II. PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE LIFE

AND MINISTRY OF THE MESSIAH

(1) The Messiah’s divine nature and perfection are clearly outlined by the prophets in hundreds of prophecies: He will be the sinless One—as holy as God.15 He actually is God in a human body.

The Messiah must be as righteous as the Lord Himself (because He is God): for He will be the “righteous Branch…He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:5-6). The Messiah must be God’s chosen One in whom He will delight (Isa. 42:1). In Matthew 3:17, we read that the Father said of Jesus, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Messiah, on His part, will be the obedient servant of the Lord who will ever “delight” to do God’s will (Psa. 40:8). The Lord Jesus could testify, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34, 6:38).

The Messiah will be anointed by the Holy Spirit in a manner and degree far beyond any man or men (“above” His fellows in that day until Pentecost, Psa. 45:7, Heb. 1:9). Read the remarkable passage in Isaiah 11:2-5 that tells us:

“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him [original writing, ‘within Him’], the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor...And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins.”

In the New Testament we read of Jesus’ anointing with the Holy Spirit at the time of His baptism, when the Holy Spirit like a dove descended and lit upon Him (original is, “within Him”) (Matt. 3:16). He bare witness that the “Spirit of the Lord” was upon Him (original writing, “within Him”) (Luke 4:18), which was in fulfillment of a prediction about the Messiah’s authenticity and ministry in Isaiah 61:1-3. The people “bare Him [Jesus] witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth” (Luke 4:22).

The Messiah must be a man under the total control of the Holy Spirit of God the Father: “His voice [shall not] be heard in the street[s]” (Isa. 42:2). When He spake, it was the Father speaking from within Him, so human words from Him were never heard in the streets. Hence, His voice was not heard in the streets. We must be like Him. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John 14:10); “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from Me: nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done” (Luke 22:42), “In the mean while His disciples prayed Him, saying, Master, eat. But He said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of...Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:31-32, 34). So, again, it’s not His voice heard in the street but the Father’s led by the Holy Spirit. His Father’s voice—whether in anger or otherwise—it was the Father. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. Because men are frail, He promised them His power, the same power that He possessed enabling Him to be strong to where He could keep all of God’s commandments without sinning once (and now we by Him with His Father by the Spirit in us).16

He will allow men to be free moral agents though His messages are strict and unmovable, the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will allow men to choose the good or the evil so that man chooses his own consequences and destiny: He shall not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax (Isa. 42:3). He will preach the true message in hopes that it will be received, that the soul will not spend eternity in Hell. But, if a person wants to go to Hell after hearing the message of truth, He will not kidnap them or deprogram them from their un-Christian thinking, as evil men today do their best to deprogram Christians from their Christian thoughts and works. People will either do the will of the Father and attain Heaven or they will do their own will and spend eternity in a terrible, everlasting Hell.

The Messiah will have tenacity, perseverance in the course of doing right, His Father’s will; He will have courage and success in that goal, as well as steadfastness of purpose: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged” (Isa. 42:4).

Matthew, in describing the ministry of Jesus, says that Jesus fulfilled what Isaiah had said about Him: “That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet [through the Spirit of the Father], saying, Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory. And in His name shall the Gentiles trust” (Matt. 12:17-21).

The Messiah’s compassion and tenderness are revealed in an exquisite figure of touching tenderness: “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young” (Isa. 40:11). In the New Testament, we read of the compassion of Jesus in Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 15:32 and many other places. In the tenth chapter of John, Christ is presented as the “good Shepherd” who loves His sheep and cares for them, even giving His life for them (John 10:1-18). This does not mean that He doesn’t hate Satan, demons, and those who follow them and never repent.

The Messiah will be “just” and “lowly” (Zech. 9:9), “fairer than the children of men” with “grace…poured into” His lips and blessed by God forever (Psa. 45:2). He will be without violence (no violence towards the Word of God, only rebuke and reproof against evil), have a blameless outward life—and without deceit—an innocent inner life (Isa. 53:9, I Pet. 2:22). He will suffer great personal wrong done to Him (Isa. 50:6, 53:7, Matt. 26:67-68, 27:28-44, Luke 23:11, 35-37, John 19:1-3, 16-18). Coming to the New Testament, we learn that Jesus is “meek and lowly [to do all of the Father’s commandments] in heart” (Matt. 11:29); and the Father testified of Him, “Thou hast loved righteousness [doing all the will of God], and HATED iniquity; therefore God…hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows” (Heb. 1:9). When the Lord Jesus was crucified, He meekly (obediently to God) suffered all the indignities, the insults, the blasphemies, the mental torture, the physical violence heaped upon Him, and He prayed for His flock who fled (Matt. 27:12-14, Luke 23:34) because they were not yet baptized with the Spirit of the ministry, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which they received on the day of Pentecost in the book of Acts, chapter 2, verses 1-4.

As a teacher, the Messiah “shall not fail…till He have set judgment in the earth” and the nations “shall wait for His law” (Isa. 42:4). Our Lord and Savior, the Messiah, would never fail to fulfill all the prophecies of the Old Testament. This proved Him to be the Savior of the world, the Messiah, and the Judge of all things. He also proved Himself to be God Himself, our Lord and Savior, our Messiah, by His conquering death, Hell, and the grave, His resurrection from the dead and ascension back into Heaven, and His ability to give power to those that believe His words and do them by His living within them and His working through them. They are the continuation of Christ’s life and work on earth, the continuation of the Word’s incarnation. His judgments are just, and through the study of His life the nations can see that His judgments are true, just, and fair to all men, women, and children.

It was pre-written of the Messiah that HE would open His mouth with “parables.” He will “utter dark sayings of old” (Psa. 78:2). When Jesus, the great Teacher, came, He taught “as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matt. 7:29). The scribes taught by quoting what such and such a Rabbi had said, but when Jesus taught, He spake God’s words by the Holy Spirit and spoke with finality and assurance: “Verily, verily, I say unto you” (John 5:24, 6:47). Moreover, Christ’s characteristic method of teaching was by the use of parables, “And without a parable spake He not unto them: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables” (Matt. 13:34-35).

It is plain from the reading of the Old Testament that when our Messiah, our Lord and Savior, would enter into this world, the world we live in, He would be holier, wiser, the Truth, and more powerful than men. He came to bring power and truth. He would be, and still is, as just and as righteous as God Himself because He is God (Isa 9:6, 44:6, Mic. 5:2, Matt. 1:23, John 1:1-3, 14, Rev. 19:13).17 Who in all the history of the world could this be speaking of other than Jesus the Christ, who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Heb. 7:26)?

The Old Testament presents a mysterious prophetic puzzle of strange combinations of prophecies concerning the coming Messiah that appear at times so conflicting they seem impossible to fulfill. We call these prophecies that are seemingly contradictory and apparently irreconcilable “prophetic paradoxes.” We define a “prophetic paradox” as two or more prophecies that contain a seeming contradiction, with no real absurdity involved, and presenting an enigma which, without the “clue” or fulfillment, seems impossible to solve. The Old Testament abounds with such prophetic paradoxes concerning Christ which were, and still are, absolute mysteries except as the New Testament solves them in Christ. These paradoxes in prophecy have an element of obscurity, presenting as it were a LOCK for which only the New Testament has the KEY 23—and that key is Jesus the Christ.

This amazing feature of many Messianic predictions prevents both wicked men and overzealous disciples from purposely fulfilling them—if they could. For the prophecies, in at least some instances, were not fully understood until the fulfillment explained and made them plain (I Pet. 1:10-11). Such unique prophecies absolutely prove that the God of prophecy who designed them and the God of providence who fulfilled them are one.

Another astonishing feature about these prophetic paradoxes is the perfectly normal, artless way in which they were providentially, even miraculously, fulfilled in the life of Jesus the Christ in the New Testament. It is not necessary to strain or force either the facts or the predictions to make them match.

Consider for a few moments some of these “impossible” contrasts: God will come to earth, to be born as a child. The Messiah will be begotten by the Holy Spirit (God is the Holy Spirit [John 4:24]), yet He is Himself God (God in a human body).24 He will be a “Son” so far as the flesh is concerned and so far as the Godhead is concerned (i.e. God the Father, God the SON, and God the Holy Spirit), yet He is “The everlasting Father” (Isa. 9:6), the Almighty (Rev. 1:8). He who is the actual Word of God chose with the Father to come to the world in the flesh for the purpose of saving our souls. He is a Godman of sorrows and is acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3). He did this to show us that He is the Lord, the Savior, the High Priest, and God Almighty, the very presence of God, “Emmanuel...God with us,” 25 that is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15), because He also was God in the flesh, for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). He can relate to us, and we are able to relate to Him now because He’s not only our God, our Savior, our Lord, and our Messiah, but He is our brother as well. Coming to the Jews and rejected by them as a nation, He will be sought by the Gentiles and will be a “light to the Gentiles.” He will be a man who is God and God who is man, sinless, and having a wholly benevolent ministry. He will be “abhorred,” yet extolled and exalted; “cut off,” yet His days will be prolonged. Grief and glory, travail and triumph, humiliation and exaltation, cross and crown are so strongly intermingled that the ancient Jewish expositors could not reconcile these prophecies. The whole prophetic picture of the coming Messiah, with its fulfillment, is so wholly novel, so mysterious, so artless, and yet so intricate, that it was, and is, and must forever remain the wonder of all literature.

Let us examine in more detail a few of the many prophetic paradoxes in the predictions of the coming Messiah.

(1) Concerning His birth—notice in the following predictions these striking irreconcilables: a virgin shall bear a son, something unknown in human experience. And this manchild will be GOD—“God with us.” Godbegotten, yet God incarnate!

“The Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name IMMANUEL” (Isa. 7:14).

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful [Hebrew, miracle], Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6).

To fulfill these amazing prophecies, God performed a “biological miracle” and Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and born of the virgin Mary as recorded in Matthew 1:16-25. To fulfill these two predictions quoted above, given seven hundred years before their fulfillment, God, in the person of His Son, came to earth, and the incarnation became a reality: “the Son of the Highest” became Mary’s son, God manifest in the flesh (Luke 1:31-33, John 1:13, 14, I Tim. 3:16)—and all this though Mary knew not a man (Luke 1:34).

Not only was the Messiah to be the GOD-MAN, born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14, 9:6), He was in some mysterious way to be all of these: the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15); the Son of Man (Dan. 7:13); the Son of God (Psa. 2:7); the Seed of Abraham (Gen. 22:18); and the “fruit” of David’s body (Psa. 132:11). But how can God be man and man be God, and at the same time be a son of man and Son of God? And how can a person be God and yet be born of God? And how can one be a “Son of Man” and yet have no human father? And how can He be the Seed of the woman when the woman “knew not a man?” How in the world—pardon the expression—could one person be ALL these? Wonder of wonders, Jesus was! The Lord Jesus was and is and always will be God (John 1:1); He was man (John 1:14); He was “made of a woman” (Gal. 4:4); He was the “Son of Man”—the representative man (Luke 19:10); He was the Son of God (John 3:16); He was the Seed of Abraham and the Seed of David (Matt. 1:1). Behold, the miracle of all ages: Christ Jesus, perfect man, yet very God; God begotten, yet God incarnate in one indivisible, loving, matchless personality! John the evangelist explains the supreme mystery called the “mystery of God…and of Christ” (Col. 2:2, 4:3), in these words:

“And the Word [who was God and was with God (John 1:1-2), in the bosom of the Father (John 1:18)] was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

(2) The place of His origin—from whence did He come: Bethlehem? Egypt? Nazareth? Here is another involved series of predictions. Prophecy said, “Out of thee [Bethlehem] shall He come forth…that is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2). But another Scripture said, “[I have] called My Son out of Egypt” (Hos. 11:1 with Matt. 2:15). And there was a spoken prophecy commonly known among the people of Israel as one of the predictions of the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene” (Matt. 2:23), based on Isaiah 11:1, where the Messiah is called the Branch (Hebrew, neh-tzer), meaning the separated one, or “the Nazarene.”

Are these contradictory? Not at all, when the person came who unlocked the puzzle by the course of events in His divinely ordained life. He was born in Bethlehem, as Micah said; soon after, He was taken to Egypt by Joseph and Mary, from whence God “called” Him back to the Holy Land after the death of wicked King Herod (Matt. 2:1321). And when Joseph and Mary came back to Israel with the child Jesus, they settled in Nazareth, the city where the Lord was reared. 26 Hence, in His ministry He was called “Jesus of Nazareth” (Luke 18:37, Acts 2:22). Isn’t it strange that, though He was born in Bethlehem, no one ever calls Him “Jesus of Bethlehem,” and though He is called “Jesus of Nazareth,” everyone knows He was born in Bethlehem, not Nazareth!

Being of the tribe of Judah and born in Bethlehem, He was indeed a true “Nazarene,” a “separated one,” by living in Galilee instead of with His Judean brethren in Judea! Even as Joseph of old also was separated (“nazir”) from his brethren by his exile for so many years in Egypt (see Gen. 49:26, where the word “separate” comes from the Hebrew root “nazar”).

The historical record of the life of Jesus makes crystal clear these three apparently contradictory prophecies.

(3) How could the Messiah be both David’s son…yet David’s Lord?

Christ Himself raised this interesting question with the Pharisees when He asked them pointedly:

“What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in Spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool? If David then called Him Lord, how is He his son?” (Matt. 22:41-45, Christ quoted from Psalm 110:1).

Is it hard to see how Christ could be both David’s son and David’s Lord? Not at all, when one has the key to the problem in the facts as presented in the New Testament. Christ was David’s son in that He was a descendant of David after the flesh (Luke 1:32, Rom. 1:3), and He was David’s Lord, for the Messiah is God—King of kings and Lord of all (Rev. 19:16). The Messiah is called “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” in Jeremiah 23:6, and He is called the Lord (Haadon) in Malachi 3:1 and Lord (Adoni) in Psalm 110:1. See Isaiah 9:6, Matthew 1:23, John 14:8-10—all these are many names and titles of Deity in the Old and New Testament. It is clear the Messiah is not only David’s Lord, but He is LORD OF ALL.

(4) Christ’s right to David’s throne: here is an intricate, involved puzzle, so involved it will take a little concentration on the part of the reader to follow the problem and its solution, but it will well repay the effort.

Christ, the Seed of David, must be virginborn and yet have a legal right to the throne of David despite the fact that one of Solomon’s descendants was a certain evil man named Jeconiah, of whom it was written that none of his descendants would ever rule in Judah (Jer. 22:28-30), and despite the fact that in Israel the right to the throne was transmitted only through the male line. And here Christ was born of a virgin!

It is perfectly clear that the Messiah will inherit “the throne of David” (Isa. 9:7, Jer. 33:15-17, Psa. 132:11, I Chron. 17:11, 14). Since He must be born of a virgin, how did He get His legal right to the throne of David? And how was the roadblock erected by Jeconiah’s sin circumvented? Who can untangle these apparently hopelessly confused predictions? Leave it to the master mind who both devised the strange prophecies and worked out their fulfillment. Remember, the prophet Isaiah said, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:7).

Not only was the apparently impossible solved and resolved in JESUS THE CHRIST, but God has given us the complete record of how He did it in the genealogies of the New Testament. In Matthew’s genealogy, the genealogy of Christ through Joseph is given. This genealogy shows Christ to be the “Son of David”—so giving Him right to David’s throne, and also the “Son of Abraham”—so giving Him right to the land of promise, the territorial possessions given to Abraham and his seed. 27

In Matthew’s genealogy, Joseph is seen to be in the REGAL line of descent from King David down through Solomon. But Joseph was also a descendant of David through Jeconiah (also called Coniah)—hence, succession to the throne for Joseph personally is barred. Matthew’s genealogical record is careful to show that Jesus was NOT, through Joseph, the “fruit of David’s body,” i.e. a direct descendant of David through Joseph.

In Luke 3:23-38 Christ’s genealogy is given through Mary. (Heli was obviously Mary’s father, Joseph’s fatherinlaw,28 verse 23.) In the record, Christ is shown to be the LITERAL “fruit of David’s body” through His mother Mary. But, and this is important: while Mary was in A ROYAL line from David, she was not in THE REGAL lineage, for she was a descendant of King David through Nathan, whereas the throne rights were to come through Solomon’s line (I Chron. 28:56). Therefore Joseph’s marriage to Mary before Christ was born was an absolute necessity—and that is exactly what happened!

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit…behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou SON OF DAVID, fear not to take unto thee Mary THY WIFE: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:18-20).29

So, through Mary, Jesus the Christ obtained His literal descent from King David; and from Mary’s marriage to Joseph, who was also a “son of David,” He obtained His legal right to David’s throne, for Mary was Joseph’s wife before Jesus was born, so making Joseph Jesus’ legal father, His foster father. And withal, the prophecy concerning Jeconiah was fulfilled too, for Jesus the Christ is NOT the “seed”—a direct descendant—of Jeconiah. Can you think of anything more intricate and involved, and yet worked out with such precision?

Joseph and Mary had to be the parents (foster father, and mother) of Jesus the Christ: they were the only two people of that generation who could be, and fulfill prophecy about the Messiah. And Joseph had to be married to Mary before Jesus was born so He could get His legal right to David’s throne through Joseph. At the same time, Christ could not be a child of Joseph because of the bar against a descendant of Jeconiah. And though Joseph had to be married to Mary, yet Joseph could not “know” Mary as his wife until after Jesus was born, for He had to be born of a virgin! And the divinely ordered fulfillment was perfect in every detail!

(5) The Messiah was to be both the chief corner stone and the rock of offence.

“He shall be…for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel [and all the world]” (Isa. 8:14).

“The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner [of the New Jerusalem, the true church of God, the bride of Christ]” (Psa. 118:22, Isa. 28:16).

The key that unlocks this mystery is a simple one: it is belief or unbelief in Christ. To those who disbelieve, the Messiah would be a “rock of offence” and a “stone of stumbling.” Peter explains the mystery by showing that all depends on one’s attitude toward Christ, whether of faith or unbelief:

“Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the Word, being disobedient” (I Pet. 2:68, Rom. 9:32-33).

As He did so often, the Lord Jesus called attention to the prophecy in the Old Testament, making Himself the New Testament fulfillment of it: “Jesus saith unto them [the Pharisees], Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Matt. 21:42). The Lord also added this significant statement: “Whosoever shall fall upon that stone [seeking His mercy and grace] shall be broken [his hopes in himself completely crushed]; but on whomsoever it shall fall [in judgment] it will grind him to powder [completely ruin him for time and eternity]” (Luke 20:18).

To the believer, Christ is the CHIEF CORNER STONE, and He is very precious. To the unbeliever, Christ is the STONE OF STUMBLING or ROCK OF OFFENCE. To the one, Christ the Rock brings eternal salvation; to the other, He brings judgment. Those who stumble in unbelief over Christ reject Him and fall to their eternal destruction.

(6) Rejected by Israel (Isa. 53:3), the Messiah would then become “a light to the Gentiles” for “salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

Racially, the Messiah must and would be a Jew, a “rod” out of the stem of Jesse (Isa. 11:1, 10), and yet, the Gentiles will seek Him (Isa. 11:10)—something unheard of, for there is, and has been for ages, a natural animosity between Jews and Gentiles. But this enmity is done away “in Christ” (Eph. 2:13-15).

The veil of spiritual blindness over the hearts of the Gentiles will be destroyed for multitudes by believing the Word of God (Isa. 25:7), and a veil of unbelief will form over the hearts of many (not all) Jews. Isaiah predicted this judicial blindness for Israel because they “despised and rejected” their Messiah. This also will happen to many Gentiles because of their rejection of the Messiah in the last days, because they knew Christ and then rejected Him also.

“Make the heart of this people [Israel] fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they…convert, and be healed” (Isa. 6:10).

“It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My servant…to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isa. 49:6).

Twenty centuries of history attest the truth of these words. When Rome crucified and Israel rejected the Messiah, a veil of unbelief settled over the nation of Israel, and though some believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved, blindness is still over the hearts and minds of many Israelites (II Cor. 3:1415). The gospel was then given to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28), and the glorious gospel in John 3:16 is now preached to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike. That Gentiles should trust in a Jew for salvation is most unlikely, but true. That the very nation He came to bless turned from Him seems most unlikely, but it happened (John 1:1112); and that the Gentiles who were not the people of God should become the people of God through faith in the Jewish Messiah seems preposterous, but that is the way God is working and that is the way it is happening.

(7) The Messiah was to have a DOUBLE ANOINTING: a ministry of mercy as Savior, and a ministry of judgment as coming King.

Since Christ, at His first advent, came to suffer and die for the sins of the people of the world who would repent, we now know (though some of the Jews of Jesus’ day found it hard to accept) that His role as JUDGE and KING will be fulfilled at His second advent.

Isaiah, who describes the glories of the Messiah’s coming kingdom by the eloquence of God’s Holy Spirit, also characterizes with a historian’s accuracy the humiliation, the trials, and the agony which were to precede the triumph of the Redeemer of the world, presenting on one hand a glorious King, Himself Deity, “God with us,” who has all power, and on the other hand one whose visage was more marred than any man, dying and thirsty with His bones disjointed (Psa. 22). How could He be the great divine monarch, He who would restore the glory of Solomon’s temple—yet also be the sacrifice, He who would bear the sins of the people of the world who would repent of their former sins?

Clearly, destinies so strongly contrasted could not be accomplished simultaneously. There is only one answer possible: in the divine purpose, God’s mighty redemption plan had to be done in two different eras—His first advent and His second advent.

The “suffering” Messiah (and His ministry of mercy) is often presented in the same Scripture with His work as Judge and King. In the Scripture we quote below, we print in CAPS the phrase that describes His work of judging at His second advent. The rest applies to His first advent.

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, AND THE DAY OF VENGEANCE OF OUR GOD” (Isa. 61:1-2).

The same intermingling of prophecy describing the Messiah’s work at both advents—His humiliation and work as the Redeemer at His first advent, and His work to bring the final saved ones into His established kingdom at His second advent—is seen in many other Scriptures, such as Zechariah 9:9-10, Micah 5:1-4, and Daniel 9:24.

In studying Messianic prophecy, it is important to determine if the first advent, the second advent, or both advents are being viewed.

When Christ, in the synagogue at Nazareth, applied this Scripture in Isaiah 61:1-2 to Himself (Luke 4:17-21), He stopped His reading with the words “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Why? He will NOT proclaim the day of vengeance of our God until His second advent.

The ancient rabbis, studying these and similar predictions about the coming Messiah, came to the conclusion there must be TWO MESSIAHS, one a suffering Messiah, the other a conquering, judging Messiah. They failed to see the great truth, even as most of Israel has to this day, that there is only ONE MESSIAH, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has two distinct tasks to perform. One task is at His first advent, “to make reconciliation for iniquity.” The second is when He will return to earth at His second advent as the mighty King “to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24). In Christ, the scores of seemingly contradictory Messianic prophecies that refer either to His first advent or His second advent, with their different objectives, are fully harmonized. These two advents of Christ are contrasted in such passages as Isaiah chapters 11 and 53, Psalms 22, 69, 72 and 89. This same truth is fully revealed in the New Testament in such passages as I Peter 1:11, which speaks of “the sufferings of Christ” at His first advent and “the glory that should follow” at His second advent. You can also contrast John 3:1617 with Revelation 19:1121, Luke 9:56 with Jude 14-15, and Luke 19:10 with II Thessalonians 1:7-10.

(8) The Messiah will be a “priest upon His throne.”

“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH…He shall build the temple of the Lord [which is the body of Christ, the church, the New Jerusalem]…He shall be a [king and] priest upon His throne” (Zech. 6:12-13).

In Psalm 110:4 the Messiah is called “a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.” He is the “King of kings, and Lord of lords” (I Tim. 6:15, Rev. 19:16). In Jeremiah 23:5 the Messiah is called the “righteous Branch…a King.” Priests came from the tribe of Levi. Since Christ was from the tribe of Judah (Heb. 7:14), how could He be a priest, since He could not come from two tribes (Judah and Levi)?

How was the puzzle solved? Christ is a king from the tribe of Judah. He will sit upon His throne on earth at His second advent. Christ also is a priest, whose priesthood is patterned after the Aaronic priesthood in which the priests offered sacrifices for the sins of the people (Christ offered Himself as the onceforall sacrifice for former sins, as seen in Psalm 22:16, Isaiah chapter 53, and Hebrews 9:26). But He was made a priest after the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 5:6, Psa. 110:4), who was both a king and a priest (Heb. 7:1-2). This whole intriguing subject of Christ’s priesthood is fully explained in Hebrews chapters 7-9. The mystery is solved in Christ!

(9) The Messiah, the chosen Servant of the Lord, would be a powerful Godman most pleasing to the Almighty Father, His elect in whom His soul delighted (Isa. 42:1); yet this “Holy One” would be “abhorred” by the nation Israel (Isa. 49:7).

Isaiah 40:5 tells us that in the Messiah, the coming One, the “glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it.” Then, in complete contrast, the Messiah is spoken of as the One who would be “despised and rejected of men,” in whom the nation will see “no beauty that [they] should desire Him” (Isa. 53:1-3).

In the history of Jesus the paradox is explained. The Father said of Jesus, His beloved One, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5). On the other hand, most of the people rejected Him; and no prophecies than those that tell of His rejection ever received a sadder fulfillment. The pathos of the Messiah’s rejection is told by Jesus Himself:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37).

They that hated Him without a cause were more than the hairs of His head (Psa. 69:4, John 15:25). The New Testament record tells us that “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

(10) “Thirty pieces of silver”—the price of Christ or the price of the potter’s field?

“And I said unto them, If ye think good, give Me My price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for My price thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord” (Zech. 11:12-13).

Strange words indeed that one would have difficulty in understanding or reconciling with any specific event in history, were it not for the fulfillment as given in the New Testament, where we read that Judas covenanted with the chief priests to betray Christ and deliver Him to them: “And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver” (Matt. 26:15). When the heinousness of his crime dawned on Judas, he “brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders…And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple…and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces…And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field...Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of Him that was valued…And gave them for the potter’s field” (Matt. 27:3-10).

Not only Judas, but most of the nation of Israel sold Christ and woefully underestimated Him. They sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a dead slave (Ex. 21:32); and so the Jewish leaders expressed their hatred for and contempt of the Holy One. Here is the perfect example of the certain degree of obscurity in some prophecies that is unveiled in the fulfillment.

No one can suppose that the perfect agreement of the Old Testament prediction with its New Testament fulfillment, centering about the exact amount of the sum of money (thirty pieces of silver), could be accidental. Still less can it be conceived that the appropriation of the money for the purchase of the potter’s field could have taken place without an overruling design. In the fulfillment, all obscurity is removed and the perfect harmony of the fulfillment with the prophecy is seen. It was so exactly fulfilled that everyone can see that the same God who spoke through the prophet had, by the secret operation of His omnipotent power, which extends even to the ungodly, so arranged matters that when Judas threw back their money and the chief priests purchased the potter’s field, they not only fulfilled prophecy, but perpetuated the memorial of their sin against their Messiah, and called forth the vengeance of God against their nation.

(11) Horrible sufferings and death would come to the One who perfectly obeyed God at all times.

“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, My God, My God, for this I was kept” (Matt. 27:46, Aramaic). “For He [God] hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

(12) “Wounded” and “pierced”—yet “not a bone broken,” is the amazing prophetic record of the coming Messiah.

He was to be wounded in the house of His friends (Zech. 13:6), with both hands and feet pierced (Psa. 22:16), yet in some miraculous way not a bone of the suffering Messiah was to be broken. In the Psalms, Jehovah said of the Messiah, “He keepeth all His bones: not one of them is broken” (Psa. 34:20, Ex. 12:46).

At the crucifixion, when the Jews feared that the three who were being crucified might linger on until death came too late to remove their bodies from the crosses before the Sabbath, they sought permission from Pilate that “their legs might be broken”—an act to hasten death, that they might be removed sooner from the crosses (John 19:31).

“Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His legs: But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true...For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him whom they pierced” (John 19:32-37).

Marvelous miracle of divine providence: they broke the legs of two of those who were crucified, but NOT of the third; for prophecy had said, not a bone of Him shall be broken (Psa. 34:20). They pierced His hands, His feet, and His side, and each time the weapons went between the bones and did not break them.

(13) The Messiah, who was to be “cut off [killed, crucified, for the sins of the world]” (Isa. 53:8, Dan. 9:26), and who “poured out His soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12), was also to be “exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isa. 52:13); and God shall “prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand” (Isa. 53:10), and God said He will “divide Him a portion with the great” (Isa. 53:12).

And so the glorious facts of the Messiah’s atoning death and resurrection are prophetically stated in language clear when fulfilled, but obscure until fulfilled, in one of the most thrilling prophetic paradoxes in the whole realm of Scripture.

In the New Testament we read that Jesus “humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father” (Phlp. 2:811).

Man despised Him and set Him at naught (Isa. 53:3), but in His time, God will make Him “higher than the kings of the earth” (Psa. 89:27). Both Old Testament prophets and readers puzzled over this mystery (I Pet. 1:10-11), but all was made plain when Jesus the Christ in the New Testament died for our sins and was raised from the dead on the third day.

IV. PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE SUFFERINGS, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION OF

THE MESSIAH (CHRIST)

An Examination of: (A) Psalm 22 (B) Isaiah 53

(A) PSALM 22

THE MIRACLE OF THE TWENTYSECOND PSALM is this: crucifixion was a Roman and a Grecian custom, unknown to the Jews until the days of their captivity (600 B.C.). The Jews executed their criminals by stoning. And yet, written one thousand years before the time of Christ, by a man who had never seen or heard of such a method of execution as crucifixion, Psalm 22 gives a graphic portrayal of death by crucifixion!

The Messianic nature of this Psalm is universally admitted by devout students.

Psalm 22 reveals someone—the Messiah—dying an awful death, under very peculiar circumstances. The ancient document says, “The assembly of the wicked have enclosed Me: they pierced My hands and My feet. I may tell all My bones: they look and stare upon Me” (verses 16-17). Crucifixion in David’s time was unknown among the Jews, yet the piercing of hands and feet together with the stripping—“telling all the bones”—obviously means crucifixion: the crucified are pierced only in their hands and feet and stripped for humiliation. WOULD A FALSE MESSIAH HAVE CHOSEN THIS PASSAGE FOR FULFILLMENT? Not a jot or tittle of this Psalm has miscarried—exactly as in His birth and in His ministry, the ancient document is a photograph of the fact, fulfilled in flawless detail.

JESUS NEVER SAID, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”

The four Gospels were written in Aramaic and Hebrew, not Greek. Jesus and His disciples spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, not Greek. Here is the correct translation of the true words of Christ on the cross: Jesus really cried out, “My God, My God, for this I was kept.”

“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, Eli, Eli, lemana shabakthani!...Some of the men who were standing by, when they heard it, said, This man has called for Elijah” (Matt. 27:45-47, Orig. Aramaic Text).

All versions of the Gospels have retained these words in the original tongue and given them a different meaning. Matthew, according to the Eastern version, does not translate them, because he was writing to the people who had seen Jesus and heard Him preaching. It also seems probable that the later writers did not agree on the exact meaning of this phrase when they translated it into Greek. This is because Aramaic is a very rare language, and they didn’t understand it as they should have before they translated it and placed it into the Scriptures. This term, even at present, is only used by the Aramaicspeaking people of Assyria, who speak the same language the Galileans spoke at the time of our Lord. This phrase in Aramaic means, “My God, My God, for this I was kept [this was My destiny, I was born for this].”

David did not quote Psalm 22:1 as a prophecy of the Lord, but for himself (because he had many enemies). David was foolishly saying that God had forsaken him, not Christ, the fullness of the Godhead bodily hanging on the cross. This part of Psalm 22 was not a prophecy of Christ’s death. Jesus did not quote this Psalm. If He had, He would have done it in Hebrew instead of Aramaic, and if He had translated it from Hebrew, He would have used the Aramaic word “nashatani,” which means “forsaken me,” instead of the word “shabakthani,” which in this case means “kept me.” Even the soldiers who stood by the cross did not understand what Jesus said in that hour of agony and suffering. They thought that He was calling on Elijah, because the word “Elijah” in Aramaic is “Elia,” which is similar to that for “my God,” “Eli.”

In those last minutes of suffering, Jesus watched the crowd, which was composed of rabbis, priests, and the men and women of Jerusalem, who had come up to watch Him die. Some insulted Him. Others spit in His face, called Him names, and challenged His claim that He was the Christ, the first Godman, the first man with the Triune God living and working in Him. They accused Him of being a malefactor and sinner. He was born for that hour so that He might bear witness to the truth and open the way for others who would be baptized into His death—that was His destiny. There was nothing else that could have given such a glorious victory as the cross.

The disciples and women who were from Galilee never for a moment would have thought that Jesus had said God had forsaken Him. How could He say that when He had told His disciples the whole world would forsake Him, including them, but the Father would always be with Him because the Triune God was in Him? He told Peter, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53). He also said, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done” (Matt. 26:42). These words, “Eli, Eli, lemana shabakthani,” even today are used by Assyrians when they suffer and die unjustly. Instead of complaining and being dissatisfied, they leave everything to God. They believe it is God’s desire that they should pass through such experiences. This is the reason why, in the East, Godly people do not commit suicide.30

They Mocked Him

Verses 6 to 8 in Psalm 22 tell of those who reproached and mocked Jesus: “All they that see Me laugh Me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver Him: let Him deliver Him, seeing He delighted in Him” (Psa. 22:7-8).

The New Testament tells us how people ridiculed and derided Christ on the cross (Matt. 27:39-44), using almost the identical words the prophet used: “Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders, said,…He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now” (Matt. 27:41, 43).

His Humanity, Thirst, and Exposure to Public Scorn

In the prophetic record, further startling details are given: “They gaped upon Me…I am poured out like water, and all My bones are out of joint: My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws; and Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death” (Psa. 22:13-15).

The Messiah’s exposure to public scorn—“They gaped upon Me” (Psa. 22:13)—was fulfilled in New Testament times at the cross, when the people “sitting down…watched Him there” (Matt. 27:36). His extreme weakness, perspiration, and thirst under the pitiless beating of the hot sun are predicted:

“I am poured out like water…My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and My tongue cleaveth to My jaws” (Psa. 22:14-15).

The New Testament expressed in one simple statement His humanity and thirst: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst” (John 19:28).

He Died of a Broken Heart

One weeps in heart, thinking of the Messiah’s horrible sufferings, such as the agony from dislocated bones caused by the weight of the body suspended only by the nails in the hands and feet: “All My bones are out of joint” (Psa. 22:14). Add to that the mental and spiritual torture so great it literally broke His heart: “My heart…is melted in the midst of My bowels” (Psa. 22:14). At last, His sufferings were ended by death: “Thou hast brought Me into the dust of death” (Psa. 22:15).

There is evidence from the New Testament record that Christ died of a broken heart. When the Roman soldier “pierced His side...forthwith came there out blood and water”(John 19:34), indicating that the heart had been ruptured (before it was pierced by the Roman spear), probably from the great emotional strain Christ had been under. The lymphatic fluid apparently had separated from the red blood, producing “blood and water.” The word “lymph” comes from the Latin “lympha,” meaning water. (See also I John 5:6.)

The Parting of His Garments, Psalm 22:18:

“They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture.”

For exquisite detail, dramatically fulfilled, this is the gem of all prophecy. The divinely inspired prophet was shown by God that which would definitely come to pass in one thousand years, connected with the crucifixion, that seems so trivial and unimportant one wonders why it is referred to at all. It is because God wanted us to know that He (God) wrote the prophecy and He (God) fulfilled it.

In the New Testament account of the crucifixion of Christ, when they “pierced His hands and His feet,” that additional, “unimportant” detail about the disposition of the Messiah’s garments is mentioned. Roman soldiers, ignorant of both God and prophecy, and knowing nothing of the sacred import of what they were doing, fulfilled to the letter God’s detailed prophecy!

“Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots” (John 19:23-24).

And so an obscure prophecy, hidden in the Old Testament for a thousand years, springs up as a witness, a living miracle, proving again that GOD DECLARED in the Old Testament and GOD FULFILLED in the New Testament. This one prophecy is enough to convince the most skeptical person that the predictions concerning the Messiah in the Old Testament were fulfilled in the Christ of the Gospels, so giving a satisfying demonstration of the divine origin of both Testaments.

The Resurrection of the Messiah

This Messiah, so cruelly put to death, will be helped (Psa. 22:19), delivered (Psa. 22:20), saved from the lion’s mouth (Psa. 22:21). His prayer will be heard: “Thou hast heard Me” (Psa. 22:21). Verse 21 is the end of a section. Verse 22 begins a new section, and the Messiah now gloriously delivered, resurrected, says:

“I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee” (Psa. 22:22).

The New Testament, of course, bears abundant evidence that though Christ died, yet God raised Him from the dead on the third day.

“Ye have taken [Christ], and by wicked hands have crucified and slain [Him]: Whom GOD HATH RAISED UP, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it” (Acts 2:23-24).

A Summary

The predictions concerning Christ in this chapter are so numerous and so minute that they could not possibly have been dictated by any but by Him to whom all things are naked and open, and who worketh all things according to the counsel of His own will. The most insignificant circumstances connected with our Lord’s death are set forth with as much accuracy as those which are most important. What could be more unlikely than that the Messiah should be crucified, when crucifixion was not a Jewish but a Roman punishment? And yet David in this Psalm predicted such would be the case centuries before Rome was founded and ten centuries before the prophecy was fulfilled!

(B) ISAIAH 53

THIS REMARKABLE PROPHECY of the sufferings and exaltation of the Messiah was written seven hundred years before the time of Christ. It reads more like a historical summary of the Gospel narrative of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow than like a prophecy. Another commentator says, “It reads as if it had been written beneath the cross of Golgotha. It is the deepest and the loftiest thing that Old Testament prophecy, outstripping itself, has ever achieved.”

This chapter is a bundle of paradoxes or apparent contradictions, as numerous as the verses in the chapter. In fact, it was DESIGNED to present a prophetic enigma, which only the person (and work) of the Christ of the New Testament can solve. He is a root out of the dry ground yet fruitful; He has no form nor beauty, yet He is the chosen Servant of God; He is despised and rejected of men, yet He is the appointed Savior; He suffers unto death, yet He survives; He had no physical, human offspring, yet His spiritual offspring are innumerable, as the sand of the sea. Men would make His grave with the wicked, yet He is buried with the rich; He suffers unbelievable adversity, yet He enjoys prosperity; He is triumphed over, yet He triumphs; He is condemned, yet He justifies the condemned. These paradoxes remained a problem until the cross was set up, the sepulchre burst open, and the Son of God who came to die went up to reign.

The prophecy begins with the words, “BEHOLD, MY SERVANT,” and that is the subject of this entire section, Isaiah 52:13-53:12. It is a graphic portrayal of:

The Suffering Messiah...“Jehovah’s Servant”

The first question to be answered is: “Of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?” (Acts 8:34). The only possible correct answer is, this prophecy speaks of an individual, MESSIAH, and there is only one person in the history of the world whom it fits: Christ of the New Testament.31

Let anyone steep his mind in the contents of this chapter, and then read what is said about Jesus in the Gospels, and, as he stands underneath the cross, see if there is not the most perfect correspondence between the two. In Jesus of Nazareth, alone in all history, but in Him perfectly, has this prophecy found fulfillment.

We wish now to call attention in more detail to some of the prophetic wonders, descriptions of the Messiah’s rejection, sufferings, death, resurrection, and exaltation in this chapter. As we do so, we call attention repeatedly to this bewildering phenomenon: when Jesus of Nazareth came seven hundred years later, and died on the cross, these predictions were fulfilled with a literalness that astonishes, and an exactness that parallels mathematical certainty.

(1) The Messiah’s astonishing EXALTATION, Isaiah 52:13:

“Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”

Before the depths of the Messiah’s humiliation is presented in this section (Isa. 52:13-53:12), we are in the very beginning assured of His final VICTORY and GLORY. We call attention to the progressive nature of the words “exalted...extolled...and be very high.”

From these words we obtain this chain of thought: He will rise up, He will raise Himself still higher, He will stand on high. And this is rightly connected with the three principal steps in the fulfillment of the prediction in Jesus of Nazareth after His death: namely, His RESURRECTION, His ASCENSION, and His sitting down in EXALTATION at the RIGHT HAND OF GOD.

Here then we are at once confronted with the Messiah’s final end—to prepare us, as it were, for the shock of His temporary abasement: the Servant of the Lord (after His sufferings) is seen rising from stage to stage, and at last He reaches an immeasurable height that towers above everything beside.

The New Testament makes very clear the final exaltation of Christ after His sufferings and death:

“Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins” by His atoning death on the cross, “[He] sat down on the RIGHT HAND OF THE MAJESTY ON HIGH” (Heb. 1:3).

Christ Jesus, “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But…He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. WHEREFORE GOD ALSO HATH HIGHLY EXALTED HIM, and given Him a name which is above every name” (Phlp. 2:5-9, Matt. 28:6, Acts 1:3, 9, Eph. 1:20-23).

(2) The Messiah’s shocking ABUSE, Isaiah 52:14:

“As many were astonied at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”

If the Messiah’s exaltation (Isa. 52:13) is astonishingly “high,” His sufferings are even more astonishing. During the terrible hours before His crucifixion, the Lord Jesus was brutally manhandled, buffeted, scourged, and abused in other ways. And on the cross, the crown of thorns, the nails driven through His quivering flesh, and the consequent agony of crucifixion in which every nerve, every muscle became “a flame of torture,” added to the excruciating mental agony and soul suffering, so affected Him that His features became so marred and distorted that He no longer resembled a man. This horrifying fact is well nigh unbelievable, but it is clearly revealed of the Messiah in the Old Testament, and just as clearly given in the records concerning the sufferings and death of Jesus the Christ in the New Testament.

“Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him.32 And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head”33 (John 19:1-2).

“Then did they spit in His face, and buffeted [beat and manhandled] Him; and others smote Him with the palms of their hands” (Matt. 26:67), “And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head…and mocked Him…and took the reed, and smote Him on the head” (Matt. 27:28-30).

God permitted, and Jesus endured this horrible suffering, not only to fulfill the prophetic picture, but to suffer in our stead. We ask, who but the true Messiah would want to be a Messiah like that?

Before the cross, but leading up to it, His face was marred; on the cross, His form was marred—so the fulfillment of the prediction was complete. The bloody sweat, the traces of the crown of thorns, the spit on His face, and the result of the smiting on the head disfigured His face; while the scourging, the buffeting, the nails driven through His hands and feet, the weight of the body, pulling it out of joint, and the final spear thrust through His side, distorted His body. Add the extreme mental anguish and soul grief, and the result is one so marred that He no longer resembled a man. How much He loved, how much He paid for our redemption!

As we humbly contemplate the intensity of the dreadful sufferings of the Savior, may our hearts be bowed with shame and sorrow for the sin which was the cause of it all, and may we have a greater love and undying gratitude to Him who bore all this for us.

(3) A message that will SPRINKLE and STARTLE many nations, Isaiah 52:15:

“So shall He sprinkle many nations [wash away the sins from the people of many nations with the precious blood He shed on the cross for them all]; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.”

God has devised a unique way to catch the attention, win the souls, and win the devotion of men. He Himself, in the person of His Son, suffered so violently, creating so ghastly a scene, that it has IMPRESSED ALL AGES. The memory of Calvary startles the most dormant, cuts the most calloused, stirs the most lethargic. Men now understand both the love of God and the wisdom of God: CALVARY reveals it. Men see both the grace of God and the way God can righteously give both justification and righteousness to those sinners who believe. The grace of God is simply God in Christ with His power living within people, making it possible for them to keep all of His commandments with ease. “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21). The gospel will STARTLE many into believing.

(4) A Message that will be DISBELIEVED by Israel, Isaiah 53:1:

“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”

Strange as it may seem, though the shocking message of a suffering Messiah startles many nations, it finds few believers among the Messiah’s own people, the Jews, and very few believers among the Gentiles. “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14).

In the New Testament we read of the fulfillment of this prediction. “But though He [Jesus] had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (John 12:37-38).

(5) On the topic of the Messiah’s supernatural birth and spiritual growth, Isaiah 53:2 has this to say:

“For He [Jesus] shall grow up before Him [the Father] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground [when Christ was born, there was virtually no spiritual wisdom and understanding in the world].” The Spirit is that which waters and feeds those of us who are spiritual, so we can have more of God in Christ’s growth in us.34Christ came into a dark world without spiritual water and food, a very dry ground.35 He was the only human with the Triune God living in Him at that time.36

The birth of Christ was miraculous in more than one way. One of the miracles was the miracle of the virgin birth. Note also this paradox—His supernatural and yet natural growth: “He shall grow up” (normally, like other humans), yet it will all be “before Him.” In other words, the Messiah would grow up in Jehovah’s presence, in His life, His power, and His care. Here He would owe nothing to His natural surroundings, for the Messiah would be “a tender plant...out of a dry ground.” “Tender” means He would be merciful to the world of sinners if they repented, and patient with them when they were seeking spiritual growth. The Messiah was a precious, wholesome plant since “there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved [except the name of Jesus]” (Acts 4:12). This makes Him more precious than anyone else in the world. Because He is the only giver of eternal life, He is most wholesome, growing up under the heavenly Father’s watchful care and before the eyes of the world at that time. Praise the Lord, we have the record of God in Christ in this world, and praise the Lord, the saints of God that are yet in this world are said, by Christ, to be exactly as He was—exact reproductions of “the Seed.” He said, “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). This is because God in Christ lives in other human bodies. The presence of the Triune God is living and working in His saints to this very day, and shall continue doing the same until He comes.

Again, He will grow up in the midst of the spiritual dearth of Israel, in a desert of hardness, sin, and unbelief, which is spiritual darkness, dryness.37 But it will be a normal process—and He will “grow up.” He will not burst upon the world all at once in a sudden splendor of daring and achievement. Instead, He will conform to God’s slow, silent law of growth.

Isn’t it amazing that God foretold the manner of His coming to earth and the “growth” of His childhood, as well as the spirituality of His childhood? Lo and behold, when the Messiah came, all was fulfilled exactly as predicted. The Messiah did NOT come as a full-grown king in His might, with power, dash, and splendor. That has been reserved for His second advent.

In the New Testament, we read this of the child Jesus: “And the child grew, and waxed strong in Spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace [which is the power, the life] of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40).

(6) The Messiah’s generation would fail to see and appreciate His greatness as predicted in Isaiah 53:2:

“He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him.” When the Messiah came, the people who were looking for a mighty king and a political reformer, were disappointed in Him. Men did not see His beauty—the beauty of holiness. Nor did they understand His mission. He did not conform to the worldly ideal. Having misread the prophecies, the people found nothing to charm or attract them in Jehovah’s servant. The work of the Messiah in His first advent, to make His soul an “offering for sin,” was foreign to their ideas of what the Messiah should be. This is why:

(7) HE was DESPISED and REJECTED of men, Isaiah 53:3:

“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” “Rejected of men” also means rejected by men of high rank. That is, He had few men of high standing, few “important” men, few men of distinction, who supported Him and His program with their authority and influence. So it proved to be this way in the life of Jesus Christ. The following record from the New Testament reveals this. The Pharisees (speaking to certain officers) said, “Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?” (John 7:47-48, see context).

Who but the infinite God, who know-eth the end from the beginning, would dare frame a prophecy like this, presenting the Messiah as being without the support of the leaders of the people? But history fully confirmed the truthfulness of this prediction.

(8) The Messiah will be known as a MAN OF SORROWS, smitten by God, according to Isaiah 53:3-4:

“A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him…we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” The point emphasized, and true in its fulfillment, is that the Messiah would be a man filled with sorrow of every kind. Jesus’ sorrow came, not only as He compassionately suffered with the ills of humanity, a sympathetic suffering, but also when He was repelled in His efforts to bless others. His sorrow was overwhelming when people rejected Him and continued in their lost, condemned condition. And His sorrows increased when men of rank and position turned from Him, hid their faces from Him.38 Instead of counting Him precious, they “esteemed Him not,” estimated Him “as nothing.” “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11).

Worst of all, the people considered Him “smitten of God.” They did not realize that He suffered to redeem them, or that He permitted Himself to be “made a curse” so He might save those for whom He suffered. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Gal. 3:13, Deut. 21:23).

9) The Messiah’s VICARIOUS SUFFERINGS, Isaiah 53:4-6, 8, 10-12:

“Surely He hath borne OUR griefs and carried OUR sorrows [Isa. 53:4]...He was wounded for OUR transgressions, He was bruised for OUR iniquities: the chastisement of OUR peace was upon HIM; and with HIS stripes WE are healed [Isa. 53:5]...The Lord hath laid on HIM the iniquity of us all [Isa. 53:6]...For the transgression of MY PEOPLE was He stricken [Isa. 53:8]...Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin [Isa. 53:10]...He shall bear THEIR iniquities [Isa. 53:11]...He bare the sin of many [Isa. 53:12].”39

The outstanding fact of this chapter is the vicarious, substitutionary sufferings of the Messiah. This marvelous chapter contains only twelve verses, yet fourteen times announces the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice for all human sin. The whole section (Isa. 52:13-53:12) overflows with this con-ception, and never was the mystery solved until the Lord Jesus was “made…sin for us” (II Cor. 5:21) and “died for our sins” (I Cor. 15:3).

Jehovah “hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6). The Messiah was the divine Redeemer on whom fell all the fiery rays of judgment which would have fallen on mankind. How wonderful is God’s grace through Christ’s substitutionary atonement! So the cross became, at once, Christ’s deepest humiliation, yet His highest glory—and the appointed means of bringing salvation to men.
When the Lord Jesus came, He fulfilled these Messianic predictions by His atoning death on the cross: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (I Pet. 2:24).

(10) The Messiah will suffer WILLINGLY and without complaining, Isaiah 53:7:

“He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.”
Other sufferers usually register murmuring or complaining, especially when they are unjustly treated—but not so the suffering Messiah. He voluntarily submitted Himself to His appointed task of “bearing our sins” and went as a lamb to the slaughter. In sublime and magnanimous silence the Messiah will endure to the uttermost, because Jehovah wills it. And here we look down into the unfathomed mystery of infinite love.

In the New Testament, when Jesus the Christ was beaten, falsely accused, mistreated, mocked, spat upon, persecuted, manhandled, scourged, and crucified, there was no flame of resentment, no incriminations against His executioners, no loud complaining, but a prayer.

After many false witnesses appeared against Him, the high priest said, “Answerest Thou nothing?...But Jesus held His peace” (Matt. 26:62-63).

Here is Jesus’ prayer while suffering the tortures of crucifixion: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

This whole procedure is so unusual, so contrary to nature and human experience, one cannot help but be struck, startled, by both the strange prophecy and its even more remarkable fulfillment.

(11) When taken from prison and judgment, the Messiah will have NO ADVOCATE to plead His cause, no friend to declare His innocence, Isaiah 53:8:

“He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare His generation?”

The Sanhedrin had the custom in “trials for life” to call on those who knew anything in favor of the accused to come forward and declare it. This was not observed in the trial of Jesus of Nazareth, but rather, the proceedings at His hasty mock trial before the Sanhedrin were in flagrant contradiction to their own regulations and against all standards of right and fairness.

Jesus had to appear alone and undefended before the corrupt Jewish hierarchy and the representatives of the greatest Gentile power on earth at that time. Not one person appeared to take His part. Judas betrayed Him; Peter denied Him with oaths; and the other disciples “forsook Him, and fled” (Matt. 26:56). And many of the women that had, during His ministry, ministered unto Him, stood “beholding [from] afar off” when He was crucified (Matt. 27:55). In the hour of His greatest need, humanly speaking, NOT ONE PERSON STOOD BY HIM. True, later on, after the weary hours of suffering had numbed His broken body, Mary His mother, a few faithful women, and John His beloved disciple, “stood by” at the cross; but during His trial and the early hours of His crucifixion, He was left alone—absolutely alone. Never in the history of the world has anyone been so completely forsaken by friends and loved ones as Jesus was.

Jesus was arrested, NOT by proper officials, but by a mob, the rabble—“a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people” (Matt. 26:47). Even Jesus commented on the inconsistency of their approach: “Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take Me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on Me. But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matt. 26:55-56).

False witnesses were suborned to witness against Him “to put Him to death” (Matt. 26:59), and He was tried at night, which was illegal.

In the Roman court, when Pilate sought in vain for a cause to justly condemn Him, he asked the people, “What evil hath He done?” The only answers he got were the unreasonable shouts of the mob, egged on by their leaders, “Let Him be crucified...let Him be crucified” (Matt. 27:23). Then, when Pilate saw that words of reason and justice prevailed nothing and that a worse “tumult” was developing, he weakly washed his hands of the affair and turned Jesus over to them that they might crucify Him (Matt. 27:22-26). This was the worst miscarriage of justice in the annals of all history.
But Christ’s innocence was not only attested to by Pilate—“I find no fault in Him” (John 19:6)—but also by the Messianic prophet of old: “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth” (Isa. 53:9).

(12) At the moment of death, the Messiah’s humiliation was to end; and though men planned His burial “with the wicked,” providence planned it “with the rich,” Isa. 53:9:
“And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death.”

Dying as a criminal, ordinarily His body would have been flung over the wall to be burned like offal in the fires of Topheth (west of Jerusalem); but when His vicarious sufferings were finished, no further indignity was permitted to His lifeless body. And this remarkable coincidence is truly wonderful if we reflect that the Jewish rulers would have given to Jesus the same dishonorable burial as that given to the two thieves; but the Roman authorities handed over His body to Joseph the Arimathaean, a “rich man” (Matt. 27:57-60), who placed it in his sepulchre in his own garden. And at once we see an agreement between the Gospel history and the prophetic words which could only be the work of the God of both prophecy and its fulfillment, inasmuch as no suspicion could possibly arise of there having been any human design of bringing the former into conformity with the latter.

The reason assigned for His honorable burial, which was so different from what had been planned or appointed for Him by His enemies, is, “He had done no violence, neither was any deceit found in His mouth” (Isa. 53:9)—another reiteration of the absolute INNOCENCE of the Divine Sufferer.

Reread with rapt interest the New Testament account of Jesus’ burial to find the perfect fulfillment:

“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb” (Matt. 27:57-60).

(13) After the Messiah’s soul and body have been made an offering for sin, God will “prolong His days” in RESURRECTION; and He will see His seed, the fruits of His travail, Isa. 53:10:

“When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”

After the Messiah’s offering of Himself as a trespass offering, God will “prolong His days” in resurrection and He shall “see His SEED”—saved souls—as the result of His sacrifice.

The fulfillment of this paradox, as we have already pointed out, is in the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, who “died for our sins according to the Scriptures…and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (I Cor. 15:3-4).

This fact of the Messiah’s resurrection is in accord with other Old Testament scriptures, such as Psalm 16:10: “For Thou wilt not leave My soul in Hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.”

Moreover, the will of God will prosper in the Messiah’s hand—the Messiah will accomplish God’s will with zeal, and He will indeed bring salvation and righteousness to both Israel and the nations (Isa. 42:4).

The New Testament not only tells us of the glorious resurrection of Christ, but also of the beginning of His ministry after His resurrection—working through His disciples—by which multitudes were saved.

Acts 2:41: “Three thousand souls” were saved and added to the church. Acts 4:4: “Many of them which heard the Word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”
During the last twenty centuries of church history, multiplied millions have believed on Christ and have been saved. Christ indeed has seen SEED, and the will of God is prospering in His hand. Christ, at His second advent, will triumph, and then “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9). Truly, the Captain of our salvation is “bringing many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2:10).

(14) Not only will God be “satisfied” with the Messiah’s sacrifice, but through knowing the Messiah, many shall be JUSTIFIED, Isa. 53:11:

“He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities.”

Here we are given a forecast of the tremendous truth, so fully developed by Paul in the New Testament, of JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH, salvation by grace—because Christ died for our sins and purchased a full redemption for all. This truth of justification by faith is the grand, central truth of the New Testament.

“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe…Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:22-24).

“For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8-9, Rom. 4:5-6, 5:15-19, Titus 3:5).

Lest we forget that ALL grace bestowed upon believers is based on the Messiah’s sacrifice, we again are reminded that “He shall bear their iniquities.” There is an antithesis here suggesting the idea of exchange or mutual substitution: they shall receive His righteousness, and He shall bear the heavy burden of their iniquities.
This of course is consonant with the New Testament: “For He [God] hath made Him [Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we [sinners] might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Cor. 5:21).

(15) A strange CIRCUMSTANCE of the Messiah’s death is given, Isa. 53:12:

“He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Just as the mention of the disposition of the Messiah’s garments in Psalm 22 showed true detail in prophecy, we see here a connecting incident also showing true DETAIL in prophecy, marking it as genuine. Details in prophecy, if the fulfillment matches the prophecy, are the marks that immediately identify it as being of divine origin. Christ permitted Himself, voluntarily, to be numbered, or reckoned, with criminals, showing His willingness to suffer ALL that the Father had planned for Him.

It is of more than passing interest to recall that Christ Himself quoted this Scripture (Isa. 53:12) just before His own crucifixion: “This that is written must yet be accomplished in Me, And He was reckoned among the transgressors” (Luke 22:37). This prophecy and its fulfillment becomes one of those remarkable fulfillments between the prophecies and our Savior’s suffering, with Christ being crucified between two thieves (literally “robbers,” Matt. 27:38).

Much has already been said about the vicarious nature of the Messiah’s sufferings as given in this chapter (Isa. Ch. 53). In this, the closing verse, that fact once again is stressed: “He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Those familiar with the New Testament will recall many Scriptures that set forth the substitutionary nature of the death of Christ. I quote but two: “Now once in the end of the world hath He [Christ] appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself...So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:26, 28). “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Pet. 3:18).

Many volumes have been written showing the wonders of Messianic prophecy both in this chapter (Isa. Ch. 53) and in the fulfillment in the atoning death of Jesus the Christ as described in the New Testament. I believe that by calling attention again to these phenomena, these miracles in print, the faith of many will either be generated or confirmed, both in the supernatural character of the prophecies and in their fulfillment. This prophecy shows clearly that Scripture has upon it the stamp of its divine author—the mark of Heaven, the impression of eternity. Therefore, it is beyond even the wildest belief to imagine that the resemblance in every detail between this prophetic statement in Isaiah chapter 53, written centuries before Christ’s advent, and the account of His life, death, and glorious resurrection as narrated in the Gospels, can be merely coincidental.

V. PROPHECIES DESCRIBING THE MESSIANIC OFFICES OF CHRIST

CHRIST THE ANOINTED ONE

Both the words “Christ” (Greek—“Christos”) and “Messiah” (Hebrew—“Mashiah”) mean the Anointed One.40 Since the fall of man and his consequent separation from God,41 mankind has needed a true mediator, a true redeemer, who can fill man’s three basic needs:

(1) Sin left man in spiritual darkness, ignorant of God. Because of this, man needs the knowledge of the Word, will, and ways of God. Therefore, man needs to be regenerated, saved. Saved from what? Answer: saved from having to spend eternity in Hell and in the lake of fire! He doesn’t need today’s “Christianity,” he needs Christ, the Savior. Today’s Christianity is phony. Christ is the “real deal,” the power we need to overcome all obstacles.

(2) Sin left man guilty, lost, and separated from God. Hence, he needs forgiveness of sin, restoration for a repentant righteous soul, restoration to divine fellowship, and a complete escape from a burning, everlasting Hell of torments and lake of fire. For this, man needs a heavenly Priest.

(3) Sin, which is rebellion against God, His Word, His government, His purpose, left man with a rebellious nature that expresses itself in antagonism to God as well as his fellow men. Since man is a fallen creature, he needs not just a king, but a holy, divine King (the King of kings).

In Old Testament times, God provided these basic needs of mankind through His chosen prophets, priests, and kings. But since all human instruments fall short and fail, God planned from the beginning that He would provide the perfect Prophet, Priest, Savior, and King for mankind in the perfect One, His only begotten Son (Himself, Immanuel, God with us).
In Old Testament times, three classes of public servants—prophets (I Kings 19:16), priests (Ex. 29:21, Lev. 8:12), and kings (I Sam. 10:1, 16:12-13)—were consecrated to office by an anointing with oil.

(1) CHRIST AS PROPHET

The Old Testament prophet represented God to the nation, and he gave His words, His message, to the people. When the Messiah came, He would represent God perfectly and completely in person, as well as in words, to Israel and to the world. When Jesus came He proved to be God’s perfect prophet:

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [revealed, manifested] Him” (John. 1:18).

“He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father…Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works” (John 14:9-10).

As Prophet, the coming Messiah would be like Moses

“I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee [Moses], and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My name, I will require it of him” (Deut. 18:18-19).

Moses was an obedient servant of God, and he was chosen, above all other prophets, to set forth in type the prophetic ministry of the coming Messiah. In these outstanding points, Christ was a prophet “like unto Moses.” Moses was a LAWGIVER, a LEADER, a KING (captain), a DELIVERER, a PROPHET (God’s spokesman), and an INTERCESSOR for the people, with whom God spake face to face; so there arose not in Israel a prophet like Moses (Deut. 34:10-12, Num. 12:6-8). He was the only man in Jewish history who exercised the functions of prophet, priest, and king in one ministry.

How right the people were who, when they had seen the miracle of Jesus feeding the five thousand from a few loaves and fishes, said: “This is of a truth that PROPHET that should come into the world” (John 6:14). “That Prophet” is also referred to in John 1:21.

Though Moses was great, Christ was infinitely greater. Moses as a “servant” was faithful; Christ, as the “Son,” was the perfect and omniscient PROPHET (Heb. 3:5-6) who was “faithful to Him that appointed Him” (Heb. 3:2).

Peter summed up his sermon in the temple by these words: “For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever He shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that Prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people” (Acts 3:22-23).

Other references are made in both testaments to the prophetic ministry of Christ. Both Isaiah 61:1 and Luke 4:18 refer to Christ’s prophetic ministry, and both passages reflect the same thing:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”

(2) CHRIST AS PRIEST

The Old Testament priest, chosen by God, represented the people to God and offered sacrifices for their sins. He also had a ministry of com-passion for the “ignorant, and on them that are out of the way” (Heb. 5:1-2). This priesthood, of which Aaron was the first high priest, was imperfect, for the priests were sinners themselves and so they had, first of all, to offer sacrifice for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people (Heb. 5:3, 7:27-28, 9:7). Moreover, their priesthood was shortlived; it was frequently interrupted by death (Heb. 7:23). Furthermore, the offerings they offered were merely types, for “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Heb. 10:4).

But in CHRIST, God’s appointed High Priest, we have not only the perfect High Priest who liveth forever, but He gave HIMSELF for our sins, the perfect offering, the once-for-all, complete atonement for the sins of the race!

“For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests [of the old covenant], to offer up sacrifice, first for His own sins, and then for the people’s: for this He did ONCE, when He offered up HIMSELF. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the SON [our High Priest], who is consecrated for evermore” (Heb. 7:26-28, 9:11-14, 25-26).

So, by that one perfect offering on the cross, Christ “perfected for ever” them that are saved through faith in Him (Heb. 7:23-28, 9:25-28, 10:10-14). Most of the book of Hebrews is devoted to the fact that in Christ Jesus, God has given us His perfect HIGH PRIEST, who offered the perfect offering to atone for the sins of the entire race, and thereby give eternal life to all who accept Him as their substitute and Savior. The Messiah gave both His body and His soul as an offering for sin and sinners (Isa. 53:5, 10).42

Though the Aaronic priesthood presented to the people con-tinuously their need of atonement for their sins, and that remission of sins could only be obtained through the shedding of blood (Heb. 9:22), the one person chosen to picture the Messiah’s ETERNAL priesthood was not Aaron, but Melchisedec (Heb. Chs. 5-7, Psa. 110:4). Melchisedec, as a type of Christ, presents His eternal, un-changing priesthood (Heb. 7:3, He “abideth a priest continually”).

(3) CHRIST AS KING

“Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Psa. 2:6).

Since man is not only an individual, but a social unit, he needs a KING (government) to supervise his community life. So God, who first ruled the people of Israel through the patriarchs, later through “captains” (leaders like Moses and Joshua), and later yet through “judges,” finally consented to give them KINGS. In God’s Messiah we have the perfect KING—the “King of kings and the Lord of lords,” who will have a wholly righteous, beneficent reign.

“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth…and this is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jer. 23:5-6).

“And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him (the Messiah)…with righteousness shall He judge” (Isa. 11:2, 4, Zech. 9:9, II Sam. 7:12-17, I Chron. 17:11-14).

God selected three great men to picture the work of the Messiah as prophet, priest, and king: Moses as prophet, Melchisedec as priest, and David as king.

The term “anointed” is found eighteen times in the book of Samuel, the book giving the life of David. Hannah, the mother of Samuel, has the honor of being the first one to use the word “anointed” as referring to the coming One, and it refers to Christ as God’s anointed King.

“The Lord…shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointed” (I Sam. 2:10).

The coming of the Messiah as King usually refers to His second advent, when He will establish His kingdom reign of righteousness (Isa. 11:1-9, Mic. 4:1-5).

Many Psalms speak of the Messiah as the coming King (Psa. 2, 45, 47, 72). In Psalm 2, we see the coronation of the Messiah as King on Mount Zion (Psa. 2:6) and His inheritance of the heathen nations (Psa. 2:8). In Psalm 45, we see the majesty and beauty of the King, and His glorious bride. In Psalm 47, we see the Messiah as GOD and His coronation as King of the earth (Psa. 47:2, 7). Psalm 72 gives us the most complete picture in the book of Psalms of the Messiah’s coming kingdom and His reign of righteousness:

(1) The Messiah is identified as the king’s son (Psa. 72:1)
(2) Messiah the King’s perfect righteousness (Psa. 72:2-4)
(3) Messiah the King’s wholesome reign (Psa. 72:5-7)
(4) Messiah the King’s universal dominion (Psa. 72:8-11)
(5) Messiah the King’s divine compassion (Psa. 72:12-14)
(6) Messiah the King’s reign produces material and spiritual prosperity (Psa. 72:15-17)
(7) Perfect praise of the Lord God during Messiah the King’s reign (Psa. 72:18-19)43

The New Testament Witness that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed of God

In the New Testament, Jesus the Christ is clearly set forth as God’s anointed Prophet (John 17:8), who gives His people God’s words, God’s anointed Priest, “who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God [to], purge your conscience” (Heb. 9:14), and as God’s coming “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Rev. 19:16).

In Hebrews 1:9, Christ is seen as the Anointed of God: “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath ANOINTED Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”

We have referred before to Luke 4:18, where Christ said He was the One anointed to preach the gospel to the poor, that Isaiah had spoken about (Isa. 61:1).

In Revelation 1:5, Jesus is presented as Prophet, Priest, and King: “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness [Prophet], and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince [King] of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood [Priest].”

And also in Hebrews 1:1-3, Christ is presented as Prophet, Priest, and King:

“God…Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son [Prophet]…when He had by Himself purged our sins [Priest], sat down [as King] on the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

“BEHOLD” GOD’S “BRANCH”

Other Bible teachers have called attention to the remarkable fourfold use of the Messianic name “the BRANCH” in the Old Tes-tament, and the frequent use of “Behold,” in connection with God’s Messiah, the Branch. “Behold,” is used as God’s “Ecce Homo” in the Old Tes-tament. Taken together (the “Beholds” with “the Branch”), they present a beautiful summary of the CHRIST of the four Gospels. Here is the fourfold use of “the Branch” and “Behold” as used of the Messiah in the Old Testament:

(1) As KING
“BEHOLD, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righ-teous BRANCH, and a KING shall reign and prosper” (Jer. 23:5).
“BEHOLD, thy KING cometh” (Zech. 9:9).
This corresponds to the Gospel of Matthew, where Christ is presented as KING.
(2) As SERVANT OF THE LORD
“BEHOLD, I will bring forth My SERVANT the BRANCH” (Zech. 3:8).
This corresponds to the Gospel of Mark, where Christ is presented as the SERVANT OF THE LORD.
(3) As SON OF MAN
“Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, BEHOLD the MAN whose name is The BRANCH” (Zech. 6:12).
This corresponds to the Gospel of Luke, where Christ is presented as the ideal and the representative MAN.
(4) As the SON OF GOD
“BEHOLD your GOD” (Isa. 40:9).
“In that day shall the BRANCH of the LORD be beautiful and glorious” (Isa. 4:2).
This corresponds to the Gospel of John, where Christ is presented as the SON OF GOD—yes, GOD HIMSELF in the flesh.
These four uses of “the BRANCH” are the only four instances in the Hebrew Scriptures (except Jer. 33:15, which is a repetition of the thought in Jer. 23:5-6) where the Messiah is designated by the title “The Branch.” Several times the Messiah is introduced in the Old Testament by the word “Behold”—as though to call special attention to HIM.44

OTHER NAMES OF THE MESSIAH IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

There are scores of names of the Messiah in the Old Testament; we mention but a few.
The “Servant of the Lord”
In Isaiah the Messiah is frequently called the “Servant of the Lord,” or, “My Servant” (Isa. 42:1, 52:13). As the “Servant of the Lord [Jehovah]” He is the exponent of righteousness and true humility, the Teacher and Redeemer of mankind. He fulfills all God’s desires; hence, He is:
The second Adam—the perfect Man
The second Israel—the perfect Servant
The second Moses—the perfect Prophet
The second David—the perfect King
The second High Priest—the perfect High Priest
The growing purposes of God toward the whole human race, which were manifested in the creation of Adam, the election of Israel, the raising up of Moses, the appointment of Aaron, and the call of David, are brought to their full completion by, in, and through Christ.

The “Shepherd”

Isaiah sees the Messiah as the Servant of the Lord (Isa. 42:1, 52:13), Ezekiel sees Him as the Shepherd of Israel (Ezek. 34:23, 37:24—“David” meaning the “Seed of David,” which is Christ. The word “Shepherd” in these verses means Jesus).

Christ, the truly beloved of the Father, was God and was the true Shepherd (the Word, the Door into Heaven. See John chapter 10. It shows that God gave His life to those that wish to attain life).

More Names and Titles of the Messiah

He is also the “Stone” or the “Rock” (Isa. 8:14), the “Corner” (Isa. 28:16), “Nail” (Isa. 22:21-25), “Battle Bow” (Zech. 10:4), “Shiloh” (Gen. 49:10), “Star” (Num. 24:17).

The Name “JESUS” in the Old Testament

The name JESUS is actually hidden in the Old Testament, and is found about one hundred times from Genesis to Malachi. Every time the Old Testament uses the word SALVATION, especially with the Hebrew suffix meaning “my,” “thy,” or “His,” with very few exceptions (when the word is used in an impersonal sense) it is identically the same word as YESHUA (Jesus) used in Matthew 1:21. This is actually what the angel said to Joseph: “And she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt call His name YESHUA [SALVATION]: for He shall save His people from their sins.”

Let us see how it works out in a few Old Testament passages. In Psalm 9:14, David says, “I will rejoice in Thy salvation.” What he actually said was, “I will rejoice in Thy YESHUA [JESUS].” And in Isaiah 12:2-3, we have something truly wonderful. SALVATION is mentioned three times, presenting three great facets of Jesus and His salvation. We give them as they read in the Hebrew, with Jesus as the embodiment and the personification of the word “salvation”:

“Behold, God is my YESHUA [a reference to Jesus in His preincarnation, eternal existence (John 1:1)]; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my YESHUA [Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14)]. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of YESHUA [Jesus crucified, waters of salvation flowing from Calvary (John 7:37-39, 4:10, 14)].”

My Lord and my God, have mercy upon my soul, a sinner. 1 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. 2 I believe that He died on the cross and shed His precious blood for the forgiveness of all my sins. 3 I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit 4 and that He sits on the right hand of God at this moment, hearing my confession of sin and this prayer. 5 I open up the door of my heart and I invite You into my heart, Lord Jesus. 6 Wash all of my filthy sins away in the precious blood that You shed in my place on the cross at Calvary. 7 You will not turn me away, Lord Jesus, You will forgive my sins and save my soul. I know because Your Word, the Bible says so. 8 Your Word says that You will turn no one away, and that includes me. 9 Therefore, I know that You have heard me, and I know that You have answered me, and I know that I am saved. 10 And I thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving my soul, and I will show my thankfulness by doing as You command and sin no more. 11

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Now that you are saved, it is a commandment to be fully submerged, baptized in water in the name of the Father and in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit. Follow all of God’s commands and live.

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