Part 3: Prophets & Prophecies
Introduction:
As emphasised in my previous post, it is important to note that the Law and The Prophets (The Old Testament) points towards Jesus. Previously, I mentioned “The walk to Emmaus”, a story where Jesus points out to some of His followers, passages in the scriptures that point to him. Similarly, as Jesus speaks to some Jewish leaders in John 5:16-45, in verse 39, Jesus says “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me!” and in verses 46-47, he says “If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”. Like Luke 24, these verses highlight the complete revelation of Jesus Christ in the Hebrew scriptures. Jesus constantly reminds them that His coming was not spontaneous, but an event that had been planned from the beginning of time. In this post, I am focusing on the biblical role of the prophets, and their prophecies made about Jesus. We often hear the mention of the prophets. But who were they? What did they do? And most importantly, how do they point to Jesus?
To begin with, the prophets were individuals (both male and female) who spoke on behalf of God. Dictionary.com describes a prophet as a “person who speaks for God or a deity, or by divine inspiration”. In the Old Testament, God typically did not speak to people except through His prophets - therefore making them His spokesperson. By the very nature of what the prophets lived to do, points towards Jesus himself. God has always utilised an intermediate to carry His message to the nations. The majority of the prophets carried God’s message to the children of Israel. They carried warnings, prophecies, reproach and God’s very own words. In a way, the prophets pointed towards someone better, someone who could both express God’s message and God’s character perfectly. Just as prophets spoke and prophesied on behalf of God, Jesus did also. Not only did he carry the Father’s words to the nations, but he also fully expressed the character of God, allowing us to grasp who God is himself - something that no other prophets were able to do. Hebrews 1:1-3 says explicitly “Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the Son, he created the universe. The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God -”. This verse conveys my point beautifully, in previous times, the prophets were used to carry God’s message to the people of Israel, but now the Father uses His Son to share His will, whilst also radiating his own glory and character to us. Now as we read the gospel ourselves, and we listen to the words Jesus spoke, we are able to understand God’s will and also build a relationship with Him.
How do the OT prophets point towards Jesus?
With that being said, due to the nature of Jesus being fully divine but also fully human he was able to fulfil the role of the prophet perfectly. In verse 1 of Hebrews 3, the author declares Jesus to be “God’s messenger” - another word used for prophets. The title of a prophet is given to any human that accurately communicates God’s words/message to a group of people. So by the title, Jesus in his humanity, did exactly that. Not only did he communicate the will of God to the people, but he also predicted future events, warned people about God’s punishment several times in relation to future judgement and performed many miracles. So essentially as Gotquestions.org summarises, “Jesus fulfils all the requirements for a prophet in title, word, and deed. He is the ultimate prophet in that He is the very Word of God Himself”. The title of prophet for Jesus goes all the way back to Moses’ prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:18, whereby The Lord said to Moses “I will raise up a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell the people everything I command him.”. This prophecy was confirmed to be about Jesus in Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37. Jesus is the prophet who was raised among the Israelites. Jesus in a way was similar and like Moses because, just as Moses gave the commandments to the Israelites (Exodus 20:1-21), Jesus also gave commandments to his followers (John 13:34, 15:12,17). They both mediated covenants between God and man, Moses the Old (Exodus 34:27, Acts 7:44) and Jesus the New (Luke 22:20 and Hebrews 9:15). Furthermore, Jesus and Moses are both alike in the sense that they both interceded for the people. Moses constantly interceded for the Israelites during the journey in the wilderness (Exodus 32-11-13, 30-32) whilst Jesus continually intercedes for us when we sin (1 John 2:1, Romans 8:34). These are just a few examples that highlight the similarities between Jesus and Moses and how Jesus was the expected prophet.
What were the prophecies concerning Jesus?
There are many more verses that point towards Jesus, not as a prophet, but as the coming Messiah - the anointed one, the one who would ultimately bring salvation. These verses are essentially prophecies that were made about Jesus, which Jesus fulfilled perfectly. Enduring Word highlights that “There are at least 332 distinct Old Testament predictions regarding the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled perfectly. The combination of this evidence together, from a simple statistical perspective, is absolutely overwhelming.” In fact, Professor Peter Stoner adds that “the probability of any one man fulfilling eight of these prophecies is one in 100,000,000,000,000,000 (10 to the 17th power).” Further emphasising the magnitude of how likely these prophecies point to the person Jesus. There are verses about His conception (Isaiah 7:14), His character (Isaiah 53:9), His death (Isaiah 53:5), His resurrection (Isaiah 53:10), His purpose in delivering us from sin (Isaiah 53:11) and many more (I highly recommend taking a look at this page to see all the prophecies Jesus fulfilled:https://www.gotquestions.org/prophecies-of-Jesus.html). The prophets - especially Isaiah and David accurately described someone who was to come, and the Jews were expectant of this person. On many occasions, during the time Jesus walked the earth, they questioned whether the Prophet had come (John 1:21, John 6:14-15).
Jesus, as the ultimate prophet and Messiah
Both the role of the prophets and the prophecies of the prophets point towards Jesus. Jesus was the man all of Israel was waiting for, and although the biblical Jews may have missed it, we are favoured enough to have a chance to analyse the scriptures, see the references made of Him and accept Him with our whole hearts. Although the prophets themselves did not see Jesus with their own eyes, they rejoiced at the coming of Jesus. A great example of my point is the words of Jesus made in John 8:56. It reads “Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad”. Although Abraham had not seen Jesus walk the earth, he knew by the work of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was coming. Jesus even commends John the Baptist as being the “greatest”, for the fact that apart from being subject to a prophecy himself ( “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before me.” Malachi 3:1) as the one who prophesied and prepared the way for the coming Messiah (“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11), he also witnessed Jesus on earth, something that “all the prophets and the law of Moses looked forward to” Matthew 11:11.
Thank you for taking your time and reading this post. If you thought this topic was interesting and would like read more on how the Old Testament foreshadows Jesus, click here for Part 1.
Comments