Topic: H) PROPHECY
No 1
(How to recognize Biblical prophecy)
The Bible is full of prophecy from Genesis to Revelation and
their fulfillment is a unshackable proof that the
Bible is the Word of God. However, there
are some prophecies in the Bible, that have not yet
been fulfilled; the most important being the second return of Jesus
Christ. The Bible has rules regarding
prophecy and if they are from God or not.
In Deuteronomy 18: 20 - 22, the Lord says that if a prophecy does not
come true, the prophet is to be put to death.
In the New Testament, in Revelation
No 2
(The different types of prophecy)
Biblical prophecy must always be true
and it must always come to pass; God wants it that way and that's it! . With
this in mind, let us look at several types of prophecies and do some
analysis.
The first prophecy in the Bible is,
rightfully so, about Jesus Christ and can be found in Genesis
A second type of prophecy is where the
events were future to the writer and also to us. The Second Coming of Christ is
the first one of this type that comes to mind.
Hebrews
A third type of prophecy is where the
writer is a participant and he writes what he sees as if the events were
happening in front of him but still remain in the future for him and even for
us. This type of prophecy is found in
the book of Revelation where the Apostle John pens the events during the
Tribulation Period. The Bible says: "Write
the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which
shall be hereafter" Rev 1:17.
The Bible is the Revelation of God and He wants us to study it and do
exactly what we are doing right here.
No 3
(The Dispensations of the Bible)
The word dispensation means "giving out" or "distributing" and as a third
meaning the dictionary says "ruling". But when we use this term in the Bible, we
mean divisions or periods. These divisions were formulated by Bible scholars,
over the years, and are not necessarily
defined as such in the actual text but help the reader to better comprehend the
mind of God.
There are seven dispensations in the
Bible and in between each there is Divine intervention that the Lord operated
to move on to the next stage.
Here are these dispensations and the
Divine interventions.
-
The first one
is the Dispensation of Innocence - Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
(Gen
-
The second one
is the period of Conscience from the banishment to the flood (Gen 6
& 7).
-
The third is
the period of Government (Gen 9:1-6). The divine intervention was the
-
The fourth
dispensation was the Law given to Abraham (Exodus, Leviticus &
Deuteronomy) The Divine intervention was the Cross of Jesus Christ.
-
The fifth
period is the Church or Grace period (the one we are now in). The divine intervention will be the Rapture
of the Church that, as we have seen before, will usher in the
-
The sixth
period Tribulation dispensation ; the divine intervention after this
period will be the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and all His Saints
who will defeat Satan and throw him into the Lake of Fire (Rev20:1, 2) for a
thousand years.
-
This seventh
period is, of course, the Millenium dispensation. The Divine
intervention after that period will be the release of Satan for a short time
(Rev 20:3-10) and eventually thrown into the Lake of fire with all the
unbelievers after the Great White Throne Judgement (Rev 20: 11-15).
In the end, of course, there will be a
new Heaven and a new Earth in which there will be no temple (Rev 21:22) and no
need of the sun because the Son will be its Light (Rev 21:23). Isn't all this exciting and don't we have a
loving Heavenly Father?.
No 4
(Amillennialism explained)
The amillenial view holds that there
will be no literal millennium on the earth following the Second Coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and that Satan was bound at the cross. This present age between the first and the
second coming is the fulfillment of the millenium as described in Revelation;
we are presently in the millennium.
There are basically two viewpoints of
amillennialism; 1) The Augustinian
viewpoint in which the millennium will be completed here on earth 2) The
Warfield viewpoint states that the millenium will be completed in heaven.
When our Lord Jesus Christ returns a
second time, the world will end and we will be ushered into the eternal
state.
All the promises that God made to Israel
in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in the Church, The Body of Christ.
No 5
(Pre-millennialism explained)
Premillennialism, in a nut shell, means that Jesus Christ will
return, with us in His trail, to earth before a period of one thousand years as
described in Revelation 19 and 20.
During this period, Satan will be bound and unable to seduce the nations
but will be released, for a little while, towards the end of the millennium (Rev
20 :1-3). The Saints (that’s us)
will reign with Him and be priests of God for the one-thousand-year period.
(Rev 20 :6).
This return of Christ must not be confused with the Rapture of
the Church (1 Thess 4 :16, 17) where Jesus comes, on the clouds, and takes
up His Church with Him. The millennium
period begins after the Seventieth week of Daniel (we will look at this, in
detail, in our studies on Eschatology).
The next event in God’s agenda is the rapture of the Church; this is
referred to as the doctrine of imminency (about to occur).
A few words on pre or post-tribulation. This deals with when the Church will be
raptured. Pre-tribulation rapturists
believe that the Church will not go through the Great Tribulation as described
in Rev 7 :14 and will be removed before.
Scripture to support this is Rev 3 :10 where Jesus says that He
will “keep us from the hour of
testing”. Post-tribulation
rapturists believe that the Church will go through the Great Tribulation and
that Christ will return at the end of that age.
No 6
(The book of Daniel; an overview)
Daniel is to the Old Testament as
Revelation is to the New Testament.
Actually, Revelation is the fulfilment of the prophesies outlined in
Daniel. The book of Daniel begins with
the taking of Jerusalem and the exile of the Jews to Babylon. Daniel was one of the princes who was exiled
to this foreign country where, as we will see, was used of God in many
miraculous ways. In chapter 2, Daniel
interprets a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had about a large statue that
turned out to be a monumental description of how the world will be governed for
the next 2700 years or so; as a matter of fact, part of that dream is still
future to us in the year 2001. Chapter
3 sees Daniel’s friends resist the king’s request to bow down to an image he
had made and find themselves in a fiery furnace. In Chapter 4 Nebuchadnezzar is
humbled by the Most High God and in chapter 5 the Medo-Persian empire defeats
Babylon and realises the prophesy of the breast and arms of silver of the image
in chapter 2. Daniel, in chapter 6, is
thrown into a den of lions because of his commitment to prayer and in chapter
7, he has a vision of four beasts that match the image in chapter 2.
The comparison is as follows : the head of gold (chapt 2) & the winged
lion (chapt 7); the breast of silver
& the bear; the thighs of brass
& the winged leopard & the legs of iron & the diverse beast. The actual empires that are described are, in
order - Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. In chapter 8, Daniel has another vision of
Medo Persia and Greece and in the beginning of chapter 9 from vs 1-23, we have
what is probably the best intercessory prayer in the Bible. In the same chapter, from vs 24 – 27 we have
the most precise and the most far-reaching prophesy in all of the Bible.
We will look as this prophecy in great
detail further on in our studies.
Chapters 10, 11, and 12 describe the overthrow of the Persian empire and
the ensuing Greek and Roman empires. The
prophesies in the book of Daniel are so precise that some even questioned if
Daniel really lived and that maybe someone wrote the book after the events had
happened. In the early part of the
1900’s several archeological findings proved the validity of the prophesies and
therefore proved what many already knew, that God’s Word is true and every
detail in it will come to pass or has already come to pass. Our God is the Most High God and His dominion
is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation;
these words were spoken by Nebuchadnezar in Daniel 4 :34.
No 7
(Prophesies that have been realized in
the book of Daniel)
In our last study on prophesy, we saw an
overview of this book and now, we will look at some specific prophesies that
have already come to pass and are verifiable in secular history. Let’s remember
one thing : Daniel gave these prophesies 200 years before they cam to
pass. We have pretty much covered the
prophesies in chapters 2 & 7 relating to the empires that follow the
Babylonian empire.
In the year 539 BC, the history books
tells us that Medo Persian Empire, under the rule of Darius, defeated the
Babylonians.
The Greeks, under Alexander the Great
who was very young (early twenties) defeated the Medo-Persians in the year 336
BC. The Greeks ruled 200 years until the
Romans took over power in the year 63 BC.
This was the broad overview, now let us look at some of the intricacies of these prophesies.
In chapter 8, Daniel has another vision; this time it entails a ram and
a he-goat. The ram is Medo-Persia (vs
20) and the he-goat in Greece (vs 21); this vision seem repetative but
elsewhere in the chapter, we see such precision that only God could’ve been the
author. In verse 8, the big horn is Alexander the Great (who died unexpectedly)
and four other horns came forth. Again,
the history books say that these four horns were four rulers of the Greek
empire that was divided into four parts; these rulers were : Cassander
(Macedonia), Lisymacus (Asia Minor); Ptolomy(Egypt), Selucus(the rest of the
Middle East). Out of one of these four
horns (rulers) came a little horn (vs 9) who magnified himself greatly and the
daily sacrifice was taken away from the Jews. Antichus Ephiphanes was a fierce Greek ruler
who hated the Jews and caused the sacrifices to cease. In the Apocrpha, there are books called the
Machabees; the abominations that Antichus did are described in those
books. The Jews overthrew the Greeks and
purified the temple; the holiday of Hannukah (around Christmas) was created to
remember these events. There are
numerous other prophecies such as these in the book of Daniel that have been
realized but we won’t look at them for lack of time. The thing that we must
keep in mind is that the Bible is the Word of God and everything that is in it
will come to pass.
No 8
(70 weeks in the book of Daniel)
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city…” Daniel 9 :24. This verse and the following verses in the
text are what some say to be the most far-reaching and precise prophesies in
all of the Bible. It spans the time from
538 BC to the Great Tribulation period as discussed in Revelation. But, it is not so much the period that it
covers, but more the absolute precision of the dating. Verses 24 to 27 are a response to an
intercessory prayer (vs. 1 – 19) that Daniel had made on behalf of his people,
Israel. The answer came by the angel
Gabriel who said to Daniel in verse 23b “therefore
understand the matter and consider the vision” . In the vernacular, Gabriel told Daniel “get this, man because it’s important”. Six things occur
in the 70-week period described in verse 24 with a gap between the first three
and the last three : the first 3 occured at the cross and the last 3 are
still future for us and will occur when Jesus Christ returns to the earth and
ushers in the Millennium period; we will see this in detail in later
studies. “Seventy weeks”….what does this represent?…. How long is this
period?…. Is it days, weeks, months, or
years? The only logical answer is that
it represents years; 70 weeks of years, which is equal to 490 years. There are 4 reasons to believe that Gabriel
was talking about weeks of years.
1) By deduction – nothing significant (6 things) happened
70 days, or 70 weeks, or 70 months after this date (538 BC) however, something very significant occured after 483
years (69 X 7, but we’ll get back to this);
2) Daniel was already thinking in years (Daniel
9 :2);
3) The word weeks here in Hebrew is “shâbuim”, meaning weeks.
The context tells us if it should be literal weeks or something
else. In Daniel 10 :2, 3 the same
word (shâbuim) appears, but the word ”days“
is added; therefore this passage speaks of weeks of days and 9 :24 speaks
of something else;
4) In Leviticus 25, the Lord ordered Israel to have a
sabbath year every 7th year
and a jubilee year every 50th year.
Israel did not observe these sabbaths and jubilees and the Lord punished
them by sending them to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36 :20, 21) for literal 70
years.
70
years (verse 21b) X 7 equals 490 years.
Therefore, Daniel 9 :24-27 speaks
of weeks of years and Daniel was just as anxious as we are to see what was to
occur during and after this period (Daniel 9 :19). The key phrase is in verse 24 : “upon thy people”. Whenever and whatever this prophesy was
about, the angel Gabriel wanted Daniel to know that it concerned his people,
Israel. Daniel 9 : 25 splits the
70-week period into three parts : 1) “seven
weeks” (49 years); 2) “three score
and two weeks” (434 years); 3) one week unaccounted for (7 years). There are only 69 weeks accounted for; when will the seventieth week occur and what
will happen during that week? The answer is that this week has not as yet occurred
(year 2001) and is “on hold” and it
applies to Israel only. The present
Church age (that’s us) is in this “holding”
period; we were not in the 483 years of this prophesy and we will not be in the
last 7 years of the prophesy either. We
will be taken out at the rapture of the Church and Israel, as a nation, will
start God’s clock ticking again. We
will see the beginning and the ending of this 70th week in another
study because the calculations are very complicated. Meanwhile, try and find out when this
prophesy of 70 weeks of years begins. Because, if we can find out when it begins,
then we can find out when it ends.
(Hint : The answer is in the book
of Nehemiah).
When we look at all these prophecies, we
must not get into arguements as to who is right and who is wrong. We must see the veracity of God’s word and
how perfect it really is. It was written
by a God who is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.
No 9
(Prophecies in the Old Testament regarding Jesus Christ)
The Old Testament contains many prophecies that speak of Jesus
Christ and there are so many that we cannot discuss them all here, but we will
see the very important ones. Since Genesis is the first book of the Bible, it
is fitting for us to start there.
Jesus’
humanity is prophesied in Genesis 3 :15 – “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed
and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel”.
Jesus’ tribe is prophesied
in Genesis 49 :10 – “The sceptre shall
not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come”.
Jesus’
resurrection is prophesied in Psalm 16 :10 – “…neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption”.
Jesus’
rejection and Head of His Church is prophesied in Psalm 118 :22 –
“The Stone which the builders refused has
become the Head of the corner”.
Jesus’ virgin
birth is prophesied in Isaiah 7 :14 – “…Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His name
Emmanuel”.
Jesus’ deity is prophesied
in Isaiah 9 :6 – “For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is given and the government shall be upon His
shoulders and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace”.
Jesus’ family is prophesied
in Isaiah 11 :1 – “And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his
roots”.
Jesus’
suffering is prophesied in Isaiah 52 :13 to Isaiah 53 :12 – “But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon
Him and with His stripes we are healed”(53 :5).
Jesus’
appearance is prophesied in Daniel 9 :25 – “…to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks
and threescore and two weeks :the street shall be built again and the wall
even in troublous times”. Jesus’
birthplace is prophesied in Micah 5 :2 – “But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands
of Judah yet out of thee shall He come forth”.
Jesus’
presentation to the Jews is prophesied in Zechariah 9 :9 – “…Oh daughter of Jerusalem behold thy King
cometh unto thee He is just, and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an
ass”.
The mathematical probability of one man filling these eleven
prophecies by chance is so high that there is not enough space on this page to
put all the zeros. A better way to see
this is as follows : We spread silver dollars all over the province of
Quebec enough to be waist deep and then place one gold coin somewhere. Then, we tell someone to go find the gold
coin. This person has as much chance of
finding the gold coin as one person has, by chance, of filling the above
prophecies; I suppose it’s possible , but….
A prophecy in the Bible always, always comes true; there are
none that don’t come true; our Heavenly Father made sure of that. “For
the prophesy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” 2 Peter 1:21. All the above prophecies came true in the New
Testament in the person of Jesus Christ. Not only that; some of them were
quoted by authors of the New Testament:
a) Psa 16:10 – Acts 13:36, 37 b)
Mich 5:1 – Matt 2:6.
The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, but one day, “…they shall look upon Me whom they have
pierced and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son”
(Zech 12:10). Much will happen until
the day when the nation of Israel turns to their Messiah but when they do: “…all Israel shall be saved as it is
written: There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer and shall turn away all
ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom 11:26). WOW!!!
No 10
(The commencement of Daniel’ s 69-week prophecy)
In our last study in the book of Daniel, we saw the answer to
Daniel’s intercessory prayer for his people.
The angel Gabriel told Daniel that “Seventy weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon thy holy city” (Dan 9: 24) and that this period was for
his people, the nation of Israel. The
precision of this prophecy is so mind boggling you wonder why so many Christians
have differences of opinions. The
important thing to realise is that this period began at certain point in time
and will end in another point in time.
If we can find out when it begins, then we can know when it
ends. Daniel, still in Babylon, wanted
to know when his people were to return to the land of Israel; Gabriel gave him
that answer. In verse 25 of Daniel 9 the
Bible says“Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince, shall be
seven weeks and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again and
the wall even in troublous times”.
Here goes; and I hope you have a calculator, because it gets very
complicated. We have established that
these are 69 weeks of years and, as we know, the years in the Old Testament are
lunar years (360 days) not solar years (365 ¼ days).
Therefore: 69 x 7 = 469 x
360 = 173, 880 days. This is how long the
69-week period is.
Now for verification purposes, let’s do the same calculation but
in solar years because this period goes beyond year 1:
173,880 / 365 = 477 years
+ 24 days the year 1 BC and 1 AD is the same year.
Thus: 477 - 1 = 476 x 365
= 173740 + 24 = 173764 days. We have to
add 119 days for the leap years (476/4 = 119).
Thus: 173764 + 119 = 173883.
Now the lunar year and the solar year are not exactly compatible there
is a difference of 1/128.
Thus 476 / 1/128 = minus 3 days
No 11
(Prophecies in Genesis)
The book of Genesis is a book of beginnings but, it is also a
book of prophecy; actually, the prophecies in Genesis are some of the most
important in the Bible. By important, I
mean that they are at the very foundation of the Christian faith. The Messiah, Jesus Christ is first spoken
about in Genesis 3 : 15 when God, in speaking to the serpent about the
consequences of sin said : “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman
and between thy seed and her seed; It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt
bruise His heel”. This prophecy sets
the stage for several other prophecies about the Messiah such as from who He
will descend : Abram (ch 12 : 2, 3); Isaac (ch 26 : 4); Jacob
(ch 28 : 14) and from what tribe of Israel will He come : Judah (ch 49 :
10). Also, Genesis contains prophesies
where God made covenants with various people : Noah (ch 9 : 13 – the
rainbow); Abram (ch 15 : 18 – the land of Canaan); Rebekah (ch 25
: 23, 24 – twin sons); Jacob (ch 35 : 10 – name changed to Israel). There are even prophecies in Genesis that
were fulfilled in Genesis; Noah made these
prophecies to his sons after the flood.
Noah prophesied that his son Ham and his descendants would be
cursed (ch 9 : 24 – cursed be Canaan) because of the shame he had brought on
his family. Noah also said that the Lord God of Shem would be blessed (ch
9 : 26). And, lastly Noah said that Japheth
would be enlarged (ch 9 : 27). These
prophecies were fulfilled to the letter within the chronology of the book of
Genesis. We will look at this last group
of prophecies in our next study on prophecy.
No 12
(The prophet Noah)
Noah is one of the most familiar characters in the Bible because
of the ark that he built and his gathering of each of the various species of
animals before the great flood. His
sons Shem, Ham and Japheth are also very well known. I used the word “prophet”; a title that Noah rarely gets but he is a prophet,
nonetheless. In Genesis 9 : 20 to 29,
there is a prophecy given by Noah that is one of the most far-reaching in the
entire Bible. The prophecy follows
Noah’s drunken stupor and his son, Ham’s indiscretion (Gen 9 : 22). In
verse 25 Noah states, “cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be
to his brethren”. Why didn’t Noah say “cursed
be Ham” instead? After all, wasn’t it Ham that disgraced his father? Most Bible scholars believe that Noah wanted
Ham to feel the same disgrace as he had had with his son. In chapter 10, the Bible describes the
generations of Noah’s sons and in verse 6 we see that Canaan is the son of Ham.
As we all know, God gave the land of Canaan later on to the
children of Israel. The inhabitants of
this land became slaves to Israel : “they put the Canaanites to tribute and
did not utterly drive them out” (Judges 1 : 28) thus fulfilling part of
Noah’s prophecy; but it goes on to say in verse 26 “Blessed be the Lord God
of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant”.
One of Shem’s sons is Eber (Gen 10 : 21) who is the father of the Hebrew
people and the God of the Hebrew people is the Triune God that we know; another
part of Noah’s prophecy is fulfilled; but there is more. In Genesis 9 : 27, the Bible says “God
shall enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem and Canaan shall
be his servant”. Japheth was enlarged in that his descendants were the ones
who settled in Europe and most of us today take our roots in Japheth. Now, what is it to “dwell in the tents of
Shem”? Again, Bible scholars are
unanimous to state that this is symbolic of the gift of salvation that was
first given to the Jews but was also given to the Gentiles (Romans 11 : 11, 12). Another aspect of the prophecy concerning
Japheth is that “Canaan shall be his servant”. How was Canaan the
servant of Japheth? One of Canaan’ s
sons was Sidon (Gen 10 : 15) who went on to become the great Phoenician
sea-faring people. The Phoenicians were
defeated by the Romans who are descendants of Japheth. There are several other connections in this
prophesy but these are the main ones.
When God makes a promise or states a prophecy it is always, always
fulfilled.
No 13
*(Genesis vs Revelation)
“I
am the Alpha and the Omega, I am the first and the last” – Jesus spoke
these words to the apostle John on the island of Patmos in the beginning of the
book of Revelation. This phrase applies
to Jesus’ eternality and just as He is there in the beginning of Revelation, He
is also there in the beginning of Genesis at the moment of creation. You will
see that there are startling resemblances between these two books of scripture
as we will look at some of them:
|
Sinless
world (Genesis) |
Reference: |
Eternal
world (Revelation) |
Reference: |
|
Division of light and darkness |
1 : 4 |
No night there |
21 : 25 |
|
Division of land and sea |
1 : 10 |
No more sea |
21 : 1 |
|
Rule of sun and moon |
1 : 16 |
No need of sun or moon |
21 : 23 |
|
Man in a prepared Garden |
2 : 8, 9 |
Man in a prepared city |
21 : 3 |
|
River flowing out of Eden |
2 : 10 |
River from God’s throne |
22 : 1 |
|
Gold in the land |
2 : 12 |
Gold in the city |
21 : 21 |
|
Tree of life in midst of Garden |
2 : 9 |
Tree of life throughout the city |
22 : 2 |
|
Bdellium and the onyx stone |
2 : 12 |
All manner of precious stones |
21 : 19 |
|
God walking in the Garden |
3 : 8 |
God dwelling with His people |
21 : 3 |
|
Cursed
world (Genesis) |
|
Eternal world
(Revelation) |
|
|
Cursed ground |
3 : 17 |
No more curse |
22 : 3 |
|
Daily sorrow |
3 : 17 |
No more sorrow |
21 : 4 |
|
Thorns and thistles |
3 : 18 |
No more pain |
21 : 4 |
|
Sweat on the face |
3 : 19 |
Tears wiped away |
21 : 4 |
|
Eating herbs of the field |
3 : 18 |
All manner of fruits |
22 : 2 |
|
Returning to the dust |
3 : 19 |
No more death |
21 : 4 |
|
Evil continually |
6 : 5 |
Nothing that defileth |
21 : 27 |
|
Coats of skins |
3 : 21 |
Fine linen white and clean |
19 : 14 |
|
Satan opposing |
3 : 15 |
Satan banished |
20 : 10 |
|
Kept from the tree of life |
3 : 24 |
Access to the tree of life |
22 : 14 |
|
Banished from the Garden |
3 : 23 |
Free entry to the city |
22 : 14 |
|
Redeemer promised |
3 : 15 |
Redemption accomplished |
5 : 9, 10 |
|
Rainbow in Noahic covenent |
9 : 16 |
Rainbow on angel’s head |
10 : 1 |
*(Taken from “The Genesis Record” by Dr.
Henry M Morris)
All the promises that God made in the
Bible will come to pass; some have been completed and others are yet to be
completed. God is faithful.
No 14
Prophecies about Jesus in the Psalms
The book of Psalms is considered a poetic book or, as the Jews
say, a book of “the Writings”. Nonetheless,
it contains many prophecies that were fulfilled in Jesus’ stay on earth and we
shall look at a few of the main ones.
They are arranged chronologically according to their fulfillment.
|
Verse in
Psalms |
Description
of prophecy |
Verse in New
Testament |
|
“The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (110:4) |
As a priest, after the order of Melchizedek |
“Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an
high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek” (Heb 6:20) |
|
“Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did
eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (41:9) |
Betrayed by a friend |
“And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief
priests, to betray him unto them”
(Mark 14:10) |
|
“For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have
inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet” (22:16) |
Hands and feet pierced |
“Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold
my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not
faithless, but believing” (John
20:27) |
|
“They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they
gave me vinegar to drink” (69:21) |
Given gall and vinegar |
“Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a
spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth” (John
19:29) |
|
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my
vesture” (22:18) |
Soldiers cast lots for His coat |
“And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments,
casting lots upon them, what every man should take”(Mark 15:24) |
|
“He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken” (34:20) |
Not a bone to be broken |
“But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead
already, they brake not his legs” (John 19:33) |
|
“For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” (16:10) |
His resurrection |
“And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail.
And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him” (Matt 28:9) |
|
“Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive:
thou hast received gifts for men”
(68:18) |
His ascension |
“And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted
from them, and carried up into heaven”
(Luke 24:51) |
Peter used one of the above verses to convince his audience that
the writer of the Psalm (David) was not taking about himself but that it
referred to the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
The verse he used is Psalm 16:10 and in Acts 2: 25 – 35, Peter
went out of his way to explain that David is dead and buried (v29). Peter also said that David did not ascend
into heaven (v34); Peter used another verse in the Psalms – Psalm 110:1. The Word of God is perfect; it never ceases
to amaze me.
No 15
(The book of Isaiah)
The Lord used the book of Isaiah for a
multitude of prophecies. Some are about
the Messiahship & Divinity of Jesus Christ, some about the death &
resurrection of Jesus Christ, some about the Millennium Kingdom; there are even
some for us today. Here are some of the more familiar ones:
1) Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
2) Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, ThePrince
of Peace.”
3) Isaiah 11:6 “The wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;
and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child
shall lead them.”
4) Isaiah 40:3“The voice of
him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
5)
Isaiah 40:31 “But they that
wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings
as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint.”
6)
Isaiah 55:11 “So shall my
word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it.”
There is, of
course, the whole 53rd chapter of Isaiah that speaks of the
suffering and shame of the cross that Jesus endured for us. In Jewish
synagogues, there are scheduled readings from their Old Testament and they
usually cover the whole Bible in a year – Isaiah 53 is not included in these
readings. In the Jewish Bible, when we
come to Isaiah 9:6 (above), the text is transliterated from Hebrew. It looks something like this: “For unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His
shoulder: and his name shall be called Pele-joez-el-gibbor-abi-ad-sar-shalom”. You see, the Jews believe in a Messiah; they
just don’t believe that He is God.
No 16
(Book of Jeremiah)
Jeremiah was a pre-exilic prophet and his writings were mostly
made up of warnings of impending danger due to the shameful behaviour of God’s
children. There are three main themes in the book – the backsliding, the
bondage and the restoration of the Jews.
As in the writings of all the other prophets, there were many warnings
but very few heedings. Here are examples
of the three types of prophecies in Jeremiah.
Backsliding: “And I
saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I
had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister
Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also”.(ch3:8).
Bondage: (this is the one Daniel was
reading in chapter 9:2 of his book.) “For thus saith the LORD, That after
seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good
word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.”(ch29:10).
Restoration: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none
is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out
of it. For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I
will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers
shall no more serve themselves of him:”(ch30: 7, 8). This last prophecy is still future for us
also because it describes the time of the Great Tribulation period otherwise
called the “seventieth week of Daniel”
where antichrist pours out his wrath upon Israel. At the end of this period,
the Second Coming of Jesus Christ occurs with “the armies that were in
heaven followed Him on white horses” (Rev 19 :14). Jeremiah was an
important prophet because he spans the whole spectrum of the life of the Jewish
people.
No 17
(Prophecies in Ezekiel)
Ezekiel was an exilic prophet; his name means “God
strengthens”. There are many
prophecies in this book about the apostate condition of Judah and divine
judgments that will be sent (chs 4-24), including the departure of the Shekinah
Glory of God “Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of
the house, and stood over the cherubims.”(10:18). There are also prophecies concerning the future
restoration of Israel, its national revival and its spiritual
resurrection. I draw your attention to
the 37th chapter of the book where Ezekiel, in a vision, sees a
valley of dry bones “ The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out
in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was
full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there
were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.” (vs1,2).
It must have been a horrible sight to see, but Ezekiel did as he was told (v4),
he preached to the bones and they began to come together (v7) and skin came up
over the bones (v8). Something very
significant happened to these corpses in verse 10 “So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon
their feet, an exceeding great army.”
We don’t have to search for a hidden meaning or interpretation for this
miraculous act by God – verse 11 tells us plainly what this means: “Then he said unto me, Son of man, these
bones are the whole house of Israel…”
Wouldn’t it be great if every time a prophecy appears in the Bible, God
would give us the interpretation? There
is no doubt here, Israel is the army of bones in a resurrected state with the
Spirit of God in them (v14). Israel as a
nation will, one day, turn to the Lord and recognize He whom they pierced “they shall look upon me whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and
shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zech 12:10). By the way, there ia political column in
Israel’s national newpaper “The Jerusalem Post” that is called “Dry Bones”. The Jews also believe that one day Israel
will again be the focal point of God’s plan for humanity; so do I.
No 18
(The Bible’s Chronology)
The Bible is not primarily a book of prophecy but it does
contain prophecy; several of which have been realized within its own
chronology. We will look at some of some
of the main ones. In Genesis 3:15, the Bible says “And I
will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed;
it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” This is a direct prophecy about the Saviour,
Jesus Christ. A prophecy regarding the children of God, Israel is found in Genesis 12:2, 3 “And I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name
great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of
the earth be blessed.” This
prophecy is repeated several times in Genesis.
The last verses of Isaiah 52
and the whole of Isaiah 53 speak of
Christ’s redemptive work on the cross.
The book of Daniel contains many prophecies regarding the kingdoms of
the world and how they work out in God’s plan for humanity. They are so precise that many thought that
Daniel wrote them after the events had happened. There are some prophecies that were not only
realized within the Bible’s chronology but were specifically referred to in the
New Testament by various people; the strongest one of these is when Peter
referred to Christ’s resurrection by quoting David in Psalm 16:10 in Acts 2: 25-27:
“For David speaketh concerning him,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I
should not be moved: 26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue
was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.“ There are many, many others and time does
not permit but the Bible is a treasure of prophecies and promises that the
Creator gave us; rest assured, He will fulfill them all.
No 19
(Elijah & John the Baptist)
The Jews await the return of Elijah as the forerunner to the
Messiah. At the Passover table in modern
Judaism, there is an empty place set in case he should return. The prophecy of his return in found in
Malachi 4:5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the LORD:”
Of course, when Peter, James and John saw Elijah on the Mount of
Transfiguration (Matt
This drama created many questions in the minds of the Disciples,
one of which was: How and where does
John the Baptist fit in to all of this?
They thought that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of the prophecy
of Elijah. Was he not “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”
(Matt 3:3)? The national rejection of
the Messiah Jesus did not happen because John the Baptist had failed at his
task, it was because of the hardness of the Jewish hearts. Jesus set the record straight when He said to
His disciples “11 And Jesus answered and said unto them,
Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.12 But I say unto you,
That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him
whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. 13 Then the disciples understood that he spake
unto them of John the Baptist.”
(Matt 17: 11-13).
If the nation of
There are three reasons for concluding that John the Baptist was
not Elijah 1) Gabriel said to the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias – “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias” (Luke
1:17) Therefore, it was not literally but in the “spirit” 2)
Jesus said “Elias truly shall first come, and restore
all things” (Matt 17:11) Our Lord
spoke these words after the death of John the Baptist (Matt 14:10). 3) John himself said he was not Elijah “Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not.”
(John 1:21). We must not forget one
thing – the offer of John the Baptist was genuine and according to Romans