One of the incredible things about the prophecies concerning Jesus in the Bible is that there are so many. God did not give one or two prophecies that could be dismissed easily, but he gave vast numbers with very precise interpretations.
Picture prophecies Not only did He give spoken and written ones as we saw in Question 2, but he gave some in the form of 'pictures'. By pictures we mean events that happened in Israel's history that paint a picture of who the Messiah would be. Remember, God had always promised Israel a Messiah - a special anointed one who would solve their greatest problems. That Messiah was Jesus. But God prepared the Israelites partly by using events and ceremonies that portrayed Jesus and his life and death. Animal sacrifices Adam and Eve In the Bible story, as soon as Adam and Eve sinned, God sacrificed an animal and made them coats out of animal skins. Before they sinned, the man and the woman were naked, but what God was saying was this: 'Now you have sinned you need a sacrifice to help you.' This was the first in a great series of sacrifices that God arranged to help people understand important lessons and to point forward to Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice. The two main lessons were these: 1) Sin brings death. 2) To deal with people's sin, a sacrifice must be made, in effect , to pay for the sin. Instead of the man and woman dying, an animal died. Sin is very serious, so a sacrifice helps us to understand that seriousness. Before God made them coats from animal skins, Adam and Eve made themselves coverings made from leaves. That was like covering up sin. God says in effect 'We don't cover sin up - we recognise it and deal with it with a sacrifice.' Cain and Abel Adam and Eve's first two sons were called Cain and Abel. Each of them brought a gift to God. Cain brought vegetables and Abel brought an animal sacrifice. God was displeased with the vegetable sacrifice because it was like trying to buy forgiveness, rather than acknowledging sin and making an animal sacrifice. The Passover You may know about how the Hebrews were as slaves in Egypt but God brought them out through Moses. The Egyptians had been treating the Hebrews very badly, so God sent plagues to force the Egyptians to let the Hebrews go. For a long time the Egyptians refused, so God did one final huge thing. He said that on a particular night the firstborn male in every family would die unless the family was protected. How could the families protect themselves? God said that each household had to sacrifice a lamb. They must take its blood and put it on the wooden doorpost and lintel. Blood on a wooden upright and cross beam - does that remind you of anything? Just as the blood of Jesus would drip onto the wooden cross some 1500 years later to bring people eternal life, so here the blood of the lamb was sprinkled onto the wooden doorposts to preserve the life of the firstborn male. The lamb had to be male, just as Jesus was male. The lamb had to be perfect (no disease, no injuries, not lame of blind) just as Jesus was morally perfect.
More sacrifices! After coming out of Egypt, God established a pattern of sacrifices. He said that every time a person sinned they must sacrifice a bird or an animal to show that they were sorry for their sin and to ask for forgiveness. They also built a kind of big tent for worshipping God and for making sacrifices called the Tabernacle (which later was rebuilt with stone in Jerusalem and called the Temple). Every year the High Priest had to go into a special place in it, the Holy of Holies, and sprinkle blood on behalf of the whole nation. More on the temple later. But all this prepared people for the sacrifice of Jesus, as they saw the importance of sin being paid for by a sacrifice and the importance of blood being poured out to forgive sins. Abraham and Isaac There is another curious story that is a picture of God the Father allowing His only Son to be sacrificed. Most people have heard of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people (Israel). One day, God told him to take his only legitimate son Isaac and sacrifice him. Abraham knew God was good and would somehow make this a positive thing so he was ready to obey. He took his son Isaac up a mountain and prepared a pile of wood to burn the sacrifice. As Isaac lay on the wood, and Abraham lifted up the knife to kill his beloved son, God told him to stop. There was a ram caught in the hedge nearby so God told him to sacrifice that instead. This is an incredible picture of Jesus in two ways. First of all, the father being willing to sacrifice his only son, just as God the father was willing to sacrifice His Son Jesus for us. But secondly, just as the ram died instead of Isaac, so Jesus died on the cross instead of us. Picture also Isaac (and then the ram) lying on the wood for the sacrifice, just as Jesus lay on the wooden cross in preparation for the crucifixion, as the soldiers nailed him to it. But of course God had to go through with the sacrifice of His Son for the sake of the human race.
Back to the Tabernacle and Temple The Tabernacle and later the Temple also contained things that symbolised Jesus. The Tabernacle had three parts. An outer court surrounded by a fence. At the entrance to that outer court was a bronze altar where sacrifice had to be made. This symbolised Jesus's death for us and that we can't approach to God without it. Inside the outer court was the actual tent. Inside of this were various items. One was a table which always contained bread. This symbolised what Jesus would one day say: 'I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.' Jesus meant by knowing him, people have eternal life.
There was also a lampstand that was always alight day and night, shining into the darkness. This looked ahead to Jesus's words: 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' These are just a few of the many 'picture prophecies' that are found in the Bible.
More written prophesies about the Messiah that were fulfilled by Jesus. About the birth of Jesus Isaiah also said that the Messiah would be born of a virgin and be ‘God living with us’. ‘“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel (God With Us).”’10 Isaiah told us which family tree that He would be born into (the family of Jesse) and would become popular amongst Gentiles (non-Jews). For non-Jews to follow a Jewish Messiah was a very strange thing! ‘There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.... The Gentiles shall seek Him.’11 Another prophet, Jeremiah, also says that He would be born from this family tree of Jesse’s son, David.13 (For more about this see The Messiah's Family)
The prophet Micah said that He would come from Bethlehem, which is where Jesus was indeed born. ‘“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”’ 14 He would be born into the Tribe of Judah: The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people. (Genesis 49:10) He would be the Son of God. In a Psalm specifically speaking about the Messiah, God says: I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. (Psalm 2:7, 8. The Messiah (or Anointed one) is mentioned in verse 2) 4) About His burial Isaiah also described how Jesus would be with wicked people as He died but with the rich in his grave. (Jesus was crucified next to some thieves but buried in a rich man’s tomb.) They appointed His grave to be with the wicked but at His death it was with the rich. 16 The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem – possibly the burial place of Jesus before he rose from the dead. 17
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