Jesus in the Old Testament: Prophecy

This new series will look at where Jesus can be found in the Old Testament. This might be a strange thing to say, as Jesus was not born until 1st Century AD. However, He does appear in different literary and literal ways.

He is mentioned in prophetic verses. There are over 300 Old Testament prophetic verses in the Old Testament which were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ.

I will look at three of them in this post.

The First Prophecy

Genesis 3 v 15

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

This prophetic verse is part of the story where God explains the implications of the Curse upon the Serpent. The Curse narrative doesn't just relate to Adam and Eve. The Serpent is cursed to crawl on the ground and eat dust, or in other words, it loses its wings and will feed upon the dead. God then says that the descendants of Eve will constantly fight with the seed of the Serpent. I am in two minds what this refers to as an answer could be the demons, but it could also mean Death. Partly through the Serpent's actions, death came to humanity.

This promise is ultimately realised in a single seed, Jesus Christ. He is the one who indeed defeats the Devil and his demons (and Death too). Even though the Devil's seed bruises Christ's foot, Jesus crushes demonic power and Death.

Born in Bethlehem

Micah 5 v 2

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

Micah prophecies that due to Israel's rebellion against God, mighty armies will destroy Israel and ravage Jerusalem. He also lays out how God will bring restoration after the destruction.

As part of the restoration, a new king from the line of David will come and rule over Israel and He will be born in Bethlehem.

From the Gospels written by St Matthew and St Luke, we read that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He is from the line of David. But also we read in other parts of the New Testament, that He is ancient, older then Abraham.

John 8 v 58

“Very truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

This prophecy from Micah was fulfilled in around 700 years after it was given.

Born to a Virgin

Isaiah 7 v 14

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Isaiah was prophesying at the same time as the prophet Micah. The King of Judah, Ahaz, was worried that the Davidic line of kings would be wiped out by the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Isaiah says that God will give you a sign, a virgin will conceive a child.

There is some argument in academic circles, that this was fulfilled in King Ahaz's life. Where a young maiden gave birth to a child and his name was called Immanuel. Then before the boy could choose right or wrong, the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the King of Assyria.

Isaiah 7 v 15

He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.

Though there is nothing mentioned in Scripture about a child being born at this time.

Another issue is the Hebrew word for virgin, is also the word for a young maiden. This has been used to attack the Virgin Birth of Christ, with some theologians arguing early Christian got it wrong. Mary was a maiden, not a virgin.

The problem is that majority of Jews at the time used the Septuagint and in Greek the word for virgin is different to young maiden. So when the the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures were created, the translators used the word virgin (parthenos) over young maiden. The Jews in the 3rd Century BC believed this prophecy related to a virgin. If they didn't, they would have used the word for young maiden.

So if modern theologians believe early Christians got it wrong, then so did the translators who had the original, and now lost, source documents. They believe these translators who were intimately involved in the Jewish culture of the time, were incorrect in their translation. I find it a stretch to believe these theologians, especially as they have little evidence to prove their case.

These three verses show how Jesus is mentioned in the Old Testament. Next time we will look at how Jesus appears in the Old Testament typology.

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