Bible Q & A

How do you know that Jesus was the Messiah spoken of in the Old Testament?

Our greatest proof that Jesus was the Messiah comes from Old Testament prophecy. If something VERY SPECIFIC is mentioned hundreds or even thousands of years before the event actually happens, that would be a great proof. And if hundreds of such prophecies were fulfilled without ONE ERROR, we KNOW that our proof is irrefutable and supernatural. Lets pick just one of the hundreds of prophecies Jesus fulfilled by his first coming about 2000 years ago.

In the book of Daniel, written hundreds of years before Christ, it says:

"Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.' It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble." (Daniel 9:25)

So it says the ruler (the Messiah or Christ) will come 69 (62+7) weeks of years[1] after the decree to rebuild Jerusalem. Jerusalem is to be rebuilt with streets and a trench (or wall). A major reconstruction.

We know that a prophecy year was 360 days which matched the Babylonian calendar year. When Daniel wrote the book named after him, Israel was captive to the Babylonians, so this makes sense. This would make a week of years 2,520 days (7 x 360).

So the above passage is saying that the Messiah will come in 173,880 days (7 x 360 x 69).

We know that the decree went out on March 14, 445 B.C.[2] So 173,880 days after that decree, Israel was to expect the Messiah. 173,800 days after March 14, 445 B.C. is April 6, 32 A.D. So the Messiah was to come to Jerusalem April 6, 32 A.D.[3]

How was the King to be recognized? Zechariah says:

"Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)

So, who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on April 6, 32 A.D. and what did the people proclaim?

"They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road. When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen: 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!' 'Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!' Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, 'Teacher, rebuke your disciples!' 'I tell you,' he replied, 'if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.'" (Luke 19:35-40)

This is the only time Jesus allowed himself to be presented as "King." Before this event, his "time had not yet come." [4] And notice the power of God's faithfulness to His Word. If the people would not proclaim this moment, the very stones would have!

Notes

1. A week of years is a common Old Testament idiom. For example, land was to "have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath to the LORD" every seventh year (Leviticus 25:3,4, etc.)

2. Chuck Missler, "Daniel's 70 Weeks" (audio series - see special thanks below)

3. By translating the prophecy to our calendar we get: 445 B.C. to 32 A.D. (476 x 365 = 173,740 days) + March 14 to April 6 (24 days) + leap years (116 days) = 173,880 days. We know that Jesus entered Jerusalem as King the fourth Passover after the fifteenth year of Tiberias Caesar (secular sources and Luke 3:1)

4. John 7:8, 30, 44, etc.

A special thanks to Chuck Missler at Koinonia House for his timely and continuous insights into scripture.

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