What Does the Old Testament Tell Us About Jesus?

How can someone be convinced that Jesus truly is who He claimed to be—the Messiah of Israel and the world? One of the ways that Jesus Himself proved this was by citing the Hebrew Bible’s (my favorite term for the Old Testament) prophecies of the Messiah and how He fulfilled them. For example, Jesus said, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

So, to which prophecies was Jesus referring? Probably not merely specific isolated messianic texts, but to the Hebrew Bible as a whole. Even so, there are numerous specific predictions about the coming of the Messiah that Jesus fulfilled. In fact, the entire life of the Messiah can be found in the Hebrew scriptures, demonstrating that Jesus is actually the Promised One.

The Messiah’s Birth

The Hebrew Bible contains several predictions of the locations or circumstances surrounding the Messiah’s birth. Micah, the Old Testament prophet, foretold that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem when he wrote, “Bethlehem Ephrathah, you are small among the clans of Judah; One will come from you to be ruler over Israel for Me” (Mic. 5:2 hcsb) .

Also, Genesis 49:10 predicted that the Messiah would come in the first century. It says, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.” Some understand the word “Shiloh” as a proper name and messianic title but it’s best to be understood as a phrase meaning “He to whom it belongs,” referring to the Messiah as the rightful ruler. Besides plainly stating that the Messianic King would come from the line of Judah, it also says He would come before the “scepter” and “staff ” depart from Judah. The word scepter in Hebrew, as used here, refers to tribal identity (note the same word is translated “tribe” in 49:16). The word staff means a “judge’s staff ” and refers to judicial authority. The prediction is that Messiah would come before Judah would lose its tribal identity (lost in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple) and judicial authority (lost in AD 6 or 7 when the Romans replaced Herod Archelaus with a Roman governor). Based on these two elements, the Messiah needed to come by the first century.

The Hebrew Bible predicted that the Messiah would be virgin born in Bethlehem by the time of the first century.

Additionally, Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. King Ahaz and Judah were under a threat from an alliance of the northern kingdom of Israel and the nation of Aram (Syria). These two kingdoms wanted to remove the Davidic king, which would jeopardize the Messianic promise. The Lord directed Isaiah to take his son Shear Jashub and bring a message of hope to King Ahaz—an offer that Ahaz rejected. At this point, Isaiah gave two predictions. The first, a far prophecy (7:13–15), directed to the whole Davidic house (note the pronoun “you” in these verses is plural) assured the enduring nature of the Davidic house until the coming of the Messiah. Isaiah wrote, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” The sign of hope would be the Messiah’s supernatural birth by a virgin in the distant future.

The second prediction (7:16–17) related to the near situation and was directed again to King Ahaz (note the pronoun “you” in these verses is singular). It foretold that by the time “the boy” Shear Jashub (whom Isaiah had brought along, cf. Isa. 7:3) reached an age to know right from wrong, the imminent threat of the two northern kings would be removed. This happened when Assyria defeated both these kingdoms in 732 BC, just two years after Isaiah’s prophecy. So, the Hebrew Bible predicted that the Messiah would be virgin born in Bethlehem by the time of the first century.

The Messiah’s Nature

Although some have thought that Messiah would be merely a glorious human king, the Scriptures foretold that Messiah would have a unique nature. For example, the same prophecy that predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2) also said that His origin would really be “from long ago, from the days of eternity” indicating His eternal nature.

Isaiah also foresaw that the Messiah would have a divine nature. In a birth announcement of the Messiah, Isaiah gave the royal names of the future messianic king: “. . . . Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). These glorious titles of deity indicate that the Messiah would be God Himself.

The Messiah’s Life

Isaiah foretold specific characteristics of the Messiah’s life. In the messianic age, “the eyes of the blind will be opened and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy” (Isa. 35:5–6). So, when the Messiah would make His appearance, He was to be a miracle worker. Isaiah also predicted that Messiah’s teaching would “bring good news to the afflicted . . . [and] bind up the brokenhearted” (Isa. 61:1). Despite these many signs, Isaiah foretold that Messiah would also be “despised and forsaken of men” and that His own people would confess that “we did not esteem Him” (Isa. 53:3).

The Messiah’s Death

Daniel predicted the time of the Messiah’s death (Dan. 9:26). He said Messiah would be “cut off ” before the Romans would “destroy the city [Jerusalem] and the sanctuary [the temple].” Since this destruction took place in AD 70, the Messiah would have to die sometime before.

King David foretold that Messiah would die by crucifixion, saying in a first-person poem about the Messiah, “they pierced my hands and my feet” (Ps. 22:16) . David’s prediction about the Messiah’s crucifixion was written in 1,000 BC, more than 300 years before crucifixion was even a known manner of execution.

The Hebrew scriptures present the Messiah in two ways: as a suffering servant and as a victorious and righteous King.

More significant than the time or manner of His death, Isaiah predicted that the Messiah’s death would be as a substitution for humanity’s sin. The Servant of the Lord would die a disfiguring death (Isa. 52:14); He would be “pierced through for our transgressions [and] crushed for our iniquities” (Isa. 53:5); the Lord would punish Him for “the iniquity of us all” (v. 6). The Servant would have “poured out Himself to death” and, as a result, “He Himself bore the sin of many” (v. 12).

The Messiah’s Resurrection

The prophets not only foretold the Messiah’s death—they anticipated His resurrection as well. In Isaiah 52:13–53:12, after describing Messiah’s substitutionary death, Isaiah promised that the Lord would “prolong His days” (Isa. 53:10) and that Messiah would see “the light of life” (Isa. 53:11 niv). David, speaking for the Messiah in the first person, also expressed the Anointed One’s own confidence that God would “not abandon me to Sheol” because the Messiah, God’s “faithful one” would not “see decay” (Ps. 16:10 csb).

The Messiah’s Return

The Hebrew scriptures present the Messiah in two ways: as a suffering servant and as a victorious and righteous King. Although these two vastly different presentations have confused many, the difficulty is resolved by recognizing that the prophets anticipated two appearances of the Messiah. First, He would come as an atoning sacrifice for sin. Second, He would come to establish His righteous kingdom. One of the passages that links the two comings is Zechariah 12:10. It speaks of Messiah coming to deliver Israel at the last battle and then “they will look on Me whom they have pierced.” These verses depict Messiah’s second coming as the victorious King but also recognize His first appearance as the pierced one. Then, when He returns, He will fulfill Isaiah’s prediction that He will reign “on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore” (Isa. 9:7).

Final Thoughts

Although there are many more predictions of the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible, the passages mentioned above show that Jesus did indeed fulfill the messianic expectation of the Hebrew Bible. Mathematician Peter W. Stoner calculated the probability of one person fulfilling not all the messianic predictions of the Bible, or even the ones mentioned above, but just eight of the messianic predictions. He found that the probability would be 1 in 1017 or 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000! The likelihood of this occurring is comparable to covering Texas with 1017 silver dollars, marking only one of them, stirring the mass of dollars, and then having a blindfolded man randomly pick up the marked silver dollar.[1] This is the likelihood of Jesus of Nazareth randomly fulfilling only eight of the Messianic predictions of the Hebrew Bible.

Clearly, Jesus did fulfill every one of the messianic expectations of the Old Testament. It’s why Andrew, having met Jesus, told his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41) and Philip declared to his friend Nathanael “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth” (John 1:45).

 

[1] Peter Stoner and Robert C. Newman, Science Speaks (Chicago: Moody Press, 1976), 106–12.