Religious 5: Prophecies about Jesus

Eph 5:11:"…have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”.

Amos 3:7 “…God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.”

Why this post?

To provide evidence of the prophecies that predicted Jesus.

Disclaimer

Several authors expounded the historical and archeological accuracy of the Bible and I do not intend to cover the same ground. My focus is to build on what’s already there and as soon as possible, get to the miracle of prophecy.

But to do so, I need to take the reader back to what we already know.

Introduction

This is old news, but a very long list of prophecies points to Jesus. Those span several authors across a lengthy period and it’s remarkable how accurate those were.

I’ll list those, then show a statistical calculation of that un-likelihood and then what Jesus said himself.

The list

Here’s the list. Some are more vague than others and some sources list more:

1. Genesis - The seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head (3:15)

2. Genesis - God’s covenant with Isaac’s ancestors (17:19)

3. Genesis - Messiah would be a descendant of Isaac (26:1-5)

4. Genesis - The nations will be blessed through Jacob’s offspring (28:14)

5. Genesis - The Messiah would come before the tribe of Judah lost identity (49:10)

6. Exodus - Jesus will have a sinless, blemish-free life and ministry (12:5)

7. Exodus - The Passover lamb prefigured Christ (12:46) (Please don’t dismiss.)

8. Numbers - The bronze serpent lifted up prefigured Christ (21:9)

9. Deuteronomy - A prophet like Moses would be raised up (18:15,18)

10. Job - Job's hope of living and seeing God foreshadowed resurrection (19:25-27)

11. Psalms - The Messiah will be humbled in order to serve mankind (8:5–6)

12. Psalms - His body would not undergo decay (16:10)

13. Psalms - Forsaken by God (22:1)

14. Psalms - Darkness over the land (22:2)

15. Psalms - Mocked/insulted (22:7-8)

16. Psalms - People shook their heads (22:7, 109:25)

17. Psalms - Suffered thirst (22:15, 69:21)

18. Psalms - Jesus will be crucified (22:16-18)

19. Psalms - Garments parted/lots cast (22:18)

20. Psalms - Accused by false witnesses (27:12, 35:11, 109:2)

21. Psalms - Committed Himself to God (31:5)

22. Psalms - No bones broken (34:20)

23. Psalms - His back smitten (35:15, 129:3)

24. Psalms - Jesus would become the perfect sacrifice (40:6–8)

25. Psalms - Jesus would preach righteousness to Israel (40:9)

26. Psalms - Messiah's betrayal by a friend (41:9, 55:12-14)

27. Psalms - Jesus will ascend to heaven (68:18)

28. Psalms - Given vinegar and gall (69:21)

29. Psalms - Jesus would teach in parables (78:1–2)

30. Proverbs - The wisdom of God personified (8:22-31)

31. Isaiah - Christ’s parables would fall on deaf ears (6:9–10)

32. Isaiah - Born of a virgin (7:14)

33. Isaiah - Jesus will be a stone that causes men to stumble (8:14)

34. Isaiah - Christ’s ministry would begin in Galilee (9:1–2)

35. Isaiah - Declared the Son of God (9:6)

36. Isaiah - The prophecy of a shoot coming from the stump of Jesse, indicating the Messiah's lineage and characteristics (11:1-10)

37. Isaiah - Jesus would have a miraculous ministry (35:5–6)

38. Isaiah - Preceded by a messenger (40:3)

39. Isaiah - The prophecy of the Servant of the Lord bringing justice to the nations (42:1-4)

40. Isaiah - Jesus will be a light to the Gentiles (42:6)

41. Isaiah - The prophecy of the Servant being a light to the Gentiles for salvation (49:6)

42. Isaiah - The prophecy of the Servant's suffering and vindication (50:6-7)

43. Isaiah - The prophecy of the suffering and atoning work of the Servant (52:13-53:12)

44. Isaiah - Had no outward attractiveness (52:14, 53:2)

45. Isaiah - Jesus would be despised and rejected (53:3)

46. Isaiah - Vicarious sufferer (53:4-6, 10-12)

47. Isaiah - Jesus will be a sacrifice for sin (53:10)

48. Isaiah - Patient and Silent Sufferer (53:7)

49. Isaiah - Buried in a rich man's tomb (53:9)

50. Isaiah - Jesus will pray for his tormentors (53:12)

51. Isaiah - Numbered among the transgressors (53:12)

52. Isaiah - The prophecy of the Spirit-empowered ministry of the Messiah (61:1-2)

53. Isaiah - Jesus will set the captives free (61:1)

54. Jeremiah - The Branch from David's line (23:5, 33:15)

55. Ezekiel - The Shepherding of God's people (34:23-24)

56. Daniel - The timing of His birth (9:25)

57. Daniel - The anointed one would be killed (9:26)

58. Hosea - The resurrection after two days (6:2)

59. Hosea - The prophecy of God calling His son out of Egypt (11:1)

60. Joel - The outpouring of the Spirit (2:28-29)

61. Amos - Darkness over the land (8:9)

62. Jonah - His bodily resurrection foreshadowed (1:17)

63. Micah - Born in Bethlehem (5:2)

64. Haggai - The latter glory of the temple (2:9)

65. Zechariah - The prophecy of the Branch who would build the temple and bear royal honor (6:12-13)

66. Zechariah - The humble king riding on a donkey (9:9)

67. Zechariah - Pierced for our transgressions (12:10)

68. Zechariah - His betrayal for 30 pieces of silver (11:12-13)

69. Zechariah - The Shepherd struck and sheep scattered (13:7)

70. Malachi - The forerunner of the Messiah (3:1, 4:5)

Some Old Testament Prophecies are still to come:

1. Genesis - As Abraham's seed, Christ would bless all nations (12:3, 22:18)

2. 2 Samuel - The offspring of David would have an everlasting kingdom (7:16)

3. Psalm - The promise of the Messiah's kingship and inheritance of nations (2:7-9)

4. Psalm - The Messiah's eternal throne and anointing with the oil of joy (45:6-7)

5. Psalm - The universal rule and dominion of the Messiah (72:8-11)

6. Psalm - The Messiah's eternal priesthood and reign at God's right hand (110:1-4)

7. Isaiah - Jesus will be a redeemer for Israel (59:20) (NOT LITERAL ISRAEL)

8. Daniel - His kingdom is everlasting (7:13-14)

The likelihood

There are loads of articles that cover this:

The Texas example is probably the most well known. It goes that, in order for one man to fulfil eight specific prophecies would be a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance.

Suppose that we take that many silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now, mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold someone and tell them that they can travel as far they wish, but they must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?

What about the future?

This is all in the past, are there any of those looking forward? Finally, we are getting to the real bones of this substack. In the next several posts I shall be digging into lots of juicy details of the Daniel and Revelation prophecies.

whydoneit

Why would God send these prophecies?

Well, sticking to Apologetics, what is the category of argument that Jesus used?

PROPHECY:

Something from the old testament:

But what did Jesus say himself?

And another:

Which other religion has this?

I’m telling you that the best Apologetic argument is the one Jesus used himself.

If this is not cause for pause, I don’t know what is.

And it’s about to get even better…