MESSIANIC Prophecy, Sylvester Hassell All the Old Testament is one great type and prophecy, which finds and will find its full accomplishment in Jesus Christ. As he told
his disciples both before and after his resurrection, “All things which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me, must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44). “Think not,” said he, in his sermon on the mount, “that I am come to destroy the law of the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matt. 5:17). Said the angel to John, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19:10).
“Pure gold is not found in large masses; the value of the mass lies mostly in the small particles of the rich metal scattered through it.” The golden vein of Messianic prophecy runs through the Old Testament Scriptures, and gives them a Divine unity; and the New Testament, with the same unity, describes the fulfillment of these predictions in Jesus of Nazareth.
The Messiah (Dan. 9:25,26) was to be the seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15), of the family of Shem (Gen. 9:26), Abraham (Gen. 12:2,3), Isaac (Gen. 21:12), Jacob (Gen.28:14), Judah (Gen. 49:10), Jesse (Isa. 11:1-10), and David (Jer. 33:15). He was to be preceded by a messenger like Elijah (Mal. 31; 4:5), crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Isa. 40:3-5). He was to be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14), in Bethlehem of Judea (Mic. 5:2), just before the sceptre departed from Judah (Gen. 49:10), in the days of the fourth universal (Roman) empire (Dan. 2:44), about 460 years after the issuing of the Persian king’s decree for the restoration of Jerusalem (Dan. 9:24-27); Num. 4:3; Luke 3:23), and before the destruction of the second temple (Hag. 2:6-9).
His earthly ministry therefore must have occurred more than 1,800 years ago; and, if it did not occur then, the Old Testament Scriptures must be false. Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19), was poetically represented as weeping for her slaughtered children (Jer. 31:15), and God was to call back his Son out of Egypt (Hos. 11:10. That Son was to grow up before his Father as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground (Isa. 53:2). He was to be preeminently the Anointed One (Psa. 2:2), a Prophet like Moses (Deut. 18:18), a Priest like Melchizedek (Psa. 110:4), a King like David (Isa. 9:7), He was to be the King of Zion (Psa. 2:6; Zech. 9:9), higher than the kings of the earth (Psa. 89:27), altogether lovely (Songs 5:16); the Ruler of Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2; the Maker, Redeemer, and Shepherd of Israel (Isa. 54:5; Ezek. 34;24-31); the Shiloh, or Peace-Giver (Gen. 49:10); he was to open the eyes of the blind, unstop the ears of the deaf, make the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing (Isa. 35:4-6); he was to have the law of his God in his heart, and delight to do his will, and he was to preach righteousness (Psa. 40:6-10); He was to be the glory of Israel, and a light to the Gentiles (Isa. 49:6; 60:1-3); the Star of Jacob and the Sceptre of Israel, who should smite his foes, and have dominion (Num. 29:17,19); the Sun of Righteousness, arising, with healing in his wings, unto all that fear the Lord (Mal. 4:2; He was to be the Lord of the temple, the messenger of the covenant (Mal. 3:1); not only the son, but the Lord of David (Psa. 110:1); the son of man (Dan. 7:13), and yet the Son of God (Psa. 2:2,7,12); a man and yet the fellow or equal of God (Zech. 13:7); identified with God (Zech. 12:10); Immanuel, or God with us (Isa. 7:14); the Lord our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6); the Divine Redeemer, who should stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job 19:25-27); who was to come with dyed garments, glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save, treading the wine-press alone, perfectly able, without any help, to bring salvation to his redeemed, and to destroy all their enemies (Isa. 63:1-9); the spiritual Zerubbabel, who would make the great mountain a plain, lay the foundation of the Lord’s house, and also finish it, bringing forth the headstone with shoutings of Grace, grace unto it (Zech. 4:6-10); though a child born, a son given to us, yet Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, of the increase of whose government and peace there should be no end (Isa. 9:6,7); His name to continue as long as the sun, and men to be blessed in Him (Psa. 72:17); His dominion to be universal and eternal (Dan. 7:14); His throne to be the throne of God, and endure forever and ever (Psa. 45:6,7); and yet—wonderful, indeed, according to His name—He was to be a servant of God, with visage more marred than any man (Isa. 52:13,14); despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief (Is. 53:3); He was to come to Jerusalem, as a lowly king of righteousness and salvation, riding upon the foal of an ass (Zech. 9:9); He was to be conspired against by the kings and rulers of the earth (Psa. 2:2); though never guilty of fraud or violence (Isa. 53:9), He was to be betrayed by his own familiar friend (Psa. 41:9) for thirty pieces of silver, which should be given to the potter for a field to bury strangers in (Zech. 11:12,13; Jer. 7:32,33; 19; Matt. 27:3-10); He was to be derided by his ungodly enemies (Psa. 22:6-8); and, having been made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death (Psa. 8:5; Heb. 2:9), and being doomed to have his heel bruised while he bruised the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15), He was to be numbered with the transgressors (Isa. 53:12), and pierced by the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but be bitterly and privately mourned for by them, and open to them a fountain for sin and for uncleanness (Zech. 12:10-14; 13:1); He was to have his hands and feet pierced, and his garments parted, and lots cast for his vesture (Psa. 22:16,18); be given gall and vinegar to drink (Psa. 66:21); He was to be smitten by the sword of Divine Justice (Zech. 13:7), the sun being turned into darkness (Joel 2:31; Amos 8:9; Acts 2:20); stricken for the transgression of his people (Isa. 53:8); bruised, by God’s appointment for their iniquities (Isa. 53:5); cut off, but not for himself (Dan. 9:26); make an end of sins, make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness (Dan. 9:24); make intercession for the transgressors (53:12); take from his people their filthy garments and clothe them with a change of raiment, and remove their iniquity in one day (Zech. 3:1-10); by the blood of his covenant send forth his prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water (Zech. 9:11); yield up his soul as an offering for sin (Isa. 53:10); be forsaken of his God (Psa. 22:1); be with the rich in his death (Isa. 53:9); not to see corruption (Psa. 16:10), but rise again the third day (Hos. 6:2); Jonah 1:17), prolong his days, see his seed, and pleasure of the Lord prosper in his hand (Isa. 53:10); see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied, and by his knowledge justify many, because he shall have borne their iniquities (Isa. 53:11); He should be a hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. 32:1,2); He should come down like rain upon the mown grass, and as showers that water the earth (Psa. 72:6); not cry or lift up or cause his voice to be heard in the street, not break a bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax (Isa. 42:1-4); He should purify his people like gold and silver, that they might offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness (Mal 3:3); He should be anointed immeasurably with the Spirit of God (as his very name, Messiah, or Christ, indicates) to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified (Isa. 61:1-3). Now reflect that these prophecies, as given by God to his people, were scattered through a period of about thirty-six hundred years, so that, if there had been any deception, it would have required the collusion of about seventy generations, and that, too, to bring about a belief of the human race in the most elevating spiritual blessings—a circumstance utterly incredible; remember that the Jews who persecuted Jesus Christ to death, and who still reject his claims, have handed down these prophetic writings to us as infallibly inspired of God, and are, many of them today willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, in defense of such inspiration; and then carefully read the New Testament, which was written more than four hundred years after the last Old Testament prophet; and see how these vastly complicated and seemingly inconsistent details were precisely fulfilled in the history of Jesus of Nazareth; and if you have not a darkened understanding, a seared conscience, and a stony heart, you will prostrate your soul before the once incarnate and crucified Redeemer, with the impassioned exclamation of Thomas—My Lord and my God!
As has been well said, Jesus Christ is the only key in all the universe that fits the infinitely complicated Messianic prophecy. The Jewish rabbins thought some of the Messianic prophecies so inconsistent with others that they supposed there would be two Messiahs—a Messiah ben (or son of) Joseph, who should suffer, and a Messiah ben David, who should reign. But the Messianic prophecies of suffering and reigning are indissolubly blended. The principles of bleeding sorrow and holy triumph are eternally blended in him who is at once and forever the Lamb and the Son of God—the vicarious sufferer and the Divine bridegroom of his redeemed church. (Songs 5:10; Isa. 53: 54:5; Eph. 5:23-32; John 1:18,29; Psa. 2:7; Matt. 16:16; Mark 14:61,62, Acts 3:13; Rom. 1:3,4; Heb. 1:2,3, I Pet. 1:3; Rev. 1:5; 19:7,9,13; 22:1).” (Hassell’s History ppg 177-180)