Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas Message from the Old Testament

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/25/2013 11:28 PM
            This SD is about Christmas and what I want to do is go over some of the OT prophecies about the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ to show that when Jesus was born that it was all according to the plan of God that is revealed in the Old Testament.
            Genesis 3:15:  “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.’”  This is the first prophecy concerning the coming of Messiah and in it we can see that the Messiah will be the “seed” of the woman, the only time this term is mentioned in the Bible.  This prophecy speaks of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
            Hal Lindsey writes concerning this verse under the heading of “The Lineage of the Promised ‘Seed.’”Once God made this commitment to send someone into the world to destroy Satan and thus undo his work in the lives of men, a highway was prepared in future history for the steps of the Promised One.  It first began with God singling out one man, Abraham, and his descendants, and making a covenant with him that ‘in his seed’ all the nations of the earth would eventually be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3).  So the first prerequisite of the coming deliverere was that he would have to be a descendant of Abraham.”  “1 ¶  Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; 2  And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; 3  And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.’”
            When we look at Genesis 49 we will see that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, as Jacob states just before he died.  “10  "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Genesis 49:10).”
            Next we see that the Messiah will come from the line of David as we read 1 Chronicles 17:11-15.  “11  "When your days are fulfilled that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up one of your descendants after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom. 12 “He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever. 13  "I will be his father and he shall be My son; and I will not take My lovingkindness away from him, as I took it from him who was before you. 14 “But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever."’" 15 According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.”
            In Deuteronomy 18:19-19 we will see that the Messiah will be a prophet like Moses, “18  ’I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19  ’It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”  Jesus says the following in John 5:45-47 “45  "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. 46 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. 47 “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?’”
            Isaiah writes that the Messiah will be born of a virgin:  “14 “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14)” Isaiah also states in 9:6-7 “6  For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
            The prophet Micah writes that the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem “2  "But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.’”
            There are many more prophecies concerning the Messiah’s first coming that we will not take the time to go over, but it is needless to say that the odds of someone making all of the prophecies about the first coming of the Messiah that came true, and all of them did that we surely believe the prophecies that He will come again and will rule over the world from Jerusalem for 1000 years.

12/25/2013 11:50 PM

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