Spiritual Life
Reasons to Believe
Religions & Sects
Church History
Theology
Philosophy
Ethics
Interviews
Testimonies
In the News
Miscellaneous
Faith & Reason Press Speaker's Forum Links Resources About Us

THE PROPHECIES & THEIR FULFILLMENT

OF THE MESSIAH




Introduction by Donna Morley: Before we take a look at the Prophecies of the Messiah, found in the Old Testament, and their Fulfillment, found in the New, we first must address one important issue. That is, the question of the New Testament, or rather, the New Covenant.



Is the New Covenant for the Jewish people? Christians would say the New Covenant is for everyone. The Jewish people reject this idea. They do not believe the New Covenant is for them. Yet, little do they realize that God actually promised them, and all of Israel, this New Covenant.



God’s Promise to give the Jews a New Covenant



Here’s God’s promise of a New Covenant, found in Jeremiah, Chapter 31, verses 31:34:



 

(vs. 31): “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

 

(vs. 32): not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.

 

(vs. 33): “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

(vs. 34): “...for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”



God brought about a New Covenant because He has “better promises” for the Jewish people



Let’s take a closer look, starting at the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 8, verses 6-13:

 

(vs. 6): But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

 

(vs. 7): For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.



         (vs. 8-12): For finding fault with them, He says,


“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,

When I will effect a new covenant

With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers

On the day when I took them by the hand

To lead them out of the land of Egypt;

For they did not continue in My covenant,

And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

After those days, says the Lord:

I will put My laws into their minds,

And I will write them upon their hearts.

And I will be their God,

And they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach every one his fellow-citizen,

And every one his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’

For all shall know Me,

From the least to the greatest of them.

For I will be merciful to their iniquities,

And I will remember their sins no more”

 

(vs. 13): When He said, “A new covenant” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.”



Just as the Old Covenant was dedicated and ratified with blood, so too was the New Covenant instituted and ratified with blood.



In the Epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 12-22 we read:

 

(vs. 12): and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

 

(vs. 13): For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh,

 

(vs. 14): how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God?

 

(vs. 15): And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

 

(vs. 16): For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it.

 

(vs. 17): For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

 

(vs. 18): Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

 

(vs. 19): For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, and water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

 

(vs. 20): saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”

 

(vs. 21): And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

 

(vs. 22): And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.



Other verses to look up are: Hebrews chapter 10, verses 4-24; Matthew chapter 26, verse 17, also chapter 27, verse 29; Luke chapter 22, verses 15-20 and Ephesians chapter 1, verse 7.



Now, let’s take a look at the Old