Genesis 3:15 is the first instance of God revealing His remedy for solving the problem of sin, and that solution is His Son – the ultimate Servant who would die on our behalf. Isaiah records four Servant psalms, describing this One who would sacrifice Himself. In Acts 8, Philip intercepts a eunuch from Ethiopia who is reading Isaiah 53 – one of the Servant songs. Others include Isaiah 42:1, Isaiah 49:3, Isaiah 50:4-11, and Isaiah 52:13-Isaiah 53. In these, we see Jesus and His crucifixion, but the eunuch is confused by these and entreats Philip for help.

The Servant of Isaiah 42 is clearly and individual, but chapter 49 calls Him by the name of a nation. Isaiah 50:4 records Isaiah speaking in first person as the Servant. The writers of the New Testament make reference to these Servant passages at least fourteen times in their writings, and they consistently apply these prophecies to Jesus. This I, this Israel, this elect Servant is identified as our Savior.

The Elect Servant

The latter parts of Isaiah 42:1 coupled with Psalm 2 are recognizable from the record of Jesus’ baptism by John. In Isaiah 41-42, God is admonishing His people for their idolatry and their reliance on self. He calls on them to defend their worship of idols, and He concludes that none can answer Him for their actions. The Servant is introduced as God’s answer, as the One He upholds. This Servant will bring justice to the nations. He will be gentle and peaceful. He will establish God’s word throughout the world.

Isaiah 49 further outlines the Servant’s mission. His mouth is described as a sword, and His strength is in God. He is named Israel, a reminder of what the nation of Israel was supposed to be. He is a continuation of God’s promises and a reminder of faithfulness to the descendants of Jacob. Where God’s goal was to bless the nations through Abraham’s line, the nation of Israel wanted to keep God to themselves at the time. Likewise, we cannot forget our roles in blessing the nations through faithfulness to Him. This Servant represents holiness and light. He is salvation and redemption. He loves though He is hated.

Isaiah 50:4 describes the Servant as a dutiful messenger who carries forth God’s word and will. The verses are reminiscent to Deuteronomy 18:18 describing a messenger in whose mouth would reside God’s word. This word comforts the weary, and this messenger submits Himself to the persecutions of standing up for what is right. His ears are open to God’s will, and He calls to those who would obey Jehovah and walk in light. People respond to Him by either trusting in Jehovah or trusting in themselves.

Isaiah 52:13 calls on us to behold His successful Servant, whom none expected to succeed. He will silence the wise and the powerful. He will be exulted in humility, and chapter 53 then describes the humiliation of this Servant. He is one who will live in sorrow, unrecognized by those who should honor Him. He would suffer atrocities and die. All of this is done in our place and for our sake. He intercedes for us and gives us righteousness. He provides spiritual freedom.

Conclusion

This is the Servant of whom the eunuch is learning in Acts 8. Beginning from that single passage, Philip preaches Jesus to him. Jesus was the answer then. He is the answer today. Our confidence cannot be in our selves, our abilities, our possessions, our nation, our leaders, our economy. Our confidence should be in that Servant who came for us, and our lives should be in His footsteps.

By Tim Smelser

Tags: jesus, prophecy

In Matthew 1, the New Testament opens with a genealogy establishing the lineage of Christ. Anyone familiar with the Bible knows it is full of genealogies. The first is in Genesis 4, and we have a tendency to gloss over these records. There is even danger that we may view these passages as mere padding or filler.

Think about the individuals contained within those verses – their families, their cultures, their histories. I Peter 1:19 and II Timothy 3:16 both make it clear that God is intentional with scripture. He inspires the writers to record what they do, so this infers a purpose behind every passage – even genealogies.

Purposeful Genealogies

Bible stories and instructions usually serve one of two purposes, either reminders of what we already know or as new instructions. While genealogies seem tedious to study, they help preserve the historic integrity of the Bible. By the end of chapter 5, we have a family record of lives between Adam and Noah. Are these mythical figures, or did Methuselah and Enoch truly exist. I’m inclined to believe these were real people. Genealogy is an ancient art form, and the scholars of ancient Israel were masters. These records reflect care and concern in preserving a national history. In this vein, genealogies can help provide a historical context to events.

Luke 3 contains yet another genealogy. It is a history that starts with Joseph and covers over fifty generations of Jesus’ ancestry. It is a record of roughly 2000 years worth of individuals preserved for our knowledge. Painstaking math results in an ability to date events around these lives with some degree of accuracy. The Archbishop Usher and Dr. William Hales are best known for using this methodology, and later archaeological findings would confirm many of their suppositions.

A final aspect of genealogies pertains to keeping the old law as God intended. Numbers 3:9-10 establishes a lineage of priests that would start with Aaron and carry on through his bloodline. Being a Levitical priest required that one be a direct descendant of Aaron. Records had to be preserved to ensure the priests were acceptable before God. Thus genealogies were recorded and preserved as necessary components to the ancient Jewish faith.

Genealogies and Us

Genealogies are not a point of concern in the New Testament, and those two lists that record Jesus’ lineage are the limit of New Testament genealogies. These serve to confirm prophetic fulfillment in the ancestry of Christ. Hebrews 7:11-12 speaks of a change to the nature of our priesthood and law. Christ ends the need for maintaining genealogies, for He assumes the mantles of priest and king, offices for which records of lineage were once required.

Titus 3:9 warns Christians from obsessing and arguing over genealogies, and I Timothy 1:4 reads very similarly. These lists once fulfilled a need. Today, they serve as a record of the individuals who experienced Bible events. They validate those events. They illustrate the prophecies leading up to Jesus, and they give us a window through which we can see the multitude to whom we are connected in God.

By Alan Miller

Tags: jesus, prophecy

Daniel 9 has been called the “dismal swamp of Old Testament criticism.” There are numerous takes and explanations to the vision of Daniel 9, including a church-age approach, among these being various Messianic approaches, millennial and pre-millennial interpretations, and various church-age interpretations. In this lesson, we’re going to look at this prophecy in context of Jesus statement that He had fulfilled all things written concerning Him and His kingdom and look for a simple, valid explanation to these difficult verses.

The Vision of the Seventy Weeks

The vision comes during the first year of the reign of Darius. Some scholars accept the theory that Darius and Cyrus were one and the same. Both names may refer to the same individual. Historically, those in Jerusalem were carried away in 605 B.C., and now Darius comes into power 539 B.C. Here, Daniel is reading of the captivity from Jeremiah 25:11, realizes the time of captivity should be ending soon, and prays to God, making confession for the sins of his nation. He pleads for God to listen to his prayer, forgive the past, and restore His people.

In Daniel 9:20, Daniel’s prayer is interrupted by another vision of the angel Gabriel, and the angel says he has come to give Daniel understanding of what is to come to pass. He says that seventy weeks are declared to make an end to sing, make reconciliation, bring righteousness, seal up the past, and bring the anointed one. These weeks are divided up into other events, some tragic, leading up to wrath poured out upon the unfaithful.

The Context of Law

Back in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, we have recorded the blessings and curses of the covenant. Based on the loyalty of the people various results are numerated. In Leviticus 26:23-25, the ultimate consequence is being stripped from the Promised Land, a sword of vengeance, a seven-fold punishment. In verse 34, it is written that the land will have its Sabbaths (see also II Chronicles 36:17-21), and verse 40 promises that the people will one day confess their sins and those of their fathers – which is exactly what Daniel is doing in the ninth chapter of his book. Also, we learn in Isaiah that God is going to use his servant Cyrus in chapter 44:28 to restore Jerusalem and the temple.

Numbers As Symbols

Seventy weeks are seven sets of seven days. We have noted that God would smite His people seven times, and we know that the Sabbaths revolved around the number seven: the seventh day, the seventh year, and the foty-ninth + fiftieth year. This time period is difficult to assign a literal period to, so, in light of the importance of seven in Jewish theology, it is logical to consider the seventy years and the seventy weeks as symbolic period of time.

Seventy years would be ten sevens. Ten cycles of Sabbath rest. The seventy weeks would be seven times seven times ten. (Remember Jesus and Peter on the topic of forgiveness: seventy times seven.) Ten sevens point to Jubilee, a time when the land rested and freedom was granted to those under bondage.

These numbers demonstrates a period of absolute completeness. There is no sensible way you can assign literal years to these numbers and assign them to fitting events. These numbers have been used symbolically in other locations, and it makes sense to view them as symbolic now.

The Goals of the Seventy Sevens

What is to be accomplished in this time period of “ten Jubilees?” Six things are mentioned beginning in verse 24. A finish transgression and an end to sin are promised. Only one brings a true end to the consequences of sin. Binding up and removing sin is only accomplished through Christ’s sacrifice. Atonement for sin will come. Again, in the scriptures, there is only one who brings absolute atonement. This time will bring everlasting righteousness. Vision and prophecy will be sealed up or brought to completion. In Luke 24, Jesus says His life has fulfilled all things written concerning the Messiah. He says early in his ministry that He has come to fulfill, or accomplish, the law. Finally this period will anoint the most holy. Again, Jesus seems a logical conclusion to this statement. He, being seated at the right hand of God, is anointed prophet, priest, and king.

This whole passage pretty conclusively points to the ministry of Jesus, and this fits in with the rest of the prophecy. The anointed one is cut off and Jerusalem is destroyed (the abomination of desolation). Jesus offered Sabbath to His followers, offering rest. In Romans, we are described as free from sin. The Sabbaths and Jubilee years were times of rest and deliverance, and Jesus’ sacrifice releases us from the debt of sin and frees us from the captivity involved. We are granted inner peace and eternal rest.

Conclusion

God’s plan for man has always been restoration and freedom, and the final Sabbath rest is still awaiting His people. God’s plan is cohesive and builds up to the ministry and sacrifice of Christ. When we read these passages, we can see history unfold in God’s plan, and we can understand our Lord is one who keeps His promises for the restoration of His people.

By Tim Smelser

Tags: controversy, prophecy, jesus, daniel

As we’ve been studying books like Ezekiel and Daniel in our Bible classes, and it can be easy to lose sight of the real driving message of these books behind the various visions in their vividness and imagery. That message is this: the Messiah is coming. In this lesson, we are going to look at four prophecies in Ezekiel that dramatically anticipate the arrival of the Christ.

Four Messianic Passages in Ezekiel

In Ezekiel, one of God’s driving points is that He is the God of time and space. He controls the future. He drove the past, and He is in complete control.

The Eagle and the Tree: Ezekiel 17. Ezekiel 17 uses the cutting and planting of trees as an allegory of Nebuchadnezzer taking the ruler from Jerusalem and Judah then trying to lean on allies for support. However, toward the end of the chapter (verses. 22-24), we have God claiming he will plant a twig atop the mountain that will grow to provide shelter to all lands. This mountain image is also used in Isaiah 2 speaking of the house of the Lord. This twig is the Messiah whose kingdom can provide shelter and protection to peoples of all nations – regardless of race, background, or history.

The Priest and King: Ezekiel 21. Beginning in verse 25, God speaks to the exalting of the humble and the overturning of all, but He promises One who will comes whose right it is to claim all things. Remember Genesis 49:10, when Judah, son of Jacob, is promised a scepter in his line – to be passed to the one whom should rightfully inherit it. This is very similar to the wording in Ezekiel 21:25-27, symbolizing the coming of the Messiah through the tribe of Judah. What had Ezekiel told Zedekiah to do? Remove the symbols of priesthood and kingship until the true ruler/priest comes.

The Servant Shepherd: Ezekiel 34. Late in Ezekiel 34, God promises a shepherd who will feed them and bring them back to God. He vows a covenant of peace and showers of blessings. This idea of God providing a shepherd is in many other parts of the Old Testament, and Jesus speaks of being the good shepherd in John 10. He seeks that which was lost and broken to restore and heal it. One shepherd is promised (David) in verses 23-24 – one to care for and rule the people – and He is called God’s servant, connecting with the servant psalms of Isaiah’s prophecies.

The Two Sticks: Ezekiel 37. Again, David is named as king and shepherd in verse 24 as God is describing how His people will be divided no longer. Again, an everlasting covenant of peace is promised, and God promises His presence among the midst of His people. The return of the remnant and rebuilding of the temple was the physical fulfillment, pointing to Christ and His church as spiritual fulfillment. However, God’s presence did not fill the rebuilt temple until we get to John 1. It is recoded in John 1 the coming of the Word as flesh to walk among men. He was tabernacled among us, and His glory came – filled in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

These passages build up to the culmination of God’s plan of salvation. They anticipate the Messiah and all the blessings associated with Him. Christ’s coming completed the puzzle, and these great promises re now available to us. We can be a part of that kingdom. We can accept Jesus as our king and shepherd, and we can enter into that promised covenant of peace if we but approach Him on His terms and submit to His word.

By Tim Smelser

Tags: prophecy, jesus, salvation, ezekiel

Jesus makes statements that we might consider to me “mission statements” throughout His ministry, and one of those in in Matthew 5:17 – to fulfill the law and accomplish all it is meant to do. This heeding to the law and prophets is repeated in Matthew 7:12, and these two statements bookend the main body of Jesus’ sermon on the mountain.

What Does Jesus Mean By This Statement?

What does Jesus mean when He says He comes to fulfill the law in Matthew 5:17? To answer this we are going to look at what Jesus is saying and defining some terms He uses.
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“The Law & the Prophets.” In Matthew 7:12, Jesus uses this term to refer to the whole of what we would consider the Old Testament. John 1:43-45 uses this term in a similar manner. Also, Romans 3:21 and Matthew 22:36-40 use this term as referring to the whole of the Old Testament.
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“Abolish” or “Destroy.” Jesus is not coming to make the Old Testament irrelevant. Instead, He has come to amplify the Law. He is here to fulfill it.
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“Fulfill.” He is here to complete and to validate the Old Testament. He is fulfilling the prophecies of the Messiah recorded in the prophets’ writings’. Jesus is the answer and the focal point of what the Law and Prophets anticipate. In other words, the Old Testament serves a prophetic function, pointing to a Messiah that would be fulfilled in Jesus’ life and sacrifice.

Jesus’ existence would do away with the requirements and stipulation of the Old Testament in His death on the cross (Matthew 5:18), but He was not an invalidation of all that had built up to this point. Instead, He was the culmination – the fulfillment – of God’s plan.

What Does This Mean to Us?

Salvation is the ultimate accomplishment, but this is such a huge plan that it is impossible to sum up in that succinct statement. Where man failed God under the Old Law, Christ succeeds. Not only did He succeed in upholding that law, but He nailed that law to the cross, giving us a path where we can succeed through Him.

By Tim Smelser

Tags: scripturality, salvation, prophecy, jesus