FCP-11-PROPHECY.
PROPHECY.
There is a need for a note of warning when considering Bible translations because clarity at the expense of losing spiritual values and understanding is a high price to pay for it and carries with it a very real danger. You may lose your way. Of course when considering a text one may very well be aided by the use of a modern translation, but it should be done by comparing one translation, (a reliable one from which reference can be made to the original Hebrew and Greek), against another. No one should, without thought, accept new translations merely because they are easier to read, or because it takes less mental effort to read them. The only reliable method of knowing the true meaning of a word, or a phrase, is to seek out that meaning from the original text, that is, from the Hebrew or the Greek and, although I am aware this is not within the reach of us all, one can always obtain a copy of an analytical concordance, such Strong’s or Young’s from the Public Library, and refer to the original text from the word found in the Authorized Version. In recent years there have been some paraphrases, and translations, which are not always reliable. In some, Christ is referred to as ’a’ Son of God instead of as The Son of God and, in others, the significance of the blood atonement is omitted or less obvious, and a few Old Testament prophecies, concerning our Lord, have been hidden by some very foolish interpretations. We should also understand that the Greek and Hebrew text was recorded by Divine Inspiration, but that does not necessarily mean that every language into which the Scriptures have been translated, carries the same guarantee of ’God-breathed’ guidance.
Many Hebrew and Greek words have a very broad meaning, and this allows for misleading translations which cause confusion, or can cause confusion, particularly if no explanation of why some translations differ from others is not given. It is at this point direct access to the original language is invaluable. As stated above, the original Scriptures were all recorded by inspiration, (in Hebrew and Greek), and every word so recorded was by inspiration from God, ’God-breathed’, but there is a need to heed the injunction of 2 Timothy 2:15. ’To rightly divide the Word’. Do not forget. God has not hidden anything and has inspired men to record all sayings, and all deeds, such as the evil thing Cain did killing Abel, or Joseph’s brothers selling him to the Midianites.
Judas betraying our Lord. Men saying, ’there is no God.’ Or, man has no pre-eminence above a beast,’ and many others. It exposes deceivers like Ananias and Sapphira and are recorded that we may see for ourselves how God impartially reveals the ’good’ and ’evil’ in this world so that we can discern the weakness of our human nature and turn to the One He sent, our Lord Jesus Christ. To find victory in Him. ’Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’. 1 Corinthians 15:57.
He even records the faulty reasoning and logic of man, and it is from these examples in His Word we can compare the difference between that, ’Which descendeth from above,’ James 3:17, and man’s wisdom. A perfect example of this is found in the book of Ecclesiastes wherein Solomon by, inspiration, records all his thoughts, deep and light, all his mis-deeds, all his desires, and his wisdom, (much of it commendable), only to come to the conclusion that all of his worldly knowledge in the end only amounted to ’vanity,’ whilst true wisdom and knowledge was to, ’Fear God and keep His commandments.’ Ecclesiastes 12:13.
Truly, ’The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.’ Proverbs 9:10. Our Lord said, ’In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrine the commandments of men,’ ... ’If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch’ and, ’out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.’ Matthew 15:9; Matthew 15:4; Matthew 15:19.
Praise God for His love in sending His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ to this earth as our Savior and Guide, for if it were not for Him we would have many difficulties in understanding the Scriptures because any mis-translation are immediately swooped upon by the ever increasing number of sects which are sweeping over the world at an ever increasing pace persuading the honest, but sometimes less knowledgeable seeker, for the truth into errors that often have fatal results.
They all quote the Bible as their authority, taking passages out of their context to suit their particular belief, and when seen in the light of Bible prophecy we understand their very existence is another emphatic proof that the Bible alone is true.
Paul warned in 1 Timothy 4:1. ’Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.’
Peter declared, 2 Peter 3:3. ’Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.’
John wrote, 1 John 2:18. ’Little children it is the last time: and as ye have heard that anti-christ shall come, even now there are many anti-christs,’ and 1 John 4:1. ’Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.’ And our Lord said, Matthew 24:4-5. ’Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many.’
Satan’s business is to keep man from entering into God’s Plan, and if we look into the various methods he has adopted through the ages to divert man from Christ, the Only Way, we see he has learned by experience the power of the Bible and, after having failed to destroy it and wipe it from the earth, he takes it into his own hands, knowing its power, and uses it as a means to draw men into error. His motto is, ’any way.’ as long as he can divert us from the ’Only Way,’ John 14:6. But Jesus said. ’I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’
Satan takes a man or a woman and gives them a so-called new revelation. Then. with the Bible in one hand, and the new revelation in the other, away they go and many, like sheep follow them. When he has quite a number of these sects going all holding up the Bible, he turns to the world and says. ’Look at them! All right, yet all different. How can any of them be right?’
God has warned us over and over again about this.
They are using the Bible, plus something, or less something. ’Take care you are not deceived.’
Among the closing words of the Bible is a solemn warning to anyone adding to, or taking from His Word.
’For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy. God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.’ Revelation 22:18-19. This warning of the sanctity of God’s Word was first given in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 4:2; Proverbs 30:6. And this is the acid test.
If an angel from heaven came to you and presented what he assured you was a command, or revelation from God, and it did not agree with His written Word, ignore it. Galatians 1:7-8.
’There be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.’
Briefly, most of these sects can be quickly assessed by applying the following tests. Do they acknowledge the Deity of Christ? Do they teach ’He came in the flesh?’ Do they teach salvation through Christ alone? But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:6-11. Do they acknowledge the Spirit of God as the only interpreter of the Word? ’He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.’ John 14:26.
’No prophecy is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.’ 2 Peter 1:20-21. Do they teach that Satan is a spiritual being, and the real enemy of man?
Any sect which denies any of these fundamentals is dangerous!
Shun it! Lest Satan entangle you in his web.
He has actually persuaded some people to believe that he does not exist. They have obviously become the victims of his deception.
I might mention here that I have had personal contact with the propagators of most of these sects, and when first encountered they hold forth the Bible. But! When the truths of that Blessed Holy Word are turned to, as the only court of appeal, they shrink from any deep discussion.
Beware! If you are seeking truth, do not look to man. Make your appeal to God, and He will guide you into the channels of life, and when born of His Spirit you will look back, and those things, which once were stumbling blocks to you, will become an aid to your faith, because you will see them as the fulfillment of prophecy and realize the mighty power of Satan to deceive.
God has made it very clear that the Bible is His final revelation to man until the return of Christ and it can now be demonstrated that every book of the Bible bears, as it were, the signature of God as it does through all Creation.
All Scripture is saturated and linked by numeric designs far beyond the ability of any man to devise.
I ask, would God give anyone a further revelation after warning us as He did in Galatians 1:7-8?
I ask the many adherents of the various sects, who claim to have some further revelation to the Bible. Do these revelations bear God’s numeric signature?
If not you can be sure they are the product of the mind of man.
’There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.’ Proverbs 16:25. In contrast to this confusion we have the certainty of the Word of God and no amount of captious ingenuity can destroy the fact that the main features of Christ’s earthly manifestations were clearly recorded centuries before He came. There are more than three hundred references to Christ in the Old Testament, and a space of some four hundred years between the Old and the New Testaments.
It is estimated that there are 35 specific prophecies of the betrayal, trial, death, burial and resurrection of Christ, all fulfilled in 72 hours! The chances of co-incidence is 1 in 33,554,432.
There were 109 predictions literally fulfilled during Christ’s first advent. The chances being 1 in billions by the law of averages. In view of the above it is thrilling to recall the interview Jesus has with the two disciples on the resurrection day when He expounded the Old Testament concerning Himself ... and they said afterwards, Luke 24:32 ’Did not our heart burn within us, by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?’
Let us now consider some remarkable prophecies concerning Christ. The fulfillment of which, in themselves, prove Him to be the Son of God, the promised Messiah, and the Savior of the world. It is marvelous how God, after pronouncing the curse on man because of the disobedience of Adam, almost in the next breath announces the plan of redemption. Genesis 3 15. ’Her seed; it shall bruise thy head.’ In doing so Satan was permitted to bruise His heel. That brief space, when Christ stepped down from heaven to pay the price of redemption. The ’seed of the woman’ is God’s seal upon the virgin birth foretold. later Isaiah, under direct inspiration writes. ’Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son.’ Isaiah 7:14. And later he reveals a marvelous promise. ’For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and His Name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6.
Man would not, indeed could not, have any part in this gift for the child to be born was to be, a son given, a fact fully revealed in John 3:16. ’God so loved, that He gave His only begotten Son.’
Remember the child born of the Virgin was the seed of the woman, and this life was the Son of the incarnate’ clothed upon, Hebrews 10-5. ’A body thou hast prepared me’.
Surely no one’s mind is so cramped as to stumble at this virgin birth in the face of the stupendous manifestations of the power of God already shown. It is quite obvious that God’s gift, to be sinless, could not be otherwise.
Next we see that this gift was to come of the family of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, of the house of David, and He was to be born in Bethlehem of Judea. Micah 5:2, ’But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of these shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.’
Now! we can see that in Matthew 2:4-6.
He was to be ’despised and rejected of Men Isaiah 53:3-5. How true this prophecy is, even today.
Passing over all the incidents foretold concerning His Life, we read the clear prophecies concerning His death. We all know it is a matter of history how all those prophecies relating to the birth of Christ were literally fulfilled but would you suggest that He persuaded a familiar friend to betray Him in order to fulfill Psalms 41:9 exactly, ’A friend ... whom I trusted’. How would you explain the fact that the chief priests agreed that thirty pieces of silver should be the price of His betrayal as foretold in Zechariah 11:12? And after Judas had hanged himself, who arranged to buy a ’potter’s field’ with the betrayal money thrown down by Judas exactly as prophesied in Zechariah 11:13?
Then you must explain how Jesus arranged to be crucified, when the Jewish method was stoning. Was it in order that His hands, and feet, might be pierced to fulfill Psalms 22:16? Was it a co-incidence that He cried. ’My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?’ repeating the opening words of Psalms 22:1.
How too, did Jesus, after His death, persuade a Roman soldier to pierce His side in order to fulfill Zechariah 12:10 ... ’They shall look upon me whom they have pierced’?
How, also, did He arrange for them to part His garments exactly as foretold in Psalms 22:18? Remember these were Roman soldiers, fulfilling prophecy of which they would not have the slightest knowledge.
Why did they offer Him vinegar to drink, was it to fulfill Psalms 69:21?
How did Jesus, when He was dead, persuade the soldiers not to break His legs, as they did to the thieves on either side, and which was the usual custom? Did someone frighten these burly soldiers by quoting Psalms 34:20. ’He keepeth all His bones: not one of them is broken.’? Do you realize that not all the Roman soldiers, nor the devil himself, could have broken a bone of Him, even if they so desired, because God had declared not one should be broken?
How also did it come about that He was with the wicked in His death and yet placed in a rich man’s tomb, as prophesied in Isaiah 53:9. But no power on earth, or in hell, could keep Him there for God declared in Psalms 16:10, ’Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.’
Furthermore. How did He arrange to be crucified on the 14th day of the first month exactly fulfilling the Passover type? And this is doubly amazing in face of the fact that those who planned His death had determined that He should not be put to death on the Passover day Matthew 26:5.
How did the seal on the tomb come to be broken, in spite of the special watch set to guard it? This could mean death to the sentries under Roman Law! The fact was, there was a great earthquake and those sentries became as dead men at the appearance of the angel of the Lord. Matthew 28:3.
Nothing could stay Him for He had declared that He would rise again. Matthew 20:19. And so, in fulfillment of prophecy He arose from the tomb. The Savior of all who will come to God through Him, who alone is the open door to life eternal. And in the eerie darkness, wherein that mixed crowd stood and witnessed these things, suddenly the earth quaked and many realized He was what He claimed to be and they ’feared greatly, saying Truly this was the Son of God.’ Matthew 27:54. Do you need God to darken the sun and rock the very earth, as you read these things, to make you realize that this indeed is the very Son of God and your Savior? If you, my reader, are still unsaved, ask God in humble sincerity to open your eyes so that you will see Him who died that you may live and take your place in God’s marvelous plan of redemption. In one respect the Jew is like the Bible, for both have been subjected through the past centuries to the most diabolical onslaughts, but despite the state of frenzy which Satan has stirred up against them, they remain today because God has declared that neither shall pass away. The survival of the Jews is in itself a miracle, for no other have, or could, survive such determined and persistent attempts at their extermination. They have been hounded almost everywhere they have set foot.
Just here let me state without fear of contradiction that any nation upholding God’s Word and propagating it, and any nation giving refuge to the Jew will be blessed, for God has said, Genesis 12:3. ’I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee.’
Fifteen hundred years before Christ, Moses warned Israel that if they continued to obey the Lord, blessing would follow them, but if they put God in the background, disaster would overtake them. The nature of this punishment is detailed in Deuteronomy 28. So accurately have these things befallen the Jew that this chapter has actually proved to be a summary of Jewish history. I can deal only very briefly with this subject here but so much has been recorded regarding the fulfillment of the earlier years of their dispersal and punishment, that it will suffice to say here that swift punishment indeed followed their disobedience, exactly as God foretold. So we shall pass over those fifteen hundred years to the coming of the Christ, their Promised Messiah, and Deliverer. So hard and stiff-necked had they become that they no longer understood the Scriptures that so clearly foretold Him and finally they crucified Him.
Now I want to draw your careful attention to a few incidents before His death. Pilate of course failed to persuade the Jews to release Jesus and he took water and washed his hands before them saying, Matthew 27:24-25 ’I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us and on our children.’
Little did they realize they were amplifying the curse they had already chosen to retain. Whenever you hear of the persecution of the Jews remember those word. Shortly before this the disciples had been drawing Christ’s attention to the marvelous building of the temple of which the Jews were so proud, and Jesus said, Matthew 24:2. ’See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you.
There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.’ and Luke 21:20. ’And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.’ Verse 23, ’Woe unto them that are with child,’. Verse 24. ’They shall fall by the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations.
Now glance back to the Old Testament prophecy in Deuteronomy 28 concerning this siege of Jerusalem, and remember, this was written ages before they even built the city with its huge walls and gates.
Speaking of the enemy that would come against them, verse 52. ’And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until the high and fenced walls come down, verse 53. ... ’And thou shalt eat of the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and daughters in the siege ... wherein thine enemies shall distress thee.’
What does history tell us?
Only a few heeded the warning of God, and like Noah found safety.
Then again, even though Christ had re-affirmed the Old Testament warning, they forgot until the hour struck, about forty years after His Resurrection. Titus with his armies surrounded the city, resulting in the most terrible siege in history. The Jews were literally starved, and no doubt driven mad, for they killed and ate their own children as prophesied. Many fell by the sword and history tells us that over a million Jews perished amid one of the most awful scenes in that history, and not content with this, the attackers pulled down the walls and destroyed the temple as Christ had foretold.
Let me here warn my reader that this is but a minor tragedy compared with that which God’s word warns us awaits this Christ rejecting world but this is not all concerning the Jew, for those who escaped death were finally scattered among the nations, as the prophecy goes on to declare. Deuteronomy 28:64-67.
’And the Lord shall scatter thee among all peoples from one end of the earth even to the other, and among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee a trembling heart; and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind; thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life,’ and soon.
Then, in verse we read, And thou shalt become a proverb and a by-word among all nations.
Now if this doesn’t give us a terrible and accurate setting forth of what Israel has suffered through the centuries, then language has lost its meaning. Who but He who knows the end from the beginning could have set forth such detailed and accurate prophecies over three thousand years ago. Of course I have only touched the fringe of the subject here for the prophecies concerning Palestine and the Jew, including the dreadful years of 1939-1946, would fill a book.
How accurately Christ detailed the coming fate of the Jews and their city. How vivid this must have been to Him when He looked down over the city from the Mount, and wept saying, Luke 13:34. ’O Jerusalem, Jerusalem which killeth the prophets. How often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate.’ And again when the women were weeping as He passed on His way to the Cross, He turned to them and said, Luke 23:28. ’Weep not for me but weep for yourselves, and for your children.’ This warning is just as appropriate today.
Let me appeal to every reader.
If you are not born again, John 3:3, search the Scriptures. Do not ignore God and the eternal realities any longer.
I would like briefly to draw attention to some astounding fulfillments of prophecies in our day regarding Israel.
I have given details of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and Christ’s reaffirmation of the Old Testament’s prophecies of Israel being scattered among all nations of the world. Deuteronomy 28:64-67.
Other prophecies give vivid descriptions of how Palestine while under Gentile domination would become an appalling wind swept desert. Only pictures can reveal the accuracy of these prophecies.
Yet God, because of His vows to their father Abraham, promised that after Israel had served their term of punishment He would again bring them back into their own land from every nation, and that again the rain would return, and that the desert, hills, and mountains would once more, ’Blossom as the rose’. Isaiah 35. In Ezekiel 36 we read of how the desert, after almost 2,000 years, would become a literal paradise, V. 35. ’And they shall say. ’This land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden and the waste and desolate and ruined cities, fenced and inhabited.’ The first step in the deliverance of Israel began in 1918 when General Allenby led his British forces into the city of Jerusalem without a shot being fired and events from here on culminated in the establishment of the Balfour declaration which opened the way for the fulfillment of the many prophecies foretelling the return of Israel to their own land; such as Ezekiel 36 : verses 6-11.
’Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD. ’Behold I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the heathen: therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I have lifted up mine hand, Surely the heathen that are about you, they shall bear their shame. But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown; And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it, and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast: and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. V. 35. And they shall say this land that was desolate is become like the Garden of Eden.’
Some idea of the marvelous fulfillment of these prophecies can be gathered from Israel’s national development from that time and in particular since 1948. The productivity of the land, the purpose of the people, and the growth of the nation has been phenomenal. No! Much more than that! Miraculous!
’Thus saith the Lord, I am for thee, I have lifted up my hand.’ Ezekiel 36:7. On May 14th, 1948, at exactly 4.20 p.m. in the Tel Avi Museum, Mr. David Ben Gurion read the historic Declaration of Independence, and announced.
’I declare this meeting adjourned. The State of Israel is established.’ And on May 15th the Blue ’Star of David’ was unfurled as the national flag of Israel for the first time.
I am indebted to Mr. Joseph H. Hunting for allowing me to use material from his book ’The Set Time is Come, in the context which follows. ’ ’Towards the end of 1949 the United Nations decided that the old City of Jerusalem should be placed under U.N. jurisdiction with the territory of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. For 18 years, from 1949 until June 5th, 1967, the Holy City, Mount Moriah and the Wailing Wall, the most sacred and holy places to Jews throughout the world, were denied them. Thus, Ezekiel’s prophecy came to pass: ’The enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are ours in possession. Ezekiel 36:2. Then, in 1967, the whole forces of the Enemy seemed to mount as a flood, and on June 1st Israel stood alone against the most massive array of enemies that any nation has ever been called upon to face, and the world waited to see the awful spectacle of Israel being thrown to the lions. The battle joined on June 5th, and though short, it was as violent as it was decisive. In Northern Galilee, that morning dawned as thousands of mornings had done during the past 19 years. For 19 years Syrian shells had rained down upon the Jewish settlements from the Syrian Heights, and for the next two and a half days they continued their barrage, then, on June 8th Israel decided to silence those guns. The battle for the Golan Heights lasted 27 hours and on June 11th, 1967, the noise of war ceased once again In the Holy Land a new epoch had begun for Jerusalem.’ This city had been under the control and overlordship of Gentile nations for almost 2,500 years. Gentile domination of Jerusalem had begun with the destruction of the Holy City by Nebuchadnezzar in the year 588 B.C.E. The Babylonians were followed by the Mede and Persians by Greece, Syria and Rome, then the Moors, Arabs, Saracens, Crusaders, Turks, British and finally the Jordanians. And now on June 7th, 1967, the Gentile control of Jerusalem ended dramatically with the blast of the Shofar at the Wailing Wall, and a new epoch began not only for Jerusalem, but for the Jewish people.
Surely the words Isaiah penned so many years ago burn in the heart today with a new urgency. ’All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth. See ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains. And when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye’ Isaiah 18:3.
It was our Lord who said, ’Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ Luke 21:24. And it was our same Lord who also said, ’Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they shoot forth ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.’ Luke 21:29-33. Yet in spite of their blessings, and despite the fulfillment of these prophecies Israel has not repented of the rejection of their Messiah (Christ), whose Second Coming draws near. As I revise the Seal of God for this new edition, I am here persuaded by Mr. Payne’s words, to include the most important prophecy of all time, and, its fulfillment in Christ our Lord. It was foretold in the Garden.
Satan had beguiled Eve and, she had taken of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Adam had shared it with her, and now, they both stood before God, ashamed and uncertain of everything, as the world they knew threatened to fall away about them.
God said to the serpent and the woman. I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed, and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. The Seed who, one day, would be our Redeemer. The covenant that this seed would be a blessing to all nations was made to Abraham and God made a covenant with him, as we read in 1 Chronicles 16:15-17. ’Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.’ Confirmed in Psalms 105:9-10. And it is interesting to read the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17. ’Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.’
Through Abraham’s seed would all nations be blessed. Genesis 12:1-3.
Galatians 3:16-17. ’Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.’ The prophecy through Jacob specified when and where Shiloh would come, ’The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Was Jacob a false prophet?
No! Jacob was not a false prophet, and, when we read of the fulfillment 1800 years later, we realize just how sure the Word of God is, despite the centuries in between.
One must suppose many believed he was a false prophet, because Shiloh did not come, as he had prophesied, when they, and their kings, were taken captive to Syria, and, the years which followed, without a king, must have dulled their expectations. We know now, that Jesus was born several years before the death of Herod, and, at that time, Joseph and Mary returned from Egypt, with Jesus, to dwell at Nazareth, Matthew 2:15, Hosea 11:1. It was soon after, the right to administer civil law was taken away from Judah, Rome taking advantage, given by the death of Herod, and the departure of Archelaus, to re-assert their control. The sceptre finally departing from Judah, never to return. The last phrase in the verse, unto Him shall the gathering of the people be, finally confirmed, by Jesus, when He said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12:32.
What a wonderful prophecy! But that is not all.
Isaiah is more specific. He names the land, Judah, which Ahaz had ’abhorred’ as the place. A virgin as the mother. And further, prophesied that although two kings would be there in his childhood, that both would be gone before the child reached maturity. A promise fulfilled at the birth of Christ at a time when there were two kings, both soon gone before the child was of age, in the very land where Ahaz had failed to lead God’s people as a king should.
’Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. The land that thou abhorest shall be forsaken of both her kings.’ Isaiah 7:14-16. The timing is perfect.
There had been no kings in the land for almost 600 years and suddenly there was a king Herod, and, at his death, for a brief time, Archelaus. The ’two kings.’ Herod and Archelaus. Matthew 2:1; Matthew 2:22. The ’land thou abhorest.’ Judea. Isaiah 7:16. The ’child.’ The Lord Jesus. Isaiah 7:14-16.
And, The two kings gone.
’Before the child was of age.’ Isaiah 7:16Matthew 2:21 No wonder Jesus said. ’Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?’ Luke 12:56. The first King in 600 years. Certainly no one could consider them as coming from the line of David, but, they were there as Isaiah had foretold. They had forgotten the prophecy.
I am aware of the scholars who deride the virgin birth and declare the word almah in the Hebrew Scriptures only means, young woman, but, as scholars, surely they know, that Matthew’s quote, is from the Septuagint. This translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, had been used already for almost two hundred years and it was freely available for another two hundred years after the resurrection of Christ. It translates the Hebrew word almah, young woman, as parthenos, the Greek word for virgin. Do not they know this, or, are they not really scholars at all?
It is clear. The child of Isaiah 7:14-16, is Jesus, the foretold seed of the woman, the Shiloh of Jacob, the promised Seed of Abraham, the virgin’s babe, the Son of God. 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. Micah 5:2. The Messiah. The King they had rejected. The one who had said. ’Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me’ John 5:39. The sceptre finally departing from Judah until He comes again to draw all nations unto Himself.