This essay is free for distribution in any manner, with the provision
that it remains completely intact, with this notice, the author's
name and the full text of the essay.  Any comments are gratefully
welcomed.  Copyright 1995.


INTRODUCTION

     The fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of the Old
Testament is an undeniable fact.  Not only is His lineage, purposes and
nature foretold, but so are many events in His life.  By comparing the Old
Testament prophecies to the New Testament recorded events, one is unable to
conclude otherwise.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH

      Isaiah the prophet uttered long ago, "The virgin will be with child and
will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel [God with us]. "  This
verse has for many years been seen as prophetic of the coming Messiah.
Walter Kaiser believes the phraseology of the utterance to be of
significance, being similar to earlier utterances of God to Abraham, Isaac
and others .  Further, the significance of the child Immanuel is increased in
Isaiah 8:9-10.  The truth of God being with His people was elaborated further
by Isaiah in 9:1-6 and chapter 11 - a child would be born who would sit on
David's throne.

      Much debate has ensued over time as to whether the word translated
virgin ('almah) really means "virgin" or rather merely "young woman".   The
fact that it does may be seen by Isaiah claiming that the birth will be a
sign from the Lord - something spectacular.  The imperative behold! is used
to indicate the significance of the birth - it was no ordinary one.  Smith
states that, without doubt, and at the least, the word 'almah refers to an
unmarried woman  (for example, Rebekah in Genesis 24:43).  Hence in Isaiah's
prophecy, a woman is to bear a child.  Usage of 'almah prevents thinking of
the woman as married - thus she is either, then, a virgin or an immoral
woman.  As the birth of an illegitimate child to an immoral woman is not a
particularly great sign, the conclusion must be that the 'almah of Isaiah
7:14 is in fact a virgin.  Further, the 'almah is with child - this clearly
removes any temptation to consider the woman an unmarried maiden who was
married at the time of the conception.

      In Luke's gospel the fulfilment of this prophecy is given:

    In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to
    Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be
    married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The
    virgin's name was Mary. . . . the angel said to her, "Do
    not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God.  You
    will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to
    give him the name Jesus. . . . "  "How will this be," Mary
    asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?"  The angel
    answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the
    power of the Most High will overshadow you. . . . For
    nothing is impossible with God."

BORN IN BETHLEHEM

      The book of Micah contains an important Messianic prophecy,

    But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are least among
    the thousands of Judah, our of you He shall come forth to
    Me to be ruler in Israel, His goings forth have been from
    old, from the days of eternity.

      This is a specific prophecy.  Bethlehem is identified as "Ephrathah"
(the older name for Bethlehem ), distinguishing it from other towns which
were named Bethlehem (such as the one in Zebulun ).  Further, use of this
term "Ephrathah" identifies Bethlehem as the town in which David was born ,
from whose lineage the Messiah was to come.

      That this prophecy is Messianic is doubtless.   The chief priests and
teachers of the law pointed to this verse in support of their claim that the
Messiah would come from Bethlehem.   The people were also expecting the
Messiah to come from Bethlehem.

      The activities of the Messiah, referred to as being "from the days of
eternity" are claimed by Smith to refer to the pre-incarnate activities of
the Messiah.   At the very least, it shows that Micah expected a supernatural
figure, and is in harmony with Isaiah's description of the Messiah as both
"eternal" and "God".   Further, Ankerberg et. al. quote Hailey, who sees that
the words

    "from old, from ancient times" indicate more than that he
    descends from an ancient lineage; it relates Him to God,
    the Eternal One.  His rule reaches back into eternity.

      Indeed, 700 years later, Jesus was born in Bethlehem.

THE PARABLE TELLER

      The evangelist Matthew writes concerning Jesus, quoting from the first
two verses of Psalm 78,

    All these things spoke Jesus unto the multitudes in
    parables; and without a parable he did not speak unto
    them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the
    prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will
    utter things which have been kept secret from the
    foundation of the world.

      This psalm was written my the musician Asaph.  Modern scholars believe
Matthew to have merely used the language of Asaph , yet it appears that
Matthew actually regarded this passage to have been a direct prediction of
the Messiah's teaching ministry.  In fact, as Smith points out,

    Who is the speaker in verses 1-2?  Most assume that the
    first pronoun refers to Asaph, the author of the psalm.
    But this is only an assumption.  First person utterances
    in prophetic literature often are direct utterances of
    God.  According to the New Testament, first person
    utterances in the psalms as well as the prophetic books
    sometimes are to be attributed to Messiah.
    Matthew, under inspiration of the Spirit, was keen to
    observe in Psalm 78:1-2 what most modern interpreters have
    missed, viz., that Asaph could not possibly be speaking in
    these two verses.  God is the speaker.  The language
    admits of no other interpretation.  The speaker addresses
    his readers as my people. . . . The use of the terminology
    my people is presumptive evidence that God is the
    speaker.

    This, then, reveals several things about the Messiah's ministry.  God is
determined to speak.  God will speak to His people.  God will speak in a
parable (a comparison, proverb, or poem ).  God will speak in dark sayings
(enigma, simile, profound or obscure utterance ).  These dark sayings express
ancient truths, for they are "of old."

    Matthew quite legitimately assigns the fulfilment of this prophetic
passage to the teaching ministry of Jesus.  Indeed, in Jesus, God spoke
ancient truths in parabolic form.

COMING TO THE TEMPLE

      Many times Jesus went to the Temple in Jerusalem (for example, when
overturning the tables of the money changers).  The fact that the Messiah
would come to the Temple (indicating that He must have arrived at least by 70
A.D. when the Temple was destroyed) was prophesied by Malachi, who stated a
divine utterance:

    'Behold, I am sending My messenger, and he shall prepare
    the way before Me.  And the Lord, whom you seek, shall
    suddenly come to His temple, even the Angel of the
    Covenant, in whom you delight.  Behold, He comes,' says
    Jehovah of hosts.

      This passage has been recognised by the Jewish people as Messianic ,
and indeed, it has clear Messianic overtones.

      The context of the passage is that the people of Israel, in the midst
of complaining, asked, "Where is the God of justice? "  To this the prophet
Malachi responded, "The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple."
However, before this God would not to send a messenger who would prepare the
way, in harmony with Isaiah 40:3.  As God Himself would be coming to the
Temple, it seems likely that the messenger would be to morally prepare the
people for the coming of the Lord.

      The prophecy has a clear fulfilment, and in the New Testament is quoted
in Matthew 11:10, Mark 1:2 and Luke 7:27, where "the messenger" is explicitly
applied to John the Baptist.  The "Angel of the Covenant" is a theophany,
that is, the second member of the Trinity in His pre-incarnate form.  Lange
sums up this aspect of Christology thus,

    From a very early period we find mention of an
    extraordinary Messenger, or Angel, who is sometimes called
    the 'Angel of God,' at others, the 'Angel of Jehovah.'  He
    is represented as the Mediator between the invisible God
    and men in all God's communications and dealings with men.
    To this Angel divine names, attributes, purposes, and acts
    are ascribed. . . . There is thus a gradual development in
    the Old Testament of the doctrine of the incarnation, of
    the distinction of persons in the Godhead, not brought to
    light fully, lest it should interfere with the doctrine of
    the unity of God.

      Hence, as Ankerberg et. al. sum up, "When did the Lord suddenly come to
His temple?  Who is the Angel of the Covenant?  Who else could it have been
but Jesus Christ? "

THE KING RIDING ON A DONKEY

      In the context of God's judgment on Israel's enemies, and the promise
of Israel's coming King, Zechariah gives the prophecy:

    Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout, O daughter of
    Jerusalem!  Behold!  your King comes to you!  He is
    righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a
    donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

      This prophecy is applied to the Messiah by Jewish Rabbi's of all time.
Smith gives four reasons to consider this passage Messianic:

    1.  Pages could be filled with quotations from ancient
    Jewish sources in which this passage is applied to
    Messiah.
    2.  The Gospel writers apply this passage to Jesus (Matt.
    21:4, 5; John 12:15).
    3.  The passage contains expressions from older Messianic
    prophecies.
    4.  The passage can be consistently applied to none other
    than Messiah.

      Indeed, Jesus rode into Jerusalem triumphantly, on the colt of a
donkey.   Ankerberg et. al. summarise the relevance of this prophecy like so:

    Now, according to Zechariah 9:9, there will be a Messianic
    King, who is "righteous and having salvation," who will
    enter Jerusalem.  It says He will be "gentle and riding on
    a donkey."  Who else but Jesus Christ ever claimed He was
    righteous and had salvation (Jn. 3:16, 18; 5:24, 34, 39;
    8:29, 46)?  Who else claimed that He was the personal
    fulfilment of this prophecy and entered the city of
    Jerusalem, gentle and riding on a donkey (Jn. 12:13-16;
    Mt. 21:1-11)?

THE CRUCIFIXION

      The Christ was to suffer and die.  He came to give His life as a ransom
for many.   His atoning death was prophesied in the Old Testament, and even
the very manner of death - although such a method was completely unknown in
those times.  This is particularly detailed in the two prophesies of Psalm
22, and Isaiah 53.  Psalm 22 reads:

    My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?. . . .

    All who see me mock me;
       they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
    "He trusts in the LORD;
       let the LORD rescue him.
    Let him deliver him,
       since he delights in him.". . . .

    I am poured out like water,
       and all my bones are out of joint.
    My heart has turned to wax;
       it has melted away inside me.
    My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
       you lay me in the dust of death.
    Dogs have surrounded me;
       a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced my hands and feet.
    I can count all my bones;
       people stare and gloat over me.
    They divide my garments among them
       and cast lots for my clothing.

      Isaiah adds,

    Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
    yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.
    But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities; . . . .

    By oppression and judgment, he was taken away.
       And who can speak of his descendants?
    For he was cut off from the land of the living;
       for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
    He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
       and with the rich in his death. . . .

    he poured out his life unto death,
       and was numbered with the transgressors.
    For he bore the sin of many,
       and made intercession for the transgressors.

      Quite obviously a remarkable parallel may be drawn between the
experiences of King David, the author of the Psalm, and Jesus of Nazareth,
hundreds of years later.  It is important to determine that these are
actually Messianic prophecies, and not merely coincidences.  The notable
scholar Alfred Edersheim, himself a Messianic Jew, states that Psalm 22 is
applied to the Messiah in Yalkut  (the collection of old explanations and
interpretations of the Old Testament), and Isaiah 53 is applied to Him in
some of the Targum's and Midrash's.   In fact, although David experienced
much opposition, at was at the point of death several times during his life,
much of the language of Psalm 22 is inappropriate to him.  Both passages are
applied to the Messiah many times in the New Testament.  The situation is as
Briggs states,

    these sufferings transcend those of any historical
    sufferer, with the single exception of Jesus Christ.  They
    find their exact counterpart in the suffering of the
    cross.  They are more vivid in their realization of that
    dreadful scene than the stories of the Gospels.

      Rather than being fanciful speculation by the Church, these passages
read as if they were written at the foot of the cross.  There can be little
doubt that these passages refer to the Messiah, and it is completely certain
that the events were not "fixed" so as to deliberately fulfil the prophecies,
as some would claim.

      The Messiah is seen crying, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Jesus said these exact words while dying on the cross.   For Him, it was a
rhetorical question, representing His very real sufferings due to the agony
of His separation from the Father as He bore our sins.

      Just as the prophets declared, while Jesus hung on the cross, he was
scorned and mocked by the crowds about Him.  The rulers sneered at Him.   The
soldiers came up and mocked Him.   One of the two criminals crucified also
hurled insults at Him.   Herod and his soldiers mocked him also , as did the
chief priests and the teachers of the law.   Finally, the entire crowd hurled
insults at Him.   Some yelled, "He trusts in God.  Let God rescue him now if
he wants him. "

      Jesus was crucified with two robbers, one on His left, and one on His
right.   He interceeded for His killers, saying, "Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing. "  He is still interceding for His
Church today.   This is all in fulfilment of Isaiah 53:12.

      Again, as the prophets declared, Jesus' blood poured out of His body.
Ankerberg et. al. further state that,

    it is a fact that crucifixion pulls the bones and the body
    out of joint.  This is what happened to Jesus.  When
    "blood and water" came forth from Jesus' pierced side (Jn.
    19:34), this was medical proof that His heart had
    literally burst, fulfilling David's words [Psalm 22:14]

      Jesus looked down on the soldiers who had crucified Him and were
gambling for His garments.   Amazingly, He was the only one of the three
crucified at that time whose legs were not broken, and the only one to suffer
a spear thrust in His side.   Finally, Jesus' strength dried up.  He
thirsted , and then He died.   As it had been written.

THE RESURRECTION

      Jesus did not remain in the grave.  On the day of Pentecost, the
Apostle Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, preached to the crowds,

    But God raised him [Jesus of Nazareth] from the dead,
    freeing him from the agony of death, because it was
    impossible for death to keep its hold on him.  David said
    about him. . . . you will not abandon me to the grave, nor
    will you let your Holy One see decay.

      In his message Peter quotes from the Messianic Psalm 16.  Paul does
this also in his address in Antioch of Pisidia.   Some scholars see no
thought of a resurrection in this Psalm, yet others quite plainly see the
resurrection as the central thrust , which it is.  Clearly, the Messiah would
"enter the abode of the dead, but he would not remain under the power of
death. . . . He would not be in the tomb long enough for his body to decay. "

      It also appears that Isaiah prophesied of the resurrection.  In the
well-known servant song of chapter 53, quoted above, Isaiah makes reference
to the Messiah's death, "For he was cut off from the land of the living. . .
. He was assigned a grave. . . . "  Isaiah adds, shortly afterwards,

    Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to
       suffer,
       and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,
    he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
       and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
    After the suffering of his soul,
       he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

      Hence, after the Messiah suffered, as described in the earlier verses
of this chapter, and in Psalm 22, He again saw the light of life.  Although
it may seem incomprehensible to natural minds how one could be raised from
the dead, this is the clear teaching of the Old Testament.

      Indeed, the apostle Paul describes this event like so:

    . . . . that he was raised on the third day according to
    the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to
    the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five
    hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are
    still living, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he
    appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of
    all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

      There are, of course, skeptics who would deny that Jesus rose from the
dead.  However, as Ankerberg et. al. point out,

    The resurrection cannot be rejected on anti-supernaturalist grounds.
Miracles are impossible only if one knows in advance that they have never
happened.  But the only way anyone can know that is by first examining the
evidence.  The probability of a miracle is determined by the cumulative
weight of the evidence, not philosophical bias.

and indeed the evidence may be plainly seen, and certainly it was foretold in
the Old Testament.

CONCLUSION

      That Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament is
undeniable when one considers the evidence.  The events of His life were in
perfect harmony with the prophetic predictions made of the Messiah.  Truly it
is a shame that many do not recognise this, for so much of Jesus' life was
foretold in the Jewish scriptures.  How much detail Jesus must have given to
the disciples on the Emmaus road, of which Luke records, "And beginning with
Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the
Scriptures concerning himself. "


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ankerberg, John, John Weldon and Walter C. Kaiser, Jr. The
     Case for Jesus The Messiah. Melbourne: Pacific College
     Study Series, 1994.

Becker, Joachim. Messianic Expectation in the Old Testament.
     Translated by David Green. Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
     1980.

Bentzen, Aage. King And Messiah. 2d ed. Edited by G.W.
     Anderson. London: Lutterworth Press, 1970.

Bruce, F. F., ed. The Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Vol. 2,
     Messiah, by J. A. Motyer. Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press,
     1980.

Edersheim, Alfred. The Life and Times of Jesus The Messiah.
     Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993.

Manson, William. Jesus The Messiah. London: Hodder and
     Stoughton, 1943.

Mowinckel, Samuel. He That Cometh. Translated by G.W.
     Anderson. New York: Abingdon Press, 1954


Ringgren, Helmer. The Messiah in the Old Testament. London:
     SCM Press Ltd., 1956.

Scholem, Gershom. The Messianic Idea in Judaism. London:
     George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1971.

Smith, James. The Promised Messiah. Nashville: Thomas Nelson,
     1993.


REFERENCES

         Isaiah 7:14.
         John Ankerberg, John Walter and John Kaiser, The Case for Jesus
the Messiah (Melbourne: Pacific College Study Series, 1994), 139.
         Helmer Ringgren, The Messiah in the Old Testament (London: SCM
Press Ltd., 1956), 26; Joachim Becker, Messianic Expectation in the Old
Testament, translated by David Green (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980),
46.
         James Smith, The Promised Messiah (Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers 1993), 252.
         Luke 1:26-38.
         Micah 5:2.
         Genesis 35:16, 19; 48:7; Ruth 1:2; 4:11.
         Joshua 19:15.
         I Samuel 17:12.
         II Samuel 7:12-16.
         Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus The Messiah
(Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993), 143.
         Matthew 2:1ff.
         John 7:42.
         Smith, op. cit., 333.
         Isaiah 9:6.
         Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 75.
         Luke 2:1-7.
         Matthew 13:34-35.
         Smith, op. cit., 128.
         Idem, 129.
         Idem, 130.
         Ibid.
         Malachi 3:1.
         Edersheim, op. cit., 1007.
         Malachi 2:17.
         Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 85.
         Idem, 86.
         Ibid.
         Zechariah 9:9.
         Edersheim, op. cit., 1006.
         Smith, op. cit., 423-424.
         Matthew 21:6-11.
         Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 78.
         Mark 10:45.
         Psalm 22:1, 7-8, 14-18.
         Isaiah 53:4-5, 8-9, 12.
         Edersheim, op. cit., 988.
         Idem, 997-998.
         Smith, op. cit., 146.
         Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 39.
         Matthew 27:46.
         Galatians 3:13-14; I Peter 2:24.
         Luke 23:35.
         Luke 23:36-38.
         Luke 23:39.
         Luke 23:11.
         Luke 23:10.
         Matthew 27:39-40.
         Matthew 27:43.
         Matthew 27:38.
         Luke 23:34.
         Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25.
         Ankerberg et. al., op. cit., 38.
         John 19:23-24.
         John 19:31-37, fulfilling also Psalm 34:20 and Zechariah 12:10.
         John 19:28.
         John 19:30.
         Acts 2:24-27.
         Acts 13:35.
         Smith, op. cit., 161.
         Idem, 165.
         Isaiah 53:8-9.
         Isaiah 53:10-11.
         John 29:9.
         I Corinthians 15:4-8.
         Ankerberg. et. al., op. cit., 121.
         Luke 24:27.

davidmwilliams@oocities.com