His Testimony!

The three friends sat Indian style on the ground, pondering and listening. They were certain that their grieving and physically weary host had done something to secretly offend God and that his failure to sincerely repent had caused all the great calamities he was now experiencing. His health was waning. His children had all been killed in one tragic natural disaster. His wealth had gone down the drain overnight. He had every reason to give up and lose faith. But… as his pious friends looked upon him, certain of his demise at the hand of God, he uttered one of the most profound truths of all the ages and one that points directly to Jesus Christ as the only hope for doomed humanity …

“I know that my redeemer lives,    and that in the end he will stand on the earth.

And after my skin has been destroyed,    yet in my flesh I will see God…” -Job 19:25-26

SOMEWHERE IN UR…(same timeframe )

As Job is proclaiming the mystery of the resurrection to his friends, the man destined to be the father of the nation Israel is leading his son Isaac up Mount Moriah to sacrifice him on an altar. Abraham cannot understand why God would ask this of him after waiting one hundred years to deliver an heir to this faithful follower, but Abraham dutifully obeys His Maker, figuring somehow the same God who gave life to Isaac will also be able to raise him from the dead after the sacrifice is complete. 

Just as Abraham lifts a knife to slay his (rope-bound) son, a ram is heard nearby with its head encircled with thorns in a bush. An angel appears and tells Abraham that the Ram has been provided as the substitute for Isaac and that Abraham is to sacrifice the male lamb rather than the boy. God himself will

One day provide the final lamb sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and this test of Abraham was a preview of how God would provide a substitute for sinners to save the world. He would have his head wrapped in thorns as well, and He would indeed be a Son of Abraham…. But He would be God’s Son as well! 

MEANWHILE BACK IN THE LAND OF UZ…

Job is not thru reciting deep Spiritual truths to his friends. He praises his God and lays out many examples of man’s pathetic attempts to understand a Divine Being far more awesome than their tiny human minds can comprehend. He questions his own desperate situation and why God would allow it but respectfully keeps His trust in His maker always at the forefront …even proclaiming “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. “(Job 13:15A) 

But as he lists off many of the marvelous characteristics of our Lord and Creator, one particular Divine ability is listed that should have raised the eyebrows of Peter and the Disciples 2000 years later: “He alone spreads out the heavens, And treads on the waves of the sea.” (Job 9:8)

31AD…THE SEA OF GALILEE…

“And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.  And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear.” -Matt 24:23-26

The followers feared they were seeing a ghost, but when they recognized it was Jesus they should have been able to put two and two together. Job had said that the one who could walk on the waves would be God. And Jesus was showing His Divine Character in living color to His chosen twelve. They still didn’t get it completely, but this revelation was another piece of an Old Testament puzzle that was coming together and identifying who the true Messiah would be. 

THE ENTRANCE TO ENAIM..Circa 1800 BC

A woman named Tamar is lying in wait for her father-in-law Judah to arrive. Tamar had been part of Judah’s family for years, having married his first son, Er, only to have him die and leave her childless. Judah had obeyed the law by providing her with his second son, Onan, to help her bear a child in Er’s name, but Onan intentionally kept himself from impregnating her, so God angrily killed Onan, leaving her childless still. Now Judah has a final adult son named Shelah who legally should marry Tamar to carry on the family lineage, but Judah wants no part in sacrificing another son to the woman, so he is withholding him from her and telling her to live as a widow. Tamar, however, has other plans. 

As she waits at the gate with her face veiled, Judah arrives, having recently become a widower with the death of his wife. He takes Tamar (unbeknownst to her true identity) and has sexual relations with her as a harlot. He pledges to her a goat he will send as payment for her service and leaves a signet ring and a staff as proof he will pay up in the future. Tamar then leaves and soon discovers she is with child. Judah is notified that his daughter-in-law has become pregnant with someone’s child and angrily demands she be killed for her harlotry, but Tamar provides the staff and ring showing who the father is, and Judah is shamed into admitting the sinful encounter was his doing. 

Tamar then has twin sons, and the first, Perez, is the one to carry on the birthright of Er with an especially large responsibility on his shoulders :

“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his.”-Gen 49:10

Perez rightfully should be the ancestor of the Messiah and bless the whole earth as Abraham’s seed is supposed to do …except for one problem. In Deuteronomy 23:2, a curse is put on anyone of illegitimate birth, which is exactly what Tamar’s two sons are due to Judah’s sin. It appears that Judah has ruined the line of the Messiah by his disobedient action, and humanity may eternally pay the price for this disobedience. 

“One of illegitimate birth shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord.” -Deut 23:2

None of the descendants of Judah through Perez will qualify for being the Messiah until the tenth generation. And since Perez is considered the firstborn of Er by law, no other child qualifies if he doesn’t. How can the Lion of Judah come if Judah himself has disqualified his descendants from the role through his sin? 

Ah… but the faithfulness and grace of God cannot be forgotten. 

Perez grew up and had a son named Hezron. Hezron has a boy named Ram. Ram had Amminadab. Amminadab had Nahshon who grew up to father a son named Salmon. Salmon has a son named Boaz who marries a gentile girl named Ruth. The two have a baby named Obed. 

Obed becomes the father of Jesse. That is nine generations of males who are unqualified to be the Lion of Judah. But the next generation will once again qualify. 

Jesse has numerous sons, but one of them is special, and God blesses Him with a kingdom in Israel. His name is David, and David marks the end of the curse and the beginning of royalty, which will ultimately carry on from his throne eternally through the one who will be born Messiah. 

God makes a covenant with David, showing the plan of Messiah coming is still in effect and that the tribe of Judah will still produce the Lion who will rule all nations. God kept His word and His Law ….and now David’s throne is divinely secured on which the King of Kings will one day sit! 

THE OUTSKIRTS OF JERUSALEM…739 BC

A man named Isaiah is being called by God to be a prophet and minister to the land of Judah, foretelling many things that will befall the prosperous nation in the years to come. King Uzziah’s great reign is about to come to an end with his passing, and doom is the forecast for future generations, which Isaiah must broadcast. But included in his Prophetic ministry will be the most detailed and abundant information ever given to anyone in Old Testament antiquity when it comes to the life, purpose, and qualifications of the future Messiah. And Isaiah’s writings will be a bedrock of faith for millions who will understand who Jesus is through the prophetic fulfillments!

Included in His revelations of Messiah will be: 

-His origins (Eternal Father ) 9:6

-His Divinity (Mighty God) 9:6

-He will Be born as a human (a child is born) 9:6

-His mother will be a virgin 7:14

-He will be the Cornerstone of God’s eternal redemptive kingdom 28:16

-A forerunner (John the Baptist) will come to pave the way for His incarnation 40:3

-The descending Holy Spirit will  come at His baptism 42:1

-He will be tortured before his death 50:5-6

-He will fulfill Passover as the Lamb of God 53:7

-He will die as a sacrificial substitute for sinners 53:5

-He will be killed with a method of execution that will include  piercing his hands, feet, and side 53:5

-He will accept His fate and not protest 53:7

-He will be assigned to die with criminals  53:9

-He will be buried in a rich man’s tomb 53:9

-Gods plan will be to punish Him in our place, though He will be perfect and sinless 53:9-10

-His death on the cross will justify  sinners and make them righteous 53:11

-He will fulfill the Davidic Covenant 55:3

-He will come to heal and set the captives of sin free 61:1-2

-He will return to bring wrath and judgment at His second Coming 61:2

Although Isaiah’s teaching will be God’s truth and warning to a straying people and will provide hope for generations to come until the end of time, the prophet’s words will be dismissed by his people who choose darkness over light. He will come to his end by being sawn in half with a wooden saw under direct orders from wicked King Manasseh in 681 BC. Yet His words live on and on …

THE ROAD TO EMMAUS …33 AD

The two men who are walking with the risen Lord find themselves without words. Just a few moments ago, Jesus appeared to them on the road to Emmaus, and initially, they assumed He was just another traveler they were eager to inform about the recent happenings in Jerusalem.  They told Him of a traveling preacher who had raised dead people and healed the sick but had been arrested and crucified on Passover, and the shocking happenings were the talk of the town. They told Him many had hoped this preacher was the Messiah, but now all their hopes were dashed. But as they were starting to relay the events to Jesus, He began explaining to them that all these things had to happen to the Messiah and illuminated them on all the meanings of the Old Testament Scriptures concerning Him. Still, they did not recognize who He was, but His brilliant insight prompted them to ask Him to stay with them for the night and continue the discussion. 

Eventually, His true identity was revealed to them, and they marveled that it really was Jesus that was there with them …RISEN!  And that indeed He was the one Israel had been waiting for as their Messiah. But … how come, if He really was the Messiah, were there still prophesies of Him that He didn’t seem to fulfill? Surely those secrets were part of His revelations to them as they walked and fellowshipped!

STILL TO COME …

With so much overwhelming evidence throughout their sacred writings, why didn’t the Jews recognize and believe in Jesus Christ at His incarnation?  Well, partly because God the Father intentionally blinded them to His true identity because the time of the Gentiles still

needed to come before the salvation of Israel. Secondly, because they were preoccupied with the other prophecies that He did not fulfill at His first coming, which became a stumbling block to their belief. For example :

-They misunderstood His Kingship, believing the heir to David’s throne would appear on the scene with great Might and not as a poor child born in a stable to a lowly carpenter’s family.

-They believed He would come as a mighty warrior like David and free Israel of all its enemies (namely Rome) rather than freeing them from sin. They wanted Him to avenge all the injustices done to Israel by the other nations and tread them down with His mighty power. 

-They believed the Heavens would be altered by Him as miraculous signs such as the sun turning dark at His command. 

-They believed He would restore Israel to greatness as the head of nations with His leadership. 

-Seemingly oblivious to their own sinful state, they wanted Messiah to be the righteous judge to come and correct all wrongs. 

-They believed Messiah would restore the order of nature to an Eden-like state. 

By failing to understand the need for the Messiah to come twice, Israel ignored dozens of amazing prophetic fulfillments that only the true Messiah could have accomplished when Jesus appeared in the first century. Similarly, by only looking at the salvation Jesus provided at His first coming and clinging to replacement theology while ignoring the judgment still to come, the current Church age is failing to sound the warnings that all those (yet to be fulfilled ) prophesies of Messiah the Jews were expecting, are about to be fulfilled right now! 

CONCLUSION

The Person to be the Messiah was well described through words and pictures in the Old Testament. The prophets gave intimate details that disqualified everyone who has ever lived except one Man. Jesus Christ! 

The Christiananswers.net website says this:

“…years ago, Peter W. Stoner and Robert C. Newman wrote a book entitled Science Speaks. The book was based on the science of probability and vouched for by the American Scientific Affiliation. It set out the odds of any one man in all of history fulfilling even only eight of the 60 major prophecies (and 270 ramifications) fulfilled by the life of Christ.

The probability that Jesus of Nazareth could have fulfilled even eight such prophecies would be only 1 in 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000.

Stoner claims that that many silver dollars would be enough to cover the face of the entire state of Texas two feet deep. Now I've been to Texas. I've driven for days to get across Texas. Texas is a very big state. Who in his right mind would suppose that a blindfolded man, heading out of Dallas by foot in any direction, would be able, on his very first attempt, to pick up one specifically marked silver dollar out of 100, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000?”

Jesus didn’t just fulfill 8 prophesies of the Messiah. Some Bible mathematicians claim He fulfilled over 300 Messianic Prophecies during His incarnation.  The odds are so astronomical that it would be impossible to even consider anyone else as a candidate. But what is even more eye-opening is that He still has work to do to complete the rest of the prophecies foretold by the prophets, and all the signs are aligning right now to indicate His return to complete the rest of the Biblical Messianic predictions is imminent. 

The testimony that Jesus Christ is the Messiah covers the pages of Scripture front to back.  It is the most incredible proof anyone could ever ask for. Thousands of years of writing describe EXACTLY who the Messiah would be, and only one man qualifies. Jesus Christ is God! He is king! He is heir to David’s throne! He is Messiah! And He is coming again !……SOON!

“You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. “-John 5:39