Old Testament Prophecies Proclaiming Christ's Birth and Death

Prophesies & Prophets

of the Old Testament

 

In my search for a more profound faith in God, I have read the entire Bible a few times over the years of my life, and discovered that there were many prophecies in the Old Testament telling of the future Birth and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. 

With us being in the Season of Advent, the word Advent meaning  "Coming" of the Lord,  I thought I would share them with you...if you do not know them or if it's been a while since you read them.. you can discover the awesomeness of God as we await His Coming both His Birth and His promised Return!!!

God is so good to us, as St. Augustine said--that He gave us His promises through prophesies through his faithful prophets through the ages before Christ, to ready the people for His Redeeming Sacrifice and His coming into the world. (St. Augustine's writing on subject is found on this blog... )

Let us start with the Book of Wisdom written by King Solomon, son of David and see what it says about Christ...the defiance of the High Priests and others who refused to believe Jesus was the Messiah promised by God. 

King Solomon

Wisdom 2: 12-20: 

"Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.  He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.  We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.  Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected."

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The Prophet Isaiah has much to say about the Coming of Jesus to the world...and His Death--- it's so miraculous that he's prophecies were so accurate.. but should it be miraculous? As he was given this knowledge from the Almighty God Himself!!!

Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Isaiah 50: 5-7: The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.  I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.  For the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Isaiah 53: 1-12: Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have

turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief; when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand; he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

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Isaiah 60:6:  A multitude of camels shall cover you,the young camels of Mid'ian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come.  They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.

Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh the very gifts that the Three Wise Men presented to the Infant Jesus.  Gold for a Royal King (Jesus the King of Kings); Frankincense for worship to God (Jesus the Son of God), and Myrrh---used for burial Jesus died for our sins... was buried and rose from the dead!!!

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Isaiah 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,  because  he has anointed me to  preach  good  news  to  the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of  sight  to the blind, to set  at  liberty  those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."  

This passage of Isaiah, Christ Himself reads to the people listening in Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21.

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There are other places in the Old Testament--Daniel's prophecy, as well as in Micah--we hear of the place where Christ will be born...

Prophet Daniel

Daniel 7:13-14: I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man,and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Micah  5:2  And  thou  Bethlehem  Ephrata,  art  a  little  one  among  the thousands of Judah,  out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be the ruler in Israel: and  his  going  forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity.

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King & Prophet David

King David, a prophet and one love much by God wrote the Psalms (in particular Psalm 22), in it proclaimed the agony that Jesus would have to endure.. even the Romans casting lots for his clothes...

Psalm 22: 2:  O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.

Psalm 22:7-9: But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.  All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.  He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him.

Psalm 22:12-19 : Depart not from me. For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help me.  Many calves have surrounded me: fat bulls have besieged me.  They have opened their mouths against me, as a lion ravening and roaring.  

 
 I am poured out like water; and all my bones are scattered. My heart is become like wax melting in the midst of my bowels.  My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws: and thou hast brought me down into the dust of death.  For many dogs have encompassed me: the council of the malignant hath besieged me. They have dug my hands and feet.  They have numbered all my bones. And they have looked and stared upon me.  They parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots.

The Prophet Samuel was the one who announced to David that his heir will be raised up and His kingdom will last forever...

Prophet Samuel as a Boy "Here I am"..1 Samuel 3

 2 Samuel 4-5a, 12-14a, 16:  The Lord spoke to Nathan and said: "Go, tell my servant David, 'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,  I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.  It is he who shall build a house for my name.  And I will make his royal throne firm forever.  I will be a father to him,  and he shall be a son to me.  Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever."

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Other prophets through the history of the Old Testament were also given the knowledge of He Who is to Come... 

Zechariah 11:12-13: Then I said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.  Then the LORD said to me, "Cast it into the treasury" -- the lordly price at which I was paid off by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and cast them into the treasury in the house of the LORD.

Here the prophet Zechariah predicts that the Lord would be sold for 30 pieces of silver---Judas fulfilled this when he betrayed Jesus to the Pharisees.

Prophet Ezekiel

Ezekiel 34:11-16:"For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out.  As a shepherd seeks out his flock when some of his sheep have been scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel,

Jesus the Good Shepherd

by the fountains, and in all the inhabited places of the country.] I will feed them with good pasture, and upon the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on fat pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.  I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD.  I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.

The scripture above from Ezekiel were fulfilled by Jesus, when he said in Luke 19:10:  "For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost."

Prophet Samuel anointing David

2 Samuel 4-5a, 12-14a, 16:  The Lord spoke to Nathan and said: "Go, tell my servant David, 'When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,  I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.  It is he who shall build a house for my name.  And I will make his royal throne firm forever.  I will be a father to him,  and he shall be a son to me.  Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever."

Zechariah 9:9: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass,on a colt the foal of an ass.

Here Zechariah's prophecy was fulfilled by Jesus on Palm Sunday, when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on a donkey.

Have a thoughtful time of preparation in Advent awaiting His Coming...and a Wondrous Christmas Day...  

HIS Birthday!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS MY KING!

Rose