Jesus Prophecies part 1 – Old Testament Prophesies About The Birth Of Christ

Hey, we’re Aaron and Jennifer Smith, your host of the Marriage After God podcast, where we desire to help you cultivate a marriage that chases boldly after God’s will together.

And in this episode, we’re going to be talking about prophecy regarding Jesus. This was something that we mentioned in last series we did, and we’re going to be going through several episodes talking about prophecies about Jesus and how it matters and how it’s significant to our faith. But before we do, I want to ask you to take a moment. Would you please subscribe to our channel, either on YouTube or iTunes, Spotify, wherever you guys listen or watch. And if you haven’t already, would you leave a star rating and a review? Those star ratings and those reviews help our show get discovered by other people and when people discover ’em, they like to read those reviews and then you could be a blessing with your review. Here’s one review. It’s a five star review by a woman named Tabitha and she says, this podcast has helped me a lot.

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I listened to the confessing your Sins to Your Spouse episode and I felt so much conviction from the Holy Spirit. This couple is incredible and I love how they’re doing. The work of God has called them to do and help other couples grow in Christ. I dunno why that was one for me to read, but that’s an awesome review and we love getting reviews like this. We love reading them and we try and share about ’em on this podcast. So that’s all I have for the intro. Now we can talk about a little bit of catching up on what’s been going on in our life.

There you go. Well, first off, we just wanted to reiterate that we did the series on words and then we told you guys we were going to take a week break and then come back with the next series, but we ended up taking two weeks off. So I don’t know if you want to share a little bit about why

That was. Yeah, sorry about my voice. I’m a little congested so it’s going to sound funny, but we did for the first time in about 11 years since we started having children, went on a little vacation with just us two for my 40th birthday. It

Felt weird to get away from the children for such a extended period of time. I think we’ve done it for a day or two, but never seven days. And it was

Always for work or something. It was never just for me, but this was

All of our friends when we came back, they’re like, how was your trip? I’m like, it was so relaxing. There was no one to tend to or help or

It was just us in a conversation. It was also, it made us realize that all the things that we were doing, we would look at each other and be like, the kids would love this so much. And so we missed our kids the whole time and just wish they were there with us. We totally appreciated that we had our alone time with each other, but it made us just realize how much we enjoy our children and how much they make things. We do a lot more fun if you

Think about it. So we ended up going to Oahu and what I liked about it is we got to go to a little bit more fancier restaurants or even food experiences,

Places we probably wouldn’t try with all the kids

That we wouldn’t try with the kids. So I thought that was really great and also just the uninterrupted conversation time with you. I really lot of

That and I love that it’s been 17 years and we still enjoy each other’s company. We really do best friends. We so much fun just walking on the beach or sitting and having breakfast or a cup of coffee. Oh, it was awesome.

So good. So when we came back and we had talked about it on our trip, even this next series that we were going to dive into and we were really excited about it. It’s something that I personally have been wanting to do for a long time, but just talking about Jesus and prophecy and really just have a big old conversation about it. But when we got back, I just realized we need to give this a little bit more attention before diving into

It. Well, because some cool stuff in it.

So we took last week off too, and here we are back in another series. So this is the first episode of the series of the Jesus series,

The Jesus series, the Jesus

Series. The

Jesus series Sounds so serious. I

Know, I like it.

But prophecy is serious.

So we’re starting today specifically with his birth and just a prophecy involving his birth. And then in later on episodes we’ll deal with his death, his resurrection and coming even talk about the church, the role of the church and times. These are all things that I feel like have been coming up in conversation a little bit more in the last couple of years.

Well, believers look at the world and we’re like, okay, well alright, we see what’s going on. But

Really it’s also become a conversation I see online a lot more. I don’t remember seeing it. I know social media has grown a lot in the last few years.

It’s made things more visible. But yeah, I mean when we were growing up, we had the left behind series and that was the biggest conversation around this idea. But there’s a lot of people that don’t understand or don’t believe necessarily that direction of things. But nowadays, especially with things that are going on in the Middle East with Israel, with Ukraine, with just, we see everything.

The last few weeks have been pretty heavy and I think a

Lot of regards, believers just look at it and be like, okay, does the Bible talk about this? So we’ll get into some of that stuff.

So in knowing that we were going to launch this Jesus series and prophecy in this timing, I was thinking about Passover and different feasts coming up this year that I thought would really lend to the conversation, but I didn’t realize the impact that was happening in Israel and

How it’s connected to

Certain things specifically. It’s just been wild,

Wild stuff.

Very interesting. Okay. Yeah,

Yeah. I guess the question is why are we talking about prophecy about Jesus on a marriage podcast? And I think our listeners, the ones that have been with us for a long time, to us, you guys are used to us talking about things that are not just marriage specific to marriage, but how important it is. All of these things biblically is in our marriage that we as a couple are digging into these things and talking about these things and discussing ’em and getting on the same page and figuring out where we differ and why and all

Of it matters. On a personal note, this is something that comes up in our marriage often and I feel like it always has just in our relationship. And it’s something where, because we’ve talked about different aspects of prophecy or just really loving the treasure hunt of when you find something in the Bible or even you see a headline or something in the news that reminds you of something from the Bible, I feel like it’s always been something we’ve shared with each other. You’ll text me an article or a

Video. I personally love seeing specific things happening in the world and I’m like, that’s one thing to believe the Bible and what it says, it’s another thing to see people that are not Bible believers talking about things that the Bible talks about and how public it is, but people still denying the truth, still not wanting to look at it like it’s right in their face. And you see it in the headlines, specifically stuff that the Bible talked about thousands of years ago and now in our today’s headlines, people are talking about it. It blows my

Mind. Me too. So knowing that this is a common interest in our marriage, we’ve found time to be able to talk about it and really enjoy it just like you would a hobby or talking about the kids or something like that. So we wanted to encourage you right upfront that even though this is a marriage podcast and we’re going to be doing a series on Jesus and prophecy, it can be such a huge encouragement to marriage. And I just wrote a couple of notes here on how a conversation and pursuing information like this in marriage can just bring you guys together. So I said digging in the word when we want to understand something better because like I said, you see something in the headlines and it triggers a verse you read or something like that, then you get to dig in and just experience that together. Another one is praying for more wisdom and understanding of these things that we believe or even the things that we wrestle with. I think going to prayer has always been something I know we talk about a lot. Yeah, well, because I’m an anxious person, so even all this news that was happening in Israel, I brought it to Aaron and I remember just praying. And so that also it’s a stimulant for prayer, which I paying attention to what’s going on in the world. You kind of already mentioned that and how it relates to

Scripture and having a biblical and spiritual perspective of these things

And filtering it through that and having excitement around knowing and discussing God’s word, like I mentioned, sending each other texts or messages or just on your next date night, mentioning things that you’ve stumbled upon that you guys want to talk about. So would you say they could just

Use this series as a time to have a devotional with each other?

Yeah,

Totally. Digging into prophecy, digging into who Jesus is, what the Bible says about him. Yeah, yeah. So it’s a marriage building tool. Totally spiritual marriage building.

So if we say anything today that encourages you or even makes you wrestle a little bit, share it with your spouse,

Share

It with your spouse, and then go talk to them about it or pray about it.

Okay, so we’re talking about prophecy prophecies, it’s a big word and it’s like what does that even mean? And a lot of us have this idea of like, oh, it’s like fortune telling, telling the future. That’s sort of what it is. It’s a piece of prophecy, but that’s not really the biblical definition of prophecy. And Google defines it, not the Bible, but Google defines it as an inspired utterance of a prophet, viewed as a revelation of divine will or a prediction of the future made under divine inspiration. Again, these are things that we would probably like. That’s kind of what prophecy is. But in reality, prophecy in the Bible, old Testament prophecy I should say, because New Testament prophecy is a little different. Maybe that’s another episode or something. But Old Testament prophecy is essentially a person saying what God has told him to say, whatever that is. And so yes, and

It’s like a revealing the

Word revealing. It’s revealing God will, God’s truth, God’s word, God’s desires. So God oftentimes in the Old Testament used a person to be a mouthpiece for himself. And so that’s essentially the biblical definition of a prophet or prophecy is a person speaking on behalf of God, which is a very big deal because if you speak on behalf of God, you better have heard what God said and you better say exactly what God told you to say otherwise you’re misrepresenting God,

Which we’re going to read a sort of large passage of scripture here just to get an idea about what you’re talking about. Old Testament prophecy.

And this was God’s speaking to his people in Deuteronomy and giving commands and understanding how to listen to him. He gives them this warning and encouragement of how do you know if a prophet’s a prophet or not?

So in Deuteronomy 18, starting in verse 15, it says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, or see this great fire anymore lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I’ll put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him and whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die. And if you say in your heart, how may we know the word that the Lord has spoken, when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken, the prophet has spoken it presumptuously, you need not be afraid of him.

This was a serious thing God was saying, if a prophet in my name comes and actually tells you what I’ve told him to and you disobey, you’re disobeying me. And then God says, if a prophet comes and says they’re speaking in my name, but I have not given them a word, don’t listen to them. And then he tells ’em, he’s like, this is how you test it. If what they say comes to pass, there were a prophet, which is kind of like,

And that they said what I said.

Yeah. So there was often in the Old Testament there was a formula that would happen and how God would speak to his people through a prophet. Often the prophet would come and give a short-term prophecy and a long-term prophecy. And what that did was the short-term prophecy was how they knew what he was saying was true. It

Was like something that would come to pass right away very

Quickly within the window of the people hearing would be able to experience it. And then what that would tell them is, oh, that means that the other thing that prophet said is also true even if they’re not alive ever to see it happen.

I was going to say, if there is a prophecy that prophet says generations later, the people still know

Many of the prophecies about Jesus. They happened hundreds of years before Jesus ever lived. So that means the people that heard them would never have seen it come true. And even though New Testament talks about that because many of the prophets never saw what they longed for, but you do,

It kind of reminds me of the Magi, the wise men who come, we’re going to talk about that later, but just the idea that they were on the hunt because of prophecy for the Messiah.

And there’s many people that look at prophecies from the Old Testament that sound like end times prophecy and they’ll say, oh no, that took place back then. And often it is true that it took place back then. But the point is that those prophecies have double meanings that they were true then and will be true again at another time. And that’s a common formula that God gives for prophecy in the Old Testament because he wanted the people hearing his word to know that the prophet was true and that what he said about them right then came true. And what they said that they’re not going to ever see come true is also true.

So it’s kind of like a formula you mentioned for building trust. You can trust my word because do you see this over here? This just happened and I said it was going to happen and now when this other thing comes to pass, the people still know that I said it was true.

So you could think about it in terms the prophet would give a near future prophecy and a far future prophecy. So you’d have both of them. One would come true immediately and they would know, oh, this prophet’s true. That means everything he said is true. So we’re going to look at some prophecy about Jesus that was talked about in the Old Testament about his birth starting at the very beginning of Jesus’ life and even a little bit before that, which is amazing because these are things that some might say that Jesus could have manually or made some prophecies come true in his life, but you can’t do that if you’re not born yet. You can’t control a prophecy that you aren’t

Even, or even as a young child baby, you can’t tell your parents where to go or where to come from in order for prosper

Going to look at. He have manufactured these to come true. They did because God said they would. Yeah.

Real quick, I just want to mention a little bit more of when you think about why are we talking about this? Why does it matter that there was prophecy about Jesus and then these things were fulfilled? There’s been people that I’ve heard say like, yeah, I know Jesus was a man, but they don’t believe that he was the Messiah

Or they don’t believe he was God or

Well, I think normal people like you and I, we don’t have hundreds or thousands year old prophecy about our birth or the things that are going to take place in our life. And I think it’s really special to consider, like you said, how the prophets would say whether short term or long term. And then these things came to pass. And I think it’s such a beautiful testimony of who God is and that he wants us to understand his word. And so I think Jesus is a very special person because he had these things written about him and then they did come to pass

Most special,

So we should be looking at them. And

They also, these prophecies about Jesus are evidence and proof of his God, of his godhood divinity of the truth about who he is because it wasn’t just Jesus’s testimony about himself. He even says this. He says, if it was only my testimony, it would be not a good testimony, not believable. He’s like, but I don’t testify about myself. God testifies about me. God told us before Jesus came who he was, how he was going to come, what he was going to do, what it was for all of it. And then it happens, and you see this in the New Testament when people recognize that, oh, this was the Messiah because they recognize the truth of that. He fulfilled the prophecies. When John the Baptist was in prison, he sends his disciples, he’s discouraged, he’s in prison. He’s like, can you just go ask if he is the Messiah? I just need to know if everything I’m doing is not for in vain. Yeah, in vain. And they come to him and Jesus’ response is, he didn’t say, yes, I’m the Messiah. He says

He never came out and said things like that.

He says, go tell John the things that I do. He’s like, what I’ve done is proof of who I am. And so real

Quick, sorry, I have one more side note as you were talking, I just got really encouraged that those listening, if you’re parents and you have children, it’s our job to reveal this stuff to our children and to share it with them and to teach them what we know. And so this would be a great episode to share with them, even if you did it in your own words, but to remind them, because as we grow up and we gather all this information, I think sometimes we store it inside and we forget our kids don’t know what we know this stuff. And so reminding them that Jesus was written about and foretold about and then these things came to pass. And so being able to share those things with your kids and watch their eyes light up would be really cool.

And I think this episode should be pretty clean. We should say anything that they can’t listen to. So how many prophecies are there in the Old Testament about Jesus?

So from what I looked up and gathered, there’s round or more than 300 prophecies. Yeah, there’s a lot. But that’s about everything like his birth, his death,

And the statistical probability of a single person fulfilling even one of these prophecies or some of these prophecies, let alone every single

One of them. Like you said, if someone was trying to manufacture or something,

Yeah, it’s impossible. I don’t know the number, but you can look it up. The statistical probability of a person fulfilling even a few of these prophecies is literally impossible.

And there hasn’t been someone since Jesus who you even see an attempt in their life.

They tried to,

No, but I mean even if they weren’t trying, but someone born where he was born and like he said, he would be born there just hasn’t been. Yep. But Jesus, there’s,

But Jesus I know,

But Jesus,

We should get a shirt that says, but Jesus,

Okay, now let’s jump in. Okay,

So it looks like you found some of these things in answers and Genesis and we just wanted to share with them.

They just have a great resource. If you guys aren’t familiar with them, it’s called Answers and Genesis. And

Are they the same people that did the Arc? Yes. And oh yeah, we love those

Guys. They have a lot of good stuff, especially free your kids.

Okay, we’re going to start off with the first one. There’s only a handful that we’re going to talk about. We’re not going to about all 300.

It would be too long of an episode.

The virgin birth. Yeah. This is important because some people be like, oh, she wasn’t miracle. Yeah, it’s actually a miracle. That’s the first amazing thing about this is that it’s foretold. It was prophesied that he would be born of a virgin in the Old Testament by who. And first of all, that’s an impossible, that one

Alone, you can’t make it happen.

It’s impossible except for

Jesus. What prophet mentions

This. So this isn’t Isaiah seven 14, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. This is the Lord himself will give the people a sign. Behold the virgin shall conceive embarrass son and shall call his name Emmanuel. And Emmanuel we know means God with us

Real quick, when you read this verse, it sounds really easy to understand. You’re like, okay, yes, this makes sense. But if you read it in context, I don’t know if you saw my note here, but it’s kind of smooshed in between a lot of stuff going on, and that kind of makes prophecy hard to understand. And I just want you to share

A little bit. I actually read something about this because it is really interesting when you look at the New Testament and you’ll see them say as it was foretold, and they’ll say a piece like this, and you’re

Like, how did they know was about? And then you go back

Back and you’re like, that doesn’t look like it’s clearly talking. We can see it in hindsight, oh, that’s talking about Jesus on the virgin birth. But when you look at context of the rest of Isaiah chapter seven, it looks like it’s talking about one thing and then there’s this one little verse. And so people have discussed and said, well, is the way they interpreted the Old Testament a template for us on how we should interpret? Because they look at it like, oh, see, it’s like they cherry picked this one verse and said, look, that’s a prophecy. And then I read something really interesting and it was saying that at that moment the Bible was not yet complete. And so it’s almost as if the New Testament was a completion of the understanding of the prophecy, like the key. Yes. That the Holy Spirit was revealing to them that one scripture that you’ve read it over and over and over again as a child that pertains to my son. And then they say as it was foretold. So it’s not that it was showing us in the New Testament how to understand Prophe in the Old Testament. What it was doing was it was revealing in the New Testament what the Old Testament was saying.

So when Jesus, because in the New Testament it’ll say Jesus said, and then he quotes Old Testament, he’s giving the key. He’s telling you what that meant. He’s

Revealing what it meant, not saying, here’s how to understand what it meant. He’s saying this is what it means, this is it. So the New Testament, so you need both. You need both. So without the New Testament, those Old Testament scriptures don’t have the connection, don’t have the meaning. And that’s what’s amazing about it is the New Testament and the Old Testament are a complete thought.

And so just to give you an example, you just read an Isaiah about a virgin birth, and here in Matthew one twenty three it says, behold the virgin shall conceive and bears son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. They’re referencing the point,

And it’s almost as if some of the New Testament prophecies about the future, we look at him and say, oh, we don’t know if that’s what it means, but there’s going to be a moment when something takes place and the dot will be connected. And we’ll be like, that’s what that meant. And it’ll be as if we wrote and see, look what it said here in Revelation or look what said here in one Thessalonians and we point to it.

Question for you as far as prophecy. Do you think that God, the Holy Spirit is still doing that when people read scripture today? Just not in adding to the Bible or anything like that, but just in revealing like, Hey, this scripture, because so much of the Bible is always say all of it is relevant for us today as far as encouragement and support and comfort.

I think there’s some very big prophecies about Israel and about the Third Temple and about all these things that I think as time is revealing our connecting dots for us. I don’t know about in a person’s individual life like, oh, look, that’s about me. So I don’t know. I think God is using this word of God every day to reveal truth to us, that as we’re walking out our lives and we look and we like God’s like See, that’s what I meant. See, that’s what I meant. And so I do think that we’re being revealed individual, generic truth, general truth in an individualized way to us. Yes, I agree. Every day. So a miraculous birth foretold. And then in Matthew, it’s points to see that scripture, that one verse that’s in the mix of all these other verses that’s talking about this moment, something that could not be manufactured in any way even today. We couldn’t use science to do what happened. You need a male and a female. God does it without

That his way.

And what’s awesome about this is the significance of this is he doesn’t have an earthly father, but he does have an earthly mother. And this is highlighting the truth of his full earthly nature and his full divine nature

Being fully man, fully God. Yes.

So he’s fully God, fully man has a earthly mother, but does not have an earthly father. He has a heavenly Father. Only way this can happen is if God did it. That’s the only way.

And you have a little note here, that Jesus isn’t an adopted son. He is the only begotten son of God, and all other sons or daughters are adopted or grafted in, yeah,

John three 16 in the KJV says he’s the only begotten of God. And then most every other translation says, only son. And it takes that word begotten out. But that word begotten is so necessary because if you said that Jesus is the only son of God, then what does the Bible mean when it says that we become sons of God? Then it’s lying and it’s not lying. But the truth is there’s only one begotten of God. It’s Jesus, and then all else are adopted. We’re all adopted. And so these things have significance when it comes to the gospel and what words are being used and how we’re understanding scripture. So

Good. Okay. So the next prophecy that we wanted to talk about is that he would be born in Bethlehem. That’s very specific. Not in la, not in New York, in

Bethlehem, Bethlehem, which was a teeny tiny town.

It’s super tiny. And so this is prophesied in Micah five, two, it says, but you o Bethlehem, how do you say that?

Reha o Bethlehem,

Reha who are too little to be among the clans of Judah from you shall come forth. For me, one who’s to be ruler in Israel who’s coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.

I love that. Yeah. This is a birth prophecy specifically about where the Messiah would be born. But again, just like we were talking about before, this is mixed in with a bunch of other things. And we don’t find out how this connects to the birth of Jesus until it’s revealed to us in the New Testament, and it points back to this.

And why were they in Bethlehem?

Well, they went to Bethlehem because they had to do the census. So they went back to the city of David. They went back to where they were from, as ancestral grounds, I should say, in

Order to do the census.

So they didn’t control the census, they didn’t control that they had to do it. They didn’t control when the baby was going to be born.

They didn’t leave when they didn’t have anywhere to stay.

They went and had the baby in a manger, in a, what is it called, where the animals stay stable. A stable, yeah. And they couldn’t control any of that, but this was fulfilled. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And what I love about this, it says it’s too small to be among the clans of Israel. A lot of people don’t realize this, but there was the 12 tribes of Israel, but there was the tribe of, is it Judah, which is the priestly tribe?

No, the priestly tribe was Levi. Levi.

Levi, the tribe of Levi was the priestly tribe. And the tribe of Levi wasn’t given an inheritance of land. And so it’s making reference to this idea that you’re too small to be among the clans of Israel, meaning he’s of the priestly line also, he’s a part of this. He was not in one of the major cities. He was in this teeny, teeny tiny one that doesn’t have, it’s like a little tiny town. It was not even a city. And

Also when you think of the word too little or small or anything like that, you think of, oh, that’s insignificant and humble, which is exactly how he came.

He came in a lowly stature and humble means the humblest of means not in a palace. He’s in a stable, he’s in a manger. And it was like the last place. There wasn’t even a place for him. And they’re like, well, you can go out back. So it’s not like he had some reservation for this great place to be born. God was like, no, you’re going to be born the lowest of low’s so that you can relate to the lowest of low’s. And I think that’s amazing. And again, something that a baby being born cannot, couldn’t control. The mom and dad couldn’t control it. They had to go. They were in the middle of a census.

Now what’s interesting is usually you’re born of parents and you live in this town and you grow up in that town. I mean, that’s the majority of

People’s from I was born in Downey.

Some people do travel around. But I think that this is interesting that there was another prophecy in Isaiah 11, one that says this, when Israel was a child, very specific, I loved Tim and out of Egypt, I called my son. Now, some people will like the Jews, they’ll reference this and say, oh yeah, this relates to Jacob bringing all the children out and Moses bringing all the children out of Egypt, which it could

And did

Possibly be a part of that. But it’s so specific that when it says when Israel was a child, and I think of Jesus being too young to make those decisions for his family or manipulator or anything like that coming out of Egypt.

And what’s interesting is, again, another thing that couldn’t be controlled, but he’s born in Bethlehem and he’s there and maybe he’s been there for a little bit and all of a sudden they’re going to be attacked by Herod. They’re trying to kill all the children. And so an angel tells him, flee to Egypt. And so he goes to Egypt again, his parents take him to Egypt.

They could have gone probably a hundred different directions.

And so he’s from Bethlehem, he’s from Egypt, and there’s other prophecies referenced about him being a Nazarene. And so you might be able to look at these. If you put Jesus aside and you didn’t know anything about it, you might look at all these and say, well, they’re not connected. These are all contradictory. These are all different. How can he be all of these? And yet Jesus was all of those things, which I want to make note of that when looking at prophecy in the Bible, you can have a single prophecy. That sounds contradictory, but it’s not. Both things can and are true at the same time. In the New Testament, that happens a lot. There’s several prophecies about the second coming of Christ, about the end times, about all sorts of things that when you look at them, they seem contradictory, but they’re not.

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They actually are both true at the same time. We just don’t understand yet how they can both be true at the same time. How can Jesus be from Bethlehem and a Nazarene and from Egypt all at the same time? Well, he was in very clear terms. He fulfilled each one of those things. And so they were all true about the one man. And so when you read things in the New Testament and you see, well, that looks like it’s contradicting this. How can that be true and this be true? Well, if they’re both said, then they’re both true. And that’s a reality about the Bible. So the next one is an interesting one. Again, another one you can’t control, but it was also a miraculous thing. I love this one. This is about the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist.

I love that they were related and close. And parents,

They probably grew up together. They probably were friends in some level.

Well, they loved each other.

And so this is John the Baptist. The Bible foretells. It prophesies that God’s going to send before Jesus gets revealed a messenger to make straight the path for the Messiah.

And this wasn’t like six months before he was born. When was this?

This was like

400 years, 400

Years before he was born. So in the book of Malachi, the book of Malachi, it’s the last, they call it a minor prophet, not because it was insignificant, but because it’s a smaller book, minor prophet. It’s the last book of the Old Testament. So between Malachi and Matthew, there’s 400 years. There’s a 400 year gap between those two books where the people of Israel, 400 years later, it had been 400 years and they hadn’t had a prophet. They hadn’t had a word from the Lord. They’re just waiting. They’re like, what’s going on? Why is that

Quiet? But they had information for what they were waiting for, but

They had information for what they were waiting

For because Malachi says,

Yeah, sorry, you want to read it mal free one. It says, sending a messenger to prepare the way. This is a promise that God gives to Malachi to the people of Israel that God’s going to. He’s rebuking them for all these things that they’re doing in Malachi. And then he says, but I’m going to send you someone. I’m going to send you a messenger and I’m going to send you a prophet. And so was it

Kind of like that? He’s saying, look for this before you see the one

And many people did. Many people were going out to John and being baptized by him and they were repenting. And what’s interesting is this idea of a messenger being sent before Jesus. What it says that he will do is that it says that he’ll make the valleys, he’ll raise the valleys up and he’ll bring the mountains low. And the picture of that you see is so mountains are up here, valleys are the lowest. That’s a big discrepancy from the top, not just to the bottom of the mountain, but even into the valley. And what John was doing was he was calling all the people to repentance and he was talking to the Israelites. He’s saying, turn back to the God you already know and the Pharisees and the poor, he’s talking to all of them. And there’s even a time that Pharisees come and he rebukes them. And so what he was doing was he was preparing a flat way. There wasn’t a special way for the Pharisees. There wasn’t a special way for the kings. There wasn’t a different way for the poorest of poor. There was one way.

Okay, this is so beautiful. And as you were talking, I thought about what was his main ministry? Baptism. Baptism,

Which

We kind of see on the scene in this moment. And you’re talking about highest of highest to the lowest of lows. And I got this picture of baptism when you’re standing above the waters and then you go below. And that idea of repentance, of being prideful and to hump, to humility and all of this wrapped up into this really cool picture of what he was doing to prepare the way. And I just thought that was really

Cool. So that was his ministry. And again, that’s something that God prepared beforehand and he made it happen. So cool. That’s cool. When we go into the next one, it says, this is an interesting one, and I actually had to do a little bit of research on this because I didn’t know that there was a prophecy specifically about the star, star of David or the star that the Wiseman followed, which is going to lead us into the Wiseman in a second. So the star in numbers 24 17, it says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, it shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of chef. So you have this picture of a star. Again, you would read this without knowing the testament. Yeah. You’re like, what? Be like, how does this connect to anything? What is this? What’s the star? What’s the scepter? But then the wise men see a star. It says Rise in the east, and they see it and then they watch it. They follow it, go a certain direction. And so these wise men start following it. And the wise men, this is what I love about this story of Jesus’ birth and the star real

Quick before you move on to them. I hadn’t seen this reference in numbers yet until you put it in the notes, but it says, an acceptor shall rise out of Israel. And I’ve been doing a study with our ladies group about Esther, and if you guys remember in Esther, she has this meeting with the king. She goes into the inner courts where she’s not supposed to be because she wasn’t called upon. And either he was going to lend out his scepter and receive her of acceptance, of acceptance or she dies. And so I was doing a little digging into the scepter and looking into that. And most would, when you look into history for any kind of royal majesty, kingship, the golden scepter was this long rod almost related to a staff, which in Hebrew, the words are very similar or even the same. And it’s a sign of authority because with that scepter

Was like approval

Or disapproval, it was determining her life. And so when it says that a scepter is coming out of Israel, Jesus is the authority.

He’s the scepter of God.

She’s the scepter. Isn’t that so cool? That is cool. Okay, go ahead.

That’s an awesome connection. Yeah. So one of the things that I think we often and many believers don’t really pay much attention to is these wise men. We think, oh, cool, wise men, they follow a star and they just want to give worship to the king. But have you ever asked yourself, why are the wise men following the star they already knew? They even say to Herod that they know where the king’s supposed to be from. And so who are these wise men?

This is one of those things where when you’re looking at the birth of Jesus and you see all the storybooks or the pictures and the negativities theme, there’s always the wise men is a part of it. And Mary on the donkey of course. And so as from a child’s perspective, it’s something that they kind of just accept. I don’t know if you remember this, but we kind of just accept. Oh yeah. But it’s not until you get older and you gain this understanding of why they were chasing after what they were. And I think to give this information toward our children is just really, really awesome opportunity to tie in the Old Testament to the new.

And I want to break down some of the misinformation that we’ve had over the years. There isn’t three wise men. The Bible doesn’t mention how many, the reason we put three wise men together is because there’s been historical stories about it trying to give names to them. We don’t know their names.

Well, it’s also listed of the certain things that they give us Gifts. Gifts give three gifts. So it made sense that each one gave a certain thing,

But we don’t know. We dunno how many wise men. So that’s just an interesting thing. So let’s read in Matthew two, one through six. It says, now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea and the days of Herod the king, behold wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born? The king of the Jews. So these wise men already knew what they were looking for. He saw the star when it rose and had come to worship him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people. He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born, which

Real quick, that means that Herod believed them, that what they were looking for was true.

Yeah, he didn’t just, oh, that’s crazy.

For whatever reason, whatever background he had, whatever these

Wealthy men from the east came all the way here. I think that’s interesting to fulfill a prophecy. And then the Wiseman said in Bethlehem of Judea, for it is written by the prophet and you owe Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. And so we have the wise men, they say why they came, they were following the star. They’re looking for the king of the Jews. They know exactly who they’re looking for. And this should cause questions of like, how did they know who they’re looking for? Well think about this. Does anyone listening remember the stories of Daniel and the book of Daniel

Who wasn’t in Jerusalem? No.

He was taken into Babylon as a young boy and became one of the wise men of Babylon. And eventually because of him interpreting the dreams of the king became the highest of wise men.

So it would make sense that these kings of the East, these wise men of the East, knew and cared about Daniel’s writings and what was taking place in Jerusalem.

They were probably raised under people who Daniel taught. And so there’s this lineage of these wise men going all the way back to Daniel. And so they most likely knew of Daniel’s writings. They knew they’re looking for a Jew. They knew they’re looking for a king. They knew to follow a star. They knew of these writings. And even more awesome is the timing of it all. How would they know? So they saw the star, but they also knew when to go and where to go. And they also knew what to look for even before the star, a rose, they were looking for the sign. So cool. And so how would they know the timing? This is an interesting prophecy thing pro. Yeah, prophecy. Daniel was in charge of all the wise men. So he had all these writings. We have the stories of Daniel. Daniel had the stories, the prophecies of Jeremiah.

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That’s how Daniel knew when Israel was going to be freed from Babylon. He understood the writings of Jeremiah. And so if you haven’t heard of Daniel’s 70 week prophecy, this is where most likely these wise men would’ve understood exactly the timing. And also many Jews would’ve been aware of the season they were in. Jesus even rebukes them saying, are you not aware of the times and the seasons? Are you not aware of that I’m here? That it was already foretold that I would be here and that you should know exactly the times you’re in. He rebukes them for not paying attention because they should have known. So Daniel chapter nine, verses 24 through 27, the angel Gabriel comes to Daniel and answer to his prayer. And the angel tells him a prophecy. And he says, 70 weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin,

Which is, that’s a big

Hey, how do you end sin?

Yeah, pay attention to this one

And to a tone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness to seal both vision and profit, to anoint a most holy place. Know therefore and understand that from the going out of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks then for 62 weeks it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in trouble time. And after 62 weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing. And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and sanctuary and it shall come with a flood. And to the end, there shall be war. Desolation are decreed. So you have this prophecy that Gabriel, the angel is giving to Daniel and he’s explaining about this 70 weeks between this decree to rebuild Jerusalem and the coming of the anointed one, an anointed one means Messiah.

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That’s what Messiah means. And so you have actually 69 weeks leading up to that time. And when you calculate that out, the way that prophetic weeks work, it’s a week of years. So 69 times seven gives you the amount of years which comes out to around 4 83 years. And so that decree that this angel’s talking about happens with Nehemiah and the king of Babylon, giving Nehemiah Amaya permission to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls. And that’s written in Chronicles. And so we know exactly that. Magi know and you can look in scriptures and they can know exactly when that time that clock started. And so they were able to calculate by how many moons and sons have passed exactly 4 83 years, give or take. It’s crazy. It wasn’t exactly 4 83 years when they came because 4 83 years would be to the crucifixion. But they came just around the time that this child would be born. Interesting. 33 years earlier. Earlier, yeah. It’s just wild. If they were able to do it then the Jews should have been able to do it. And that’s one of the things I love about the story of the star, the wise men, that this is part of this, that they’re following prophecies from hundreds of years prior and from God’s other prophets and God’s other servants and God’s other people that he’s used to get this word out to the world.

It’s so good. And when we talk about prophecy from the Old Testament, it is to prove who Jesus is and what he was meant to

Do. Essentially God’s saying, this is my son. Don’t deny it.

God himself prophesied about Jesus in the very beginning of the story

And Genesis, you guys probably remember this story. Why don’t you read the verse?

It’s Genesis three 14 through 15. It says, the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field on your belly, you should go and dust. You shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman. And between your offspring and her offspring, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

Yeah, God not only gives the reader us this prophecy, this hope of like, Hey, yes, sin just entered the world, death entered the world. This devil is here, but he’s saying, I’m going to give a solution for this. I have a solve for this. And it’s a hopeful prophecy, but it’s not hopeful for the devil. And God himself prophesized this about his own son to the

Devil, right in the beginning,

Right from the beginning. And he tells him, he is like the offspring of a woman. This woman that you’ve deceived, the offspring of a woman like her is going to crush your head. You might bruise his heel, but that’s not going to be fatal. It’s not going to be permanent. It’s his heels going to smash you and you’re going to be dead. It’s going to be gone. And I just was teaching in Revelation in chapter 20, it talks about the devil being cast in the lake of fire and he’s gone forever. And not only just the devil, but also death and the grave all thrown into the lake of fire. And so this prophecy gets fulfilled in the very last couple chapters of the Bible. And it’s talked about in the very third chapter of the Bible by God himself talking about his own son.

I think it’s fascinating. I think it’s really cool to have something that spans all of history to be able to share and look at and discover and explore.

Believers need to recognize that in order to compile a book like the Bible, it cannot be done by any earthly means. It’s impossible. 66 books, 30 something authors over hundreds of years spans of time. And these things all connect and they all point to something,

To someone

And to someone, it’s impossible to just say, oh, let’s get a group of people together and make this thing. You can’t do it. It doesn’t work. It was only done by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit guiding this and God actually directing what he wants it to say and how he wants it to be written out and be fulfilled, which is incredible.

So would you say that, so prophecy from the Old Testament was written about Jesus and then Jesus came, was that prophecy specifically for the people of Jesus’ time or is it just as significant for us and our faith?

Both. It was to show those people, the Jews who the Messiah was going to be, what to look for, when to look for it, how it was going to play out. And they were blind. Like I said before, Jesus over and over and over again said, why aren’t you seeing the times that are before you, the prophets of old longed to see what you see. Now, if Sodom and Gamora was here, they would’ve repented long ago. He says all these things that’s saying, you’re so blind, you don’t have ears to hear. You don’t have eyes to see that literally the things that you’ve been looking for, the one you’ve been looking for is right here. But for us in our days, we get to look at it and we get to see the whole picture and we can point out the connections which just continue to solidify the truth of who Christ was.

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And there are some believers that want to throw the whole testament and be like, oh, that’s irrelevant now. No, the only reason the New Testament is relevant is because of the Old Testament without, like I said before, the New Testament is finishing the prophecies of old, it’s making all the connections that we couldn’t have been made without it being written. And so I think all of those prophecies, they’re all, so revelation is a big one. As we’ve been teaching through this for almost three years now. You can’t understand Revelation without understanding the Old Testament because literally all of the references in Revelation, most of them are from Old Testament concepts, old Testament imagery, old Testament ideas,

Such good stuff. Well, I have one more question. In your salvation story, when you came to know God, was prophecy a part of that for you? I know for some people it’s a big part of why they believe and how they believe

Everything. I think in some sense, because I don’t know if I’ve shared my testimony before, but there was a moment that I had with God by myself in my car while I was driving. And not that I didn’t hear him audibly, but I feel like he was having a conversation with me and really challenging my own belief of who I am and what my life meant. And he was asking me things like, what happens when you die? Who’s going to be at your funeral? What are people going to say about you? What kind of life have you led that people and how are they going to describe it? And it was like what it was essentially is what purpose are you living? And I was like, I don’t have any purpose. And he’s like, well, you know where you can get purpose. He’s like, it’s in me. And that was when I decided to follow him. But he was,

How did you get that conversation with

Him? I don’t know. I wasn’t even asking for it. It’s awesome. But it was essentially, God, it wasn’t prophetic in a sense, but he was essentially pointing to me. He’s like, here’s the outcome of what your current life is, which is kind of prophecy. He’s like, unless you commit your life to me, unless you choose to follow me, and I’ll give you something else. I think about Jesus when he calls out to James and John and he calls out to Peter and who’s with Peter Andrew, and he says, follow me. And they dropped their nets and they got out of the boat and they followed him. If they would’ve stayed, they would’ve had one life. They got out of the boat and they had a totally different life. Totally different. Yeah. One filled with purpose, one filled with meaning, one filled with transforming the world and most importantly, knowing the savior. And so it wasn’t prophetic in the sense of Old Testament prophecy, but it was prophetic in the sense of God kind of prophetically pointing me and saying, Hey, here’s your path right now. Which one do you want? That’s really cool. And give me that. So I dunno, does that make sense? Yeah.

I appreciate you sharing for everyone to hear. I know we have shared our testimonies before, but for me, I think it played a role later. So I feel like I grew up knowing who God was, and I had some influences in my life who taught me things like prayer and going to church and just studying scripture. But I remember it really hit me when I was 11, 12, 13 years old and trying to wrap my head around prophecy. And I have an aunt who was really interested in it, and I remember sitting down with her one time, I think I still have the scratch piece of paper that I wrote these things down on, but she was showing me what prophecy was. And she went through Old Testament, but she also went through New Testament things about the times and what Jesus was saying. And I remember and she talked about Israel becoming a nation and how cool that was. And that happened not in my lifetime. I wasn’t alive yet, but in our pretty recent generation, 75

Ish years. 80. 80 years, yeah. Yeah, 75.

So I thought that that was really neat for her to share with me. And so again, I just wanted to share our personal influences and connection process. And so just to remind you guys that this is an exciting thing to dig into when it comes to scripture. And I love that we started out with his birth just from the beginning and just the importance and the significance of what it means to our faith of believing in Jesus.

Yeah. I think prophecy definitely makes understanding who he is and who God is more potent. It’s like, oh wait, this isn’t just a story about a man that did good things Well, and

It’s not like he just came on the scene too. And then there’s all these stories of the nativity about this cool guy he was foretold about. That is amazing. It’s a miracle.

Love it. So that’s a little bit about the prophecies. This is not by any means an exhaustive list because like we said, there’s a lot of prophecies about Jesus, but I thought we’d share some of the most significant ones.

It’s a good start,

Good start. But we want you to dig in yourself, try and see if you can find more scripture that points to what the surrounding situations and things that would be fulfilled in the birth of Christ or the coming years of his life. It’s a good little thing to search out when you pray for us. Okay.

Dear Lord, we just come before you and we just thank you so much for your holy word. We thank you for the scriptures that have foretold about Jesus and his ministry and his death and resurrection. And we just ask for more wisdom and more understanding and insight when it comes to understanding your word. And like Aaron mentioned before, how the New Testament is connected to the Old Testament. It gives us that key of what those Old Testament prophecies were about. And we just pray, Lord, that as couples we’re able to dig into your word together, we pray for marriages to become stronger in understanding your word and building and increasing their faith in you, and worshiping you and praising you. We just pray, Lord, that this content that we went over today would just become an inspiration for those listening, that they would be motivated just to dig into the birth of Christ and His coming, and just how miraculous that truly was. And we just thank you for today, and we thank you for our marriages. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.

Thanks for having us. We’re thankful for having you, I should say. But we’ll see you next time. Bye.