MESSIANIC PROPHESIES
Inquiry:---"I am keeping company with a young Jew who is well up on many things, save religion. His interest in me has recently awakened in him an interest in the subject. He is a high grade fellow whom I am anxious to be one with me in religion. Your name was mentioned as a source of information. Therefore I am writing to be favored with evidence that Christ, Our Lord, was foretold to come in the ages before His birth."
Answer:---The evidence of the coming, as well as the life and death of Our Lord, is recorded, as you know, in the Old Testament inspired writings of God's foretelling historians. They announced that the Messiah (Christ) was to be racially of Adam (Deut. 3:15); religiously of Moses (Deut. 15:18); nationally of Jacob-Israel (Gen. 49:24); tribally of Judah (Gen. 49:10); and ancestrally of David (Ps. 131:11). Here are 25 Old Testament prophecies regarding the Messiah that were uttered centuries before His birth.
1---God would send a Prophet who would speak for Him (Deut 18:15).
2---A messenger (John the Baptist) would prepare the way (Mal. 3:1).
3---Would be born in a stated number of weeks (Dan. 9:25-26).
4---The "seed" (Christ) would be born of a woman (Gen. 3:15).
5---Born of a Virgin Mother (Isa. 14:7).
6---Born in Bethlehem (Michaes 5:2).
7---Born in the house of David (Jer. 23:5); Isa. 11:1).
8---Born under the Star of Jacob (Num. 24:17).
9---Born at the time of the second Temple (Aggeus 2:10).
10---Born when the sceptre (authority) was taken away from Juda (Gen. 49:10).
11---Would be called a Nazarite (Judges 13:7).
12---Called the "Emmanuel, God with us" (Isa.7:14).
13---Called "God the Mighty;" "Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6).
14---Be the Good Shepherd (Isa. 40:10-11).
15---Kings would come with presents to adore Him (Ps.71:10).
16---Would flee into Egypt (Osee 11:1).
17---Would be silent before His accusers (Isa.53:7).
18---Would be hailed as King, while riding on an ass through Jerusalem (Zach. 9:9).
19---Would be a Man of Sorrows (Isa. 53).
20---Would be betrayed (Ps. 40).
21---Would be sold for thirty pieces of silver (Zach. 11:13).
22---Would suffer willingly for our sins (Isa. 50:6).
23---Would be led like a sheep to slaughter (Isa. 53:7).
24---Would be subjected to the piercing of His hands and feet (Ps. 21:17).
25---Would be resurrected from the dead (Isa. 11:10).
I Submit that no more convincing evidence has ever been presented of the coming, life and death of any individual in the history of the world, than are recorded in these 25 prophecies that were foretold centuries before the birth of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If only a few of these prophecies were fulfilled, they would be evidence sufficient to prove Christ to be what He is, the "Emmanuel: God with us;" "God the Mighty;" the "Prince of Peace;" our Messianic Lord.
Faulty Appreciation
The man who fails to realize that Jesus is the Christ, after studying the 25 Old Testament prophecies above enumerated, and their fulfillment as recorded in the New Testament, must be like the Englishman speaking over the telephone, who failed to realize that the cause of misunderstanding was on his end of the wire.---"Yes, this is Mr. 'Arrison. What you can't 'ear? This is Mr. 'Arrison---haitch, hay, two hars, a ho, and a hen, 'Arrison.