Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus Christ at His First Advent
By D. T. BOURDEAU
D. T. BOURDEAU
(Concluded) 19. THE heathen and rulers were to assemble tumultuously against him. Ps. 2: 1, 2: “Why do the heathen rage [“or, tumultuously assemble,” margin], and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against God, the Lord, and against his Anointed.” Fulfilled, Acts 4: 25–27: “Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together.” 20. He was to be led as a lamb to the slaughter. Isa. 53: 7: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Fulfilled, Acts 8: 32, 35: “The place of the scripture which he [the eunuch] read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. . . . Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” 21. His hands and feet were to be pierced. Ps. 22: 16: “For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 35, first part: “And they crucified him.” In this very act they put cruel nails through his hands and feet. 22. He was to be laughed at, mocked. Ps. 22: 7, 8: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 39–43: “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Likewise also the chief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.” 23. He was to be numbered with transgressors. Isa. 53: 12: “And he was numbered with the transgressors.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 38: “Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left.” 24. Gall and vinegar were to be given him. Ps. 69: 21: “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 34: “They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.” 25. In his agony he was to cry out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Ps. 22: 1. Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 46: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama, sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” 26. He was to be pierced. Zech. 12: 10: “And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” Fulfilled, John 19: 34: “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” Read also verse 37. 27. Not one of his bones was to be broken. Ps. 34: 20: “He keepeth his bones: not one of them is broken.” Fulfilled, John 19: 32, 33, 36: “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs.” “For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.” 28. His garments were to be parted, and upon his vesture lots were to be cast. Ps. 22: 18: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 35: “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” 29. He was to be made an offering for sin, stricken and wounded for transgressions, and bruised for iniquities; through his stripes healing was to come; and on him was the Lord to lay the iniquity of us all. Isa. 53: 10, 8, 5, 6: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” “He was taken away by distress and judgment [margin]: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.” “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. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Fulfilled, Heb. 9: 26,10last clause, 28: “Once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “So Christ was offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” 1 Peter 2: 24: “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” 1 Peter 3: 18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” 30. Though he was to make his grave with the wicked, or be buried with the wicked, yet he was to be with the rich in his death. Isa. 53: 9: “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.” Fulfilled, Matt. 27: 57–60: “When the evening was come, there came a rich man of Arimathæa, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: he went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulcher, and departed.” 31. He was not to be left in the grave, but was to be raised from the dead. Ps. 16: 10: “For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [“the grave,” Heb.]; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Fulfilled, Acts 2: 31: “He [David] seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [“the grave,” Gr., etc.], neither his flesh did see corruption.” 32. He was to be raised again the third day, reckoning from his death. Matt. 16: 21: “From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.” And this prophecy was literally fulfilled, as Christ died the day before the Sabbath, and was raised the day after the Sabbath (Luke 23: 52–56; Mark 16: 1–9), so that Paul in his masterly argument on the resurrection told the truth when he said “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” 1 Cor. 15: 3, 4. As Paul usually appealed to the ancient Scriptures, it is claimed by some with no small show of plausibility, that one of the prophetic portions of Scripture he here refers to is Hosea 6: 1, 2, which, though it may have a double application, does primarily contemplate the heavy blow that came upon Christ’s faithful followers by Christ’s death, and their revival caused by his resurrection the third day after his death: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” 33. One of the strongest evidences that Christ (the Anointed, Gr.) is the true Messiah (or Anointed, Heb.), is seen in the fact that he came at the end of the sixty-ninth of the seventy symbolic weeks, and was cut off, or died, in the midst of the last, or seventieth, of those weeks, in fulfillment of Dan. 9: 24, first part, 25, 26: “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, . . . know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.” It is generally admitted by prophetic expositors that the war waged by the Romans on the Jews, during which Jerusalem was destroyed, is here intended. In the next verse there is a falling back, and the last of the seventy weeks is taken up, and of it it is said: “And in the midst of the week he [Christ] shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” These Christ caused to cease, or come to an end, in God’s plan, by his death, which they prefigured. The sixty-nine weeks, or 483 days of years (see Eze. 4: 4–6, etc.), begin with the seventy weeks, the 490 year-days determined (or cut off, Heb.) upon Daniel’s people. Their starting point is “the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem.” This commandment was concluded and went forth complete when the decree of Artaxerxes for the execution of the work of restoration and building here specified went into effect; and that was in the fall of the year 457 B. C. See Ezra 7, marginal reading, etc. Reckoning the sixty-nine weeks, or 483 year-days, from this starting point, we reach the fall of A. D. 27, when our Saviour appeared as the Christ, Messiah, or Anointed. It was then that Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit at his baptism. Acts 10: 38; Matt. 3: 16, 17, marginal reading. By adding to this date three and one-half years, we come to the spring of A. D. 31, when Messiah was cut off, and the sacrifice and oblation ceased to prefigure the death of the Son of God. 34. Our divine Lord and Saviour was to justify many. Isa. 53: 11, 12: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors.” Fulfilled, Rom. 4: 25; 5: 19: “Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification.” “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Heb. 12: 2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Let this study be pursued still further, as there are many more prophecies and historical facts that can be produced under this head. But do we not see in those already presented a Gibraltar before which unbelief and infidelity should recoil, acknowledging that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Saviour whom God sent into the world?