But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. (Mic 5:2)
Hmm... a Ruler born in Bethlehem whose going forth has been from eternity. Who could that be? Pretty easy, huh? Let's look at another passage:
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isa 53:5)
Still too easy? Here's one more:
For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture. (Psa 22:16-18)
Did you have any trouble identifying the subject of any of those verses? Probably not. It's not hard to identify that it's Jesus who is being discussed in each passage. However, there's something very interesting about these verses that critics of the Bible seldom stop to consider. All of these passages are taken from the Old Testament! These passages that so clearly discuss accurate details of His birth, His passion, and His death, were written hundreds of years before the events actually occurred. Furthermore, these are but a handful of the dozens of Old Testament passages that I could have cited.
This is what is described in the Bible as “prophecy.” Before we had the revelation of Scripture, God would give His word to prophets who would proclaim it to the world. Of course, anyone could claim to be speaking God's word. The difference is that whatever was spoken by God would come to pass. If someone claimed to speak in the name of the Lord, but the thing he speaks does not come to pass, he is exposed as a false prophet (see Deuteronomy 18:18, 21-22).
Once the thing that God had proclaimed would come to pass, it revealed the sovereignty and authority of God. When Jesus came and fulfilled the prophecies spoken about Him centuries earlier, it established His status as the Messiah. It proved that God is the sovereign Lord of the universe. It proved the things spoken by the prophets were true. It proved the Bible is the word of God.
Consider the following passage from Isaiah:
Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: (Isa 46:9-10)
To all the critics who read my blog, let me ask you something: do you deny that the Bible is the word of God? You probably do – otherwise you'd likely be a believer. Even still, you have to admit that what the Lord spoke about Jesus centuries in advance, came to pass in exactly in the same way He spoke it. It's proof that He is God and that the Bible is His word. If you're still not convinced, then let me ask you this: when you read the above passages, didn't you think they were talking about Jesus? You can deny it if you'd like but I know you did!
I was raised to believe that those passages spoke of Jesus. I'm not coming at them with no preconceptions, but with multiple competing preconceptions.
ReplyDeletePsalm 22:16-18 The psalmist speaks of himself as being surrounded by mockers and enemies, whom he in some verses compares to various wild beasts, such as aurochs or lions. Like lions, they tear at his hands and feet. As men, they gamble among themselves for his possessions which they have seized. Some passages (e.g. "my mouth is dry as dust" or "my bones are out of joint" seem appropriate to crucifixion; others, asking God to save the speaker from the wild beasts surrounding him, seem to refer to ungoing, non-lethal persecution and constant hunger rather than to a single, brief but agonizing event.
Note that the Psalm does not present itself as a prophecy, and the "casting lots for his garment" seems to me more likely to be explained by a writer who was not present deliberately modeling the crucifixion narrative after the Psalm rather than the psalmist predicting the future.
A common explanation for some biblical prophecies is vaticinium ex eventu, a prophecy written after the fact it supposedly predicts. Another is that prophecies were vague and/or ambiguous to begin with, and later were interpreted to specifically refer to one particular event (i.e. deliberately reinterpreting the passage into an ex eventu prediction). In addition, as here, the event itself can be redescribed, details altered, omitted, or added, to fit the presumed prediction. We don't know, e.g. that Jesus was really born in Bethlehem, to a virgin; we only know that a couple of gospel writers said that it happened in that place and in that way. The Bethlehem location, especially, may be invented to fit expectations about the Messiah (the virgin birth seems more likely modeled after accounts of the birth of Isaac, Samson, and Samuel, with years of barrenness replaced by virginity as a cause of the seeming impossibility of the birth, and then Isaiah 7 reinterpreted to fit the invented virgin birth).
Isaiah 53:5 Acts 8:34 indicates two things: that the early church used this passage as a prophecy of Jesus Christ, and that they encountered rival explanations of the passage: e.g. that the prophet was not speaking of some far-future messiah, but of his own travails as a messenger for God. Modern Jewish commentators, on the other hand, see the passage as speaking not of an individual, but of the Jewish people as a whole. If you start out assuming that it's talking about Jesus of Nazareth, it can seem obvious that it does, but without preconceptions (or with, again, an awareness of competing preconceptions) it is far from obvious.
Note that, again, we don't know that the accounts of Jesus' burial in the gospels are accurate rather than folkloric or conjectural. We don't know that he was in fact laid in a rich man's tomb, or whether this was an invented detail, perhaps specifically to fit in with the "with the rich in his death" line.
Micah 5:2 Is this passage predicting anything other than the political restoration of the Davidic dynasty? One can interpret verse 5, about defense against and conquest of the nation of Assyria (which didn't even exist in Jesus' day) figuratively (but in that case, again, why assume it's literally about someone born in Bethlehem?), but the passage at face value seems to be about the actual political situation in Israel in the seventh century BC.
Steven J,
DeleteI'm sorry it's taken a while to respond. It's also taken a while to post anything new to my blog. I've lost an employee at my work a few weeks ago and I've been working 50+ hours since. What's worse, it's proving extremely difficult trying to find someone to replace her. You've probably heard there's a shortage of people looking for work so this is going to continue for a while – probably months. Sigh. Anyway, thanks for your comments.
You're probably aware that chapter and verse numbering was added to the Bible long after the time of Christ. Prior to that, passages were often identified by their first line. It's sort of like calling the alphabet the “ABCs.” We do this same thing with Christian hymns: How Great Thou Art, Amazing Grace, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, etc. While Jesus was on the cross, His cry of “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” would certainly have directed those who heard Him to the very Psalm that described the scene they were witnessing. The entire Psalm is very descriptive.
There's a video on YouTube you might be interested in. It's only about 10 minutes long but it's in Hebrew with subtitles which puts some people off. It's a Christian who asks Jews to read Isaiah 53 and give them their opinion about it. It's called, “The Forbidden Chapter: Isaiah 53 in the Hebrew Bible.” You can search YouTube with that title and you'll be certain to find it. You'll probably find it interesting.
Obviously, the OT was complete and canonized well before the NT was written. The OT prophesies could not have been written after the fact to describe Christ. Critics can try to say that the NT writers invented facts about Jesus to make them fit with OT prophesies but such a criticism is nothing more than bald assertions.
Thanks again for your comments and for visiting. God bless!!
RKBentley