A Study in Messianic Prophecy

Throughout the apostle Paul’s ministry he would enter the synagogue in whichever town he was in and would reason with his fellow Jews that Jesus was indeed Mashiac, Messiah, Christ. A good example is found in Acts 17:2-3

And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ is the Mashiac.”

So how exactly did Paul do that? It says he went to the Scriptures, that is the Hebrew scriptures, the old testanment because that’s where the messianic prophecies lie. Did you know that the Hebrew scriptures contain more information about Mashiac than the NT writings?

Let’s look together at some of the Messianic prophecies and see if Jesus fits that model. Just as a side note, it’s important to point out that the prophecies we will be looking at are all written hundreds, even thousands of years before Jesus was born.

Furthermore, the Hebrew Canon was already established so it’s not like Jesus arrived on the scene and all these prophecies were written or made up. They were established and recognised well before Jesus came onto the world.

Let’s quickly establish a few definitions. Messiah or Mashiac in Hebrew means anointed. There is also a Greek word that is often referred to as Christ or Christos. No it wasn’t Jesus’ surname. Messiah and Christ is the same word. We are not going to encounter the word Messiah very frequently in the passages we will be looking at. Other adjectives will refer to the same person as the Son of God, the Son of David, or the one who is to come. There are a lot of terms used referring to this one individual and you will see this as we encounter them but the most popular name and the one we most refer to is the Messiah or the Christ.

Lets start in Genesis 3:15 the very first prophecy of the Messiah.

To give the passage some context, Adam and Eve have succumbed to the temptation of the serpent and God metes out various judgements as a result.

“I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her seed;
He shall bruise you on the head,
And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

The first prophecy of Messiah goes back as early as the fall.

The writer says there will be mutual hatred between the woman (Eve) and her offspring and the serpent (Satan) and his offspring which will last for generations.

This prophecy says the Messiah will come through a woman and not a man. This is a rare thing indeed as things pertaining to legal descent, national and tribal identity was always taken from the father’s side. The fact that Moses traced this genealogy through the woman tells us there will be something very different about the Messiah. But Moses gives no explanation and none will be given for several centuries until the Prophet Isaiah reveals a little more of the puzzle in Isaiah 7 that the Messiah is to be born of a virgin the Hebrew word alma and have no human father.

The New Testament also confirms this. In the book of Galatians 4:4 we read:

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.

The Apostle Paul is saying at the appointed time Messiah came born of a woman showing Messiah was human.

The last thing Genesis 3:15 says concerning the seed of the woman is:

“He shall bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

That is to say, he, Messiah, would crush the head of the serpent – Satan. And what would the serpent do? The serpent would simply bruise him on the heel and be unable to bring him down.

If someone suffered an ankle injury you would probably feel sympathy for them but know they will be fine with a bit of rest, but if someone suffered a fatal head injury there would be much more reason for concern.

The bruising of Messiah’s heel occurred at Yeshua’s crucifixion. Satan hurt Jesus in a physical realm but not in the eternal realm. Yeshua did far worse damage to Satan by crushing his head through his death and resurrection.

The Hebrew writer in the New Testament puts it this way:

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, Yeshua Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil (the serpent), 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. 16 For assuredly Yeshua does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Heb 2:14-16

And that word descendant of Abraham is the seed of Abraham which takes us to prophecy number 2. The seed of Abraham.

In Genesis 22:18 God’s talking to Abraham and he narrows the Messianic line down. Of all the descendants of all the people on earth, now the seed is going to come from Abraham:

18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

From this passage we can see the seed of the woman is limited to being a descendant of Abraham. A second prophecy here is that through this specific seed all the nations of the earth will one day be blessed. In other words, the gentile nations will also be blessed through the seed of Abraham.

So the seed came down from Abraham, was passed onto his son Isaac and from Isaac to his son Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons and of those sons the seed of Judah was the chosen line. Which leads me to prophecy number 3.

Genesis 49:10

The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he to whom it belongs shall come
and the obedience of the nations shall be his.

The essential meaning here is that Judah will not lose it’s tribal identity or it’s right to rule over the other tribes until someone comes.

3 quick points on Genesis 49:10

1/ Messiah is declared to be a man. Descended from Abraham and now limited to being a son of Judah.

2/ Messiah is going to be King. The scepters and rulers staff show us he will have royalty and authority.

And importantly 3/. The Messiah must come before the tribe of Judah loses its identity. Notice this establishes a clear time period for the prophecy. Where were the genealogical records kept and maintained? The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. And when was second temple destroyed? AD 70. In AD 70, these precious records were lost when the Romans came in and destroyed, no, totally annihilated the temple. It’s pretty clear then that Messiah had to have come before AD.70 It’s simply not possible for Messiah to come after 70 CE. 

So we are narrowing it down. The tribe of Judah’s pretty big but we are narrowing it down. We have a time frame to work with and we have a tribe.

Now we are going to narrow it a little further. Let’s fast forward to 1,000 BC. It’s hard to get away from Yeshua as even our dates revolve around him.

In the line of Jesse or in the line of David, Jesse was David’s dad so the same basic family. Isaiah 11:1 says this:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

This term a branch becomes very important in the Messianic scriptures. The imagery here is of a tree that has been cut down. The emphasis is on Messiah’s lowly origin. It’s interesting to note this passage doesn’t mention David, though there are a ton of passages of Messiah relating to David, being the son of David and so on. When we think of King David we think of his great wealth, but growing up as a young shepherd boy in Bethlehem under his father Jesse it was quite the opposite. In David’s lifetime the house of Jesse went to being one of poor in Bethlehem up to the wealth and splendour of Jerusalem. But this verse indicates that although Messiah will be a descendant of David he will not come until the house of David has been reduced to what it was formally in the days of Jesse. But all hope is not lost.

From the stump of Jesse, however, grows a shoot, low to the ground, but not without fruit. Eventually this shoot will become a tree in its own right.

Staying with Isaiah we see he loves to designate the term Messiah as servant. This term is frequently used throughout chapters 42-66. We will look briefly at some of these now.

In Isaiah 42:1 (I encourage you to read 42:1-6 but because of time restrictions we are only going to briefly focus on verse 1. The prophet clearly points out the role of servant in Messiah when God says:

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen one in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the nations.

Messiah is anointed with the Spirit. This is a reaffirmation of Isaiah 11:2 and we also see in Messiah, although sent to the Jewish nation, gentile nations in some way not really spelt out here will benefit from his coming.

Isaiah 49:6 expands on this idea a little more:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Here we are in Sydney, Australia and you also tuning in from many parts of the world all know about Jesus and the salvation he offers. Ironically that’s what Yeshua means. The New Testament writers claim he came to rescue you from the sin and destruction in our lives.

Let’s recap where we are up to so far. We know:

The Messiah will be human born through the seed of a woman, which will come down through Abraham specifically through David, the tribe of Judah. Messiah will be a servant who will come before AD 70 and not just for the nation of Israel but for all nations so they can benefit from his coming.

How can we recognise where Messiah will be born? We have some information on that as well.

Micah 5:2

But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel.
His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”

Micah 735-700 BC.

Micah 5:2 makes a couple of predictions. First, the birthplace of this future “ruler of Israel” would be Bethlehem Ephrathah. Since there were two locations known as Bethlehemat the time of Micah’s writing, the addition of Ephrathah is significant. It specifies the Bethlehem in Judah. The portion of Israel in which the capital, Jerusalem, was located. Bethlehem was considered “little,” or insignificant, among the cities of Judah, yet would serve as the birthplace of this future ruler.

Second, the coming ruler of Jewish background was one “whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.” What else could this refer to other than the Messiah? Only the Messiah fits the description of a ruler in Israel whose origin was from times past. Only the Jewish Messiah could be a ruler in Israel from eternity past.

From Micah 5:2 we see

1. Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

2. He would be divine as well as human, having existed from eternity past.

We know that Messiah would be born of a woman, through Abraham’s seed, from the Tribe of Judah in the town of Bethlehem Ephrathah.

What will the Messiah do?

For that we have to head back to the role of the servant in Isaiah. In this case the suffering servant found in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. We are going to focus on Isaiah 53.

Many Jews have come to believe that Yeshua is Messiah from this one passage alone. I’ve heard of Jews who came to recognised Yeshua as Mashiac and took this passage to friends and family and they retorted thats fine but show us this in the Tanakh to which they replied this is the Tanakh.…….

Verse 1 asks the question who has believed our message? The emphasis here is on the unbelief of Israel. Did the Jewish people accept the message that Yeshua was Mashiach? No.

Some of those reasons are given in verse 2. There was nothing about his first coming which seemed unusual. He was born in normal, relatively poor circumstances which was confirmed in Isaiah 11:1. There was nothing in his outward appearance that we might be drawn to him. He was no model looking celebrity which a huge instagram following. Like that?

In verse 3 we are told that his whole life was characterised by rejection and suffering. The complete opposite of being drawn to him.

In verse 4 it says surely he took on our pain and our suffering. At first, Israel didn’t get that his sufferings were for them, but now realise he was suffering on their behalf.

In verse 5 it becomes clear to them that he was wounded for their transgressions, bruised for their own iniquities. Messiah took the substitutionary sufferings on him which resulted in reconciliation and spiritual healing as the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The text goes on to say he was like a lamb led to the slaughter not protesting his death. He did not open his mouth to defend to himself. This was true of Yeshua at both his Jewish and Roman trials. (Matthew 26:63, 27:12-14; Luke 23:9).

The latter part of verse 8 says: For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

The Messiah undergoes a legal trial (some would argue an illegal trial) at which He is condemned to death. He is then cut off, that is He is legally executed. Executed for the sins of the people.

Verse 9 describes how he would be buried with the wicked but his tomb would be with the rich. Because Messiah was executed as a criminal, it would have been expected for him to be given a criminals grave. But God intervened and had Messiah laid in a place of honour, in a rich man’s tomb. We read in Matthew 27:57-60 a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus and buried him in his own tomb. Fulfilling another messianic prophecy.

The case for Yeshua as Mashiac is getting stronger.

Over the centuries Christians have blamed the Jews for murdering Messiah. And many of these accusations have actually made Jews run in the opposite direction making our job to show Yeshua as Mashiac all the more difficult. When I first arrived to study at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem back in 1997, I worshipped at a messianic church called Netivyah and the preacher there Joseph Shulam, gave me this amazing advice. He said when you witness to the Jewish people don’t say you are a Christian. Tell them you follow Yeshua ha Mashiac. Jesus the Messiah, why because the connotation of Christian in Israel doesn’t go down well with many Jews.

But lets take a look at verse 10 and you tell me who actually killed Messiah?

Vs.10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer.

It was whose will? Not the Jews, nor the Romans. It was God’s will. God may have used certain groups to bring about his purpose, but ultimately it was God who caused Messiah to suffer and die for the sins of the people just as it was prophesied by Isaiah some 700 before. Messiah’s death wasn’t accidental but part of a divine plan.

But death wasn’t final for Messiah. It gets even better. Verse 10 goes on to say: He will see his seed and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.”

Hmmm! If he has been killed, how can He see His spiritual progeny? If he is dead, how can his days be prolonged? The only way this can happen is by means of resurrection. The New Testament writers all claim Yeshua was raised from the dead. In Mark’s account chapter 16 after shabbat some of the women Jesus knew were going out to his tomb and saw the stone that had sealed the tomb had been rolled away and an angel said to them in verse 6:

6 “Don’t be alarmed,” “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here.

Let’s do a quick recap and see if these Messianic prophecies fit Yeshua?

Messiah’s first coming would be characterised by suffering. Yeshua suffered

Messiah’s first coming would be characterised by rejection. Yeshua was rejected by men. Luke 17:25 But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. John 1:11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Messiah would undergo a legal trial and be condemned to death. Yeshua fits that description. Read any gospel. Matthew 26 & 27.

Messiah would be executed. Yeshua was crucified

Messiah would be buried in a rich man’s tomb. We saw the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea give Jesus his tomb. Matthew 27:57-61

Messiah would be resurrected. Yeshua appeared to over 500 people after his resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8

Messiah’s sufferings and death were substitutionary. He died so that we would be free from sin and enjoy a new relationship with God.

Messiah would bring justification to all who believe in Him. The last words of Jesus in Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved.

Grant McFarland | March 2022