The Prophecies about Messiah

As we continue through Advent, we remember that we are supposed to be anticipating the coming of Christ. We remember that he will be coming again to judge the living and the dead, but we also remember Jesus’ birth, which we celebrate on Dec 25.

It is interesting to recognize that in the actual time of Jesus’ birth, the Jewish people had been anticipating the coming of Messiah for centuries. Historians tell us that the Jewish nation had many men in the time of the first century that claimed to be the Messiah of Israel, such as Judas of Galilee, Simon – former slave of Herod, Athrogenes, Theudas, the “Egyptian Prophet” and Menahem ben Judah all claiming to be Messiah within a 60-year period. It is not coincidence that this was so. There had been many prophecies surrounding the birth of the Messiah and many religious scholars recognized that the time was near.

Daniel was told by the angel Gabriel that there would be Seventy Sevens. Daniel 7:20-27. Recognizing that a “Seven” was “seven years”, they realized that Seventy Seven meant 490 years. The prophecy told them that after 69 “Sevens”, the Anointed One would be cut off. 69 “Sevens” is 483 years. Using the Jewish Calendar, they recognized when Messiah would be cut off, which they really didn’t understand what that meant, but they didn’t have a pinpoint to when Messiah would actually come. They only knew the approximate time of his coming. However, once that time passed, there were no longer any prophecies to help determine the time of Messiah. This is why we do not hear much of Messiah any more in Judaism. But in Jesus’ time, there were many people looking for Messiah.

So now that we’ve determined the general time of Messiah’s birth, we need to look at other prophecies regarding his birth.

Micah 5:2
"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."

There are two things we can gather from Micah’s prophecy. The first is the place of birth. Micah tells us that Messiah would come out of Bethlehem Ephrathah. We’ve all heard of Bethlehem, but what is Bethlehem Ephrathah? Ephrathah in the Hebrew literally means ash heap or a place of fruitlessness. In a time where agriculture was the main means of sustenance, to have fruitless land was to have useless land. Micah was saying that Bethlehem was fruitless, useless – the least of the least. Nothing good could come out of Bethlehem. But yet, God chose Bethlehem to be the birthplace of His Messiah. Why would God do that? Why would God chose such an insignificant and unimportant place to be the birthplace of Messiah? Shouldn’t Messiah be born in a palace? Born to Royalty? Born of wealth? How about Jerusalem – isn’t that God’s Holy City? That is the way we humans want to think, but God has shown over and again that this is not how He thinks. God uses the foolish to confound the wise and the weak to confound the mighty. See who else he has chosen to lead His people – the idol maker Abraham, the disgraced prince and simple shepherd Moses, the shepherd boy David, as well as Ehud, Deborah and the twelve sons of Jacob and the twelve disciples. God loves to use the least of the least. So why would His choice of birthplace be any different? Why would the family of Messiah be any different? Why would the profession of Messiah be any different?

But there is another point that Micah makes in his prophecy and it is to the nature of this Messiah. He tells us that the origins of the Messiah will be from old, from ancient times. What is God telling us about Messiah? Is he going to be an old man? The Hebrew word translated here as ancient is the same word used for eternal, antiquity, forever. This word is used over 400 times and yet, it is not used to describe any other person and is only used to describe God Himself. It is clear that this Messiah will not be just a regular man, but more than a man – he will be God!

But how can that be? Surely Micah misunderstood and wrote incorrectly. If it were only Micah who prophesied this, there might be debate, but Isaiah also speaks of it.

Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Immanuel literally means God with us. Isaiah and Micah are telling us the same thing. They are telling us that God is going to be with us, born in Bethlehem. But Isaiah also tells us something about the birth itself. He tells us that the mother will actually be a virgin. In the Hebrew, this word is almah. It means virgin, of marriageable age or maiden. There are some who will say that Isaiah wasn’t saying that the mother would be a virgin but would be a maiden or young woman. But the actual meaning of this word almah implies that she is a virgin, even when not used specifically in that way. In other words, whenever scripture uses the word almah, it is specifically recognizing that these women are very young, unmarried and hence virgins. All three of these attributes are assumed in the word. So when Isaiah says that an almah would give birth to a son, the reason it is a sign is because that in itself is impossible. An almah by definition would be a virgin.

So now we know that the coming Messiah would come at a certain time - around the time that Jesus came, that he would be born in Bethlehem, that he would actually be God and that he would be born of a virgin. We've pretty much narrowed the field of who could be Messiah. Even if we never looked at all the other prophecies regarding Messiah and looked at just these particular ones regarding the birth of Messiah, we can see that there is good evidence to accept Jesus as the Messiah.

But what else are we told about Messiah?

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

This child is born to be given. Given in what way? Other ways to look at this word, “nathan” in the Hebrew, is to see how else it is used in the Jewish scripture. Here is a list of some of the ways: Delivered, appointed, blamed, committed, defeated, designated, entrusted, established, handed over, hanged, inflicted, injured, pierced, presented, repay, traded. The child that would be born would be “nathan” for us. When Jesus was born, he was born to be given: to be delivered up for our sins, to take the blame for what we had done, to be handed over to the Romans and hanged on the cross, to be injured, inflicted and pierced for our iniquities, to be presented to God as the unblemished lamb, the perfect sacrifice, to save us from the bondage of our sins and to set us free. Because he was given, we do call him Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.

A final prophecy regarding the birth of Messiah would be Isaiah 11:1-2 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD”.

Here we see that Messiah would be form the family of King David. One of the things that the Jewish nation did very well was keep track of family roots. Today, if I want to find out who my great-great-grandparents were, I could hire someone to go back through public records and try to find out who they were. However, in the days of the first century, the Jewish nation kept very good records of everyone’s roots. They were very easily tracked. People were known by where they were from and who their parents were: Jesus, son of Joseph; Jesus of Nazereth; David, son of Jesse. It was very easy to know back then who were from the lines of David. Matthew and Luke both give the ancestor roots of Jesus and it wasn’t hard for them to find them.

So we know where he was born, when he was born, his nature and his lineage. We also know that his mother was a virgin, he would be “given” and that he is eternal. There is only one man in history who ever has been claimed to be all these things. That is Jesus.

Today, as we continue our celebration of Advent, we remember that Jesus was born in a manger. But we also recognize that the Jewish nation was looking forward to that day for hundreds of years. Many of them recognized it when it came. Many of them missed the signs. Let us remember during this season that God came down to Earth to be with us, to be given for us and to bring us back to Him. This was the single reason he came. Let’s celebrate the birth of Messiah – Jesus Christ.

Send mail to david@TheArkNY.org with questions about the church or comments about this site.
Last modified: Dec 10, 2006