Does the Old Testament Predict Jesus?

Throughout his missionary journeys and years of preaching the gospel, the Apostle Paul taught that faith in Christ is a fulfillment of God’s promises, of the prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, which are the words of God (Acts 13:16-41, 17:2-3, 11, 18:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Likewise, the Apostle Peter preached from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled God’s promises (Acts 2:14-36, 3:12-26, 4:10-12), as did Apollos (Acts 18:28).

Faith in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Son of God is a fulfillment of Old Testament scriptures, not something fabricated or contradictory to Judaism. The gospel of Jesus is the completion of the prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures.

The Old Testament prophesied a Messiah who would fulfill roles foreshadowed or promised throughout Israel’s history.

The Messiah would be:

• A Prophet like Moses who would speak God’s words directly to the people (Deuteronomy 18:18). Jesus was this Prophet—the second Moses who served as the mediator between God and humans, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14, 7:40, Acts 3:22, 7:37). During His ministry, Jesus declared, “therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me” (John 12:49-50). In his final recorded testimony, John the Baptizer affirmed that Jesus had come from God to speak the words of God, “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure” (John 3:31-36)
  
  
• A King like David who would sit on the throne of Israel forever (2 Samuel 7:12-16, Ezekiel 34:23-24). Jesus was born of the line of David (Matthew 1:1-17). After Jesus resurrected, all authority was given to Him over heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18). He was given the reward of being a “Son” (Hebrews 1:5). He was given the scepter of the earth and restored humanity’s appointment to reign over the earth (Hebrews 1:8, 13, 2:9). The LORD’s promise to David was a foreshadowing of Jesus, the Son of David, who will reign forever.
  
  
• A Priest in the order of Melchizedek whose service would be without end (Psalm 110:4). Because Melchizedek was never recorded as having a beginning or end, the author of Hebrews draws the comparison that Melchizedek foreshadowed the eternal priest, Jesus, who has “the power of an indestructible life,” being eternal in origin and raised from death to eternal life (Hebrews 6:20, 7:3, 15-22). Jesus is “a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek” who “continues forever” and “holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:17, 24-25).

  The “Servant Songs” prophesied by Isaiah foreshadow Jesus’s humiliation, suffering, and resurrection: Isaiah 42:1-9, 49:1-13, 50:4-11, 52:13 - 53:12.

The predictions in these songs are various and detailed (Isaiah 53:1-3), all fulfilled by Christ; that He would atone the Gentiles (1 John 2:2), not be believed (John 7:5), be unrecognized (Acts 13:27), misunderstood (John 3:3-4), and despised (John 15:18, Matthew 27:18).

He would be a man full of sorrows and grief (Isaiah 53:3, Matthew 26:38), falsely condemned in a trial (Isaiah 53:8, Matthew 26:59-66), oppressed, afflicted, and tortured while submitting as a peaceful lamb (Isaiah 53:4-7, Matthew 27:12, Luke 23:9).

The New Testament quotes the fourth “Servant Song” six times: Matthew 8:14-17, Luke 22:35-38, John 12:37-41, Acts 8:26-35, Romans 10:11-21, 1 Peter 2:19-25. The New Testament both quotes it as a proof of Jesus being the Messiah (Acts 8:26-35) and alludes to it as an example of what Jesus did for us that we should imitate (Philippians 2:5-10).

Isaiah 53:10-11 describes how the Messiah will die for sins but be given life and reward. The Messiah would be “crushed” as a “guilt offering” and He would “justify the many” because He bore “their iniquities,” and because of this, God would “prolong His days” and “the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper His hand.” Jesus died for our sins, our guilt (1 Corinthians 15:3), having our sins put on Him on the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and was resurrected by God the Father and rewarded with authority over all of creation (Philippians 2:8-11, Hebrews 2:9-10, Ephesians 1:20-22).

The Gospel of Matthew, which was written primarily to a Jewish audience, contains many citations of Old Testament prophecies and explanations of how and when Jesus fulfilled them:

Matthew 1:22-23—Isaiah 7:14

Matthew 2:5-6—Micah 5:2

Matthew 2:15—Hosea 11:1

Matthew 2:16-18—Jeremiah 31:15

Matthew 2:23—Isaiah 11:1-10

Matthew 3:1-3—Isaiah 40:3

Matthew 4:13-16—Isaiah 9:1-2

Matthew 8:17—Isaiah 53:4

Matthew 11:10—Malachi 3:1

Matthew 12:17-21—Isaiah 42:1-4

Matthew 13:34-35—Psalm 78:2

Matthew 21:4-5—Zechariah 9:9

Matthew 21:42—Psalm 118:22-23

Matthew 26:31—Zechariah 13:7

Matthew 26:64—Daniel 7:13

Matthew 27:9-10—Zechariah 11:12-13

Perhaps the clearest foreshadowing of Jesus in the Old Testament is during the Israelites’ time in the wilderness, when venomous serpents had bitten them and they were dying. The Israelites cried out for the Lord to save them. The Lord told Moses:

“Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”
(Numbers 21:8)

Moses obeyed, and everyone who looked at the serpent raised on the pole was healed from the deadly venom. Jesus pointed to this as an illustration of His own death, raised up on the cross, that all who look on Him with enough faith to be healed from the deadly venom of sin will be saved from sin and death and given life:

“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”
(John 3:14-15)

As Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17-20). He taught His disciples all the ways in which He had fulfilled the Old Testament (Luke 24:25-27, 45-48), which they recorded in the New Testament, teaching and persuading the Jews and Gentiles of the 1^st century that they had witnessed Jesus Christ complete the promises of God.