This past Sunday, Pastor Byron started us off on our Advent 2017 Series. You can listen to the message here. In preparation, Byron shared from the prophecies of the Old Testament about Jesus’ coming. It is fascinating to note a few things about the coming of Jesus as foretold centuries before it happened. Below are a few examples.
Several Passages in the OT Foretell Jesus’ Coming
Old Testament passages in the Bible the predict Jesus’ coming are numerous and span the centuries of it’s composition. From the Pentateuch, which was written about 1400BC, to Micah, which was written about 400BC, the Old Testament composition spans a millennium.
In that thousand years of composition, there are just over 300 predictions about Jesus coming, the closest to his birth being 400 years prior. Is it any wonder the Jews if Jesus’ day were eagerly looking for their Messiah to come?
The Odds of Someone Randomly Fulfilling the Prophecies Is Impossible
I once read a Josh McDowell book titled “Evidence that Demands a Verdict.” In it, he details out the 300+ passages predicting Jesus’ coming. Of those 300+ passages, he said the odds of any one person fulfilling just 8 of those was around 1 in 10 X 30 (that’s 1 with 30 zeros behind it). It is an absolute mathematical impossibility. That’s just 8 of the 300+ prophecies. Jesus fulfilled all 300+ prophecies. So the odds of someone fulfilling prophecies that spanned 1000 years is impossible. Jesus was irrefutably prophesied to come; he came. This is a testament to what God had planned from the beginning, to allow his Son to bridge the gap caused by our willful break in good relationship with Him.
The Coming of Jesus the First Time Gave us a Promise. His Second Coming Gives Us Hope.
The 300+ prophecies of the Old Testament pointed to a divine figure who would bring hope to a lost and captive people. The Israelites held out that hope century after century. From Genesis 3:16’s first mention of the man child defeating the serpent to the words of Isaiah talking about the shoot of Jesse, the deliverer was promised. When Jesus, the deliverer, came, he came to set the captives free, to bring eternal life, to bridge the gap between fallen man and holy God. Jesus fulfilled the promise of God and began the process of delivering mankind from their own destruction and from the grip of the devil.
Now that He came and took our place of punishment, Jesus promised he would return a second time to complete the process. Our full deliverance will come. Our full restoration in right relationship to God and to each other. Since the first coming of Jesus is a promise fulfilled, the second coming brings us a hope to yearn for.
What an amazing time to be in, living between the first and second comings of Jesus! Please feel free to join us in the upcoming Sundays to hear more about the coming of Jesus this Christmas season.