Some years ago, Jonathan and I used to enjoy the teaching of Chuck Missler, a wonderful man of God who believed in teaching the Bible verse by verse. Like most teachers, Chuck had his own sayings. One of them was that the new testament is in the old testament concealed, and the old testament is in the new testament revealed. What he meant was that the old testament is full of prophecies looking ahead to the birth, life, and death of Jesus, while the new testament makes clear some of the things that weren’t understood during the days of the prophets. Isaiah, Micah, and others boldly shared the word of the Lord, but some of their messages weren’t fully comprehended until after Jesus died and rose from the dead.
Living in 2020, we have the benefit of the whole Bible. WE can use scriptures from the new testament to clarify those in the old, and vice versa. As we look at the whole council of God, we are amazed by the accuracy of the prophecies. In particular, I am fascinated by those that predicted Jesus’ birth. Some cynics have dared to argue that Jesus engineered the fulfilment of some of the prophecies. Then those same sceptics present their views that Jesus couldn’t possibly have been God. Yet if he were just an ordinary baby boy, then surely the coincidence of so many predictions surrounding his birth being spot on would be beyond our comprehension. No baby can influence when and how he comes into the world, unless that baby is God come in the flesh.
Let’s consider a few of those old testament passages, and marvel again at their accuracy as we enter this season of advent and begin preparing our hearts for Christmas.
Firstly, Isaiah predicted that Jesus would come from the line of David. David was Israel’s first great king. Originally, God hadn’t wanted his people to have an earthly king. After all, he was their king – the one who had rescued them from slavery in Egypt, but the Israelites wanted to be like all the other nations, so God capitulated and gave them a king. However, to prove his point, the first king was a man who looked great on the outside, but who fell away from the Lord and came to a pretty sad end. Following Saul’s death, God finally placed a man after his own heart at the head of his people. David was a man of worship who, despite making some pretty big mistakes, always had a heart for putting God first.
It is therefore no wonder that the promised Messiah should come from the line of David. Isaiah says in chapter 11 verses 1-2: “Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”
The genealogy of Jesus’ as presented by Luke in his gospel shows how his mother Mary was a direct descendant of King David, although it takes a little careful study to figure it out. Luke 3: 23 says: “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his public ministry. Jesus was known as the son of Joseph. Joseph was the son of Heli.” However, Matthew’s genealogy in chapter 1 of his gospel records that Joseph’s father’s name was Jacob (Matthew 1: 16.) This seeming discrepancy can be explained when we understand that Luke’s account is taking Jesus’ ancestry through the line of his mother, whereas Matthew’s list goes through Joseph, the legal father of Christ. Joseph’s father was Jacob, but Mary’s father was Heli. If Heli and his wife had no sons, it would have followed that Mary’s husband would have become his son and heir through marriage, since women could not inherit in those days. So rather than causing confusion, we are amazed by the fact that both Jesus’ mother and his earthly father descended from King David.
Next, Isaiah foretold the strange circumstances of Jesus’ birth. His mother would be a virgin, so although Joseph took on the role of father, he had no hand in the Lord’s conception. “All right then. the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).” (Isaiah 7: 14.) Many have questioned the virgin birth, but those of us who take the Bible literally believe it by faith. Since God created the world out of nothing, it was a small matter for him to place his Son in Mary’s womb.
The prophet Micah told us exactly where Jesus would be born centuries before the actual event. “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.” (Mica 5: 2.) Bethlehem was an obscure little town, and it was only due to the census called by the Cesar around the time of his birth that Jesus’ parents ended up traveling there. Of course, this was because they could trace their ancestry back to David, which as we have already seen was a key factor in the Messiah’s origins.
There was even a prophecy that Jesus would be worshiped by shepherds from the desert and dignitaries traveling from afar. “Desert nomads will bow before him; his enemies will fall before him in the dust. The western kings of Tarshish and other distant lands will bring him tribute. The eastern kings of Sheba and Seba will bring him gifts.” (Psalm 72: 9-10.) Those men bringing gifts were guided to the place of Jesus’ birth by following a star, and even that was prophesied by a man called Balaam in one of the earliest recorded predictions of Jesus’ birth. “I see him, but not here and now. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a sceptre will emerge from Israel.” (Numbers 24: 17A.)
So many accurate predictions of one event! It just goes to show how important the birth of Jesus was in the story of mankind. There are those who choose not to celebrate Christmas, stating that we are never told to do so in the Bible. While I acknowledge that to be true, I personally cannot help but wonder at his birth, and I celebrate it because if he hadn’t been born in the manger, Jesus couldn’t have taught me how to live through his life and saved me from my sins through his death. I make no secret of the fact that Christmas is my favourite time of year, and these prophecies I’ve shared are a big part of the reason why.
I’d like to close with the well-loved verses from Isaiah chapter 9 which we see written on many Christmas cards. “For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!” (Isaiah 9: 6-7.)