refer to himself (Mark 12:10).

I hope you will consider the evidence from Scripture that the coming Messiah can only be seen in the person of Jesus and that He is God With Us and our hope for salvation and eternal life!