freeeric
Why would God provide a multitude of examples where He literally fulfills His Word if He did not intend for us to take His predictions concerning our glorious future in the same way?
We can learn a lot by looking at fulfilled prophecy.
At His first coming, Jesus fulfilled forty-eight specific prophecies concerning His birth, lineage, life, death, burial, and even His resurrection.
Here are just some of the key Old Testament passages that accurately foretold the details of the Messiah’s first arrival in the world:
- Micah 5:2: Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem
- Isaiah 7:14: Jesus was born of a virgin
- Jeremiah 31:15: Herod’s murder of children in Bethlehem
- Zechariah 11:12-13: Jesus betrayed for thirty pieces of silver
- Psalm 22:16: the piercing of Jesus’ hands and feet
- Psalm 22:18: the casting of lots for Jesus’ clothing
- Psalm 16:10: Jesus’ resurrection
Let’s examine what this sampling of prophetic texts tells us:
WORDS MATTER
Perhaps I’m just stating the obvious, but it’s an important point. The fulfillment of prophecy regarding Jesus’ first coming tells us that words supremely matter when God reveals the future in Scripture.
Jesus fulfilled all the details of the above sampling of prophecies just as He did with all forty-eight of them.
Matthew went to great lengths to show how Christ met the specifics of what the Old Testament prophets wrote. For example, He didn’t ride a horse or just any donkey into Jerusalem, but He rode the “foal of a donkey” just as Zechariah foretold (Zechariah 9:9; Matthew 21:2-5).
Those familiar with my writing know that I emphasize the importance of words in the prophetic texts of the Bible that pertain to the end times. A key reason for doing so comes from the pattern we see with those pertaining to Jesus’ first coming. The Lord fulfilled the precise wording of all those texts.
THE PSALMS CONTAIN PROPHECY
Since the Psalms contain several references to Jesus’ first coming, then we should also expect to see passages there that pertain to many aspects of His Second Coming and reign over the nations. And that is precisely what we discover in the Psalms.
In the introduction, I included three examples of fulfilled prophecies that come from the Psalms. I did this because many in the church today dismiss its prophetic value. They do this is by teaching that the books of the Bible, such as the Psalms, are simply “records of man’s experiences with God.”
That’s wrong on so many levels. For one, it contradicts the words of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. Secondly, the Psalms tell us many things about Jesus’ future reign over the nations of the earth.
Psalms 47-48 tells of a time when the Lord will rule over the nations of the world from a gloriously restored Jerusalem. We find this same prophecy in Zechariah 14:9-21.
Psalm 2 also speaks to this time when Jesus will rule during a time when sin is still possible, which places its fulfillment during the thousand-year reign of Jesus, as we see in Revelation 20:1-10. This is the only time when the words of this Psalm can come to fruition.
Those who dismiss the words of the Psalms as merely records of “man’s experiences with God” not only greatly err in their assessment of Scripture, but also overlook an abundance of unfulfilled prophecies that breathe hope and joy into the everyday lives of believers.
WE CAN RELY ON THE INTEGRITY OF SCRIPTURE
(story continues)
