 |  |
Prophecies concerning the Messiah, however, cannot be treated in this fashion. They
lie so near to the heart of truth, so close to the basis of all our hopes, that if they could be
explained away we should be of all men most miserable. Let us tabulate some that are
outstanding.
The place where Messiah was to be born, namely, Bethlehem, a little village among
the thousands of Judah, was predicted by Micah the prophet (5: 2) 700 years before the
event, which is as though someone in 1066 foretold the birth of an individual in some
obscure village in England in the reign of George the Third!
The extraordinary character of this birth, namely, that the Messiah should be born of
a virgin, was foretold by the prophet Isaiah (7: 14; 9: 6, 7).
The extraordinary marvelous character of His death, is foretold by Isaiah, in that
wonderful chapter, the fifty-third. Isaiah even goes so far as to foretell such details as:
"He made His grave with the wicked ones (plural), and with the rich one (singular) in
His death" (53: 9).
The death and resurrection of the Messiah were foretold with extraordinary exactness.
The Psalms reveal that He would not see corruption (16: 10), that the instrument of His
death should be crucifixion (22: 16) a mode of punishment unused among the Jews in
David's time; that He should sit on the right hand of God waiting until His foes be made
His footstool (110: 1), and that He should come again, His feet standing in the last day
upon the Mount of Olives, the spot from which the N.T. records that He actually
ascended (Zech. 14:; Acts 1:). Finally, for the present section, Daniel predicted the
number of years that should intervene from the time indicated in Dan. 9: 25 to the
coming of the Messiah the Prince Who should "be cut off and have nothing", a prophecy
which is a never-ending source of wonder to all who take the trouble to compute and
examine chronology and history. Christ was born "in the fullness of time".
The prophecies of the N.T. fall into two great groups. Those which were uttered by
Christ concerning His own death and resurrection and which were immediately fulfilled,
and those uttered by Christ and His apostles concerning the close of the age and the
second coming of Christ, which prophesies necessarily await fulfillment, although the
signs of the times, as predicted in I Tim. 4: and II Tim. 3:, 4: are most certainly
making themselves evident. The Saviour foretold His death, where it should take place,
who would be instrumental in bringing it about, and what would precede it. He would be
"killed" at "Jerusalem", and suffer many things of "the elders, and chief priests and
scribes" (Matt. 16: 21). He specified what these "many things" would be. He would be
delivered to the "Gentiles to mock, scourge and crucify" Him (Matt. 20: 18, 19). He also
foretold His betrayal, indicated the traitor, and moreover, knew that all His disciples
would forsake Him in the hour of His extremity (Matt. 20: 18; 26: 23, 31); and He
even foretold that Peter would deny Him thrice before the cock crew twice
(Mark 14: 30). In every case the prophecy was fulfilled to the letter.