The Present Truth, vol. 8
June 2, 1892
“Prophecies Concerning the Messiah. (Continued.)” The Present Truth 8, 11.
E. J. Waggoner
(Continued.)
If the Jews, therefore, had been attentive to the prophecies that were in their hands, and had hardly believed them, they would have acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah as soon as they saw the Holy Spirit descend upon Him at His baptism. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.1
But the angel told Daniel still more concerning Christ. From the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem, seventy prophetic weeks, or four hundred and ninety years, were allotted to the Jewish people. So when Jesus was baptized, one week of years still remain. This week of years, beginning in A.D. 27, is the week referred to in Daniel 9:27: “And He [the Messiah] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” All the Jewish sacrifices and oblations typified the real sacrifices of Christ, and when He was “cut off, but not for Himself” (Daniel 9:26), they were made to cease. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.2
Jesus was crucified at the time of the Passover. (See Matthew 26:2.) From John 2:13; 5:4; 12:1, we find that the Passover at which He was crucified was the fourth one that He attended after His baptism. Then His earthly ministry lasted three full years and a half, and the scripture was fulfilled which said that in the midst of the week (the last week of years allotted to the Jewish nation) He should cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. “For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath-day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him.” Acts 13:27. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.3
The character of Jesus was no less accurately delineated. Isaiah had said of Him: “He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” Isaiah 11:3, 4. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Isaiah 53:4. His life, as described in the Gospels, shows that He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil;” and Matthew says that His healing the sick and casting out devils was in direct fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah. Thus: “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever. And He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she arose, and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.” Matthew 8:14-17. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.4
When John sent from prison to know if Jesus was indeed the Christ, Jesus said: “Go and show John and in those things which ye do here and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the death here, and the dead are raised up;” and to crown all, He added, “and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” Matthew 11:4, 5. This was in direct fulfilment of the prophecy uttered seven hundred years before: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor.” Luke 4:18, quoted from Isaiah 61:1. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.5
David was a prophet (Acts 2:29, 30), and many of his psalms, even when he used the first person, refer to Christ. We know that Jesus “came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11), and John further says of Jesus, that “neither did His brethren believe in Him.” John 7:5. This was in exact fulfilment of the prophetic utterance of David: “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.” Psalm 69:8. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.6
Just before the crucifixion of Christ, He went into Jerusalem, riding upon an ass’s colt upon which no man had ever sat, and multitudes went before Him spreading their clothes and palm branches in the road over which He was to pass, and they, with those that followed after, cried, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” “Blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Matthew 21:9; John 12:13. But in the excitement of the occasion, none of the people thought that they were fulfilling the words written by the prophet Zechariah: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold, thy King cometh unto thee; He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” Zechariah 9:9. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.7
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.” Matthew 26:14, 15. But neither Judas nor the priests stopped to think that in this very act they were fulfilling the words of Zechariah: “And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” Zechariah 11:12. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.8
Judas sat with Jesus at the last Passover. When the disciples asked Jesus who would betray Him, “Jesus answered, he is to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot.” John 13:26. This was in direct fulfilment of the prophetic words of David, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” Psalm 41:9; John 13:18. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.9
On that last night, as Jesus was talking with His disciples, He said: “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that he shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.” John 16:32. Although they all declared that they would stand by Him, “all the disciples forsook Him, and fled,” when the multitude came with swords and staves to seize Him. In this was fulfilled the words of the prophet: “Awake, O sword against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts; smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” Zechariah 13:7. (See Matthew 26:31.) PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.10
David said: “They that sit in the gate speak against me; I was the song of the drunkards.” Psalm 69:12. This was no doubt literally true in his own case; but in this, as in many other things, he was a type of Christ, and the words found their complete fulfilment when the men of Herod’s court, and the rabble that followed the high priests, set Jesus at naught, and mocked Him, and spit upon Him, and smote Him with the palms of their hands, and when Pilate had him scourged. Matthew 26:67, 68; 27:26-30; Luke 23:11. And in this, also, was accurately fulfilled the prophetic sayings of Isaiah: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:6. E. J. W. PTUK June 2, 1892, page 168.11
(To be continued.)