The prophecy in the book of Isaiah referring to the birth of Jesus came several years before it happened, and when it did happen, it was a glorious event! Christmas is a great reminder that God fulfils His prophecies and His promises._
Luke 24:44(NIV) He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
Christmas and the event that followed lies deep in the core of the Old Testament. At every turn, Jesus was fulfilling a role that was shaped by more than a millennium of prediction. No aspect of the Jesus’s ministry of redemption was without anticipatory reflection. At the moment of Jesus’ birth, the entire scope and focus of the Old Testament came into sharp relief:
Galatians 4:4(NIV) But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
There are over 300 prophecies of Christ recorded in the Old Testament. These are just three key prophecies relating to Christ’s birth:
The first prophecy is found in Genesis right after the first human beings fell into sin. After Adam and Eve sinned against God, we read God’s words to the serpent in Genesis 3:14–15(NIV) So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers: he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.
The serpent represents Satan, and so this was God’s curse on Satan himself. God’s word of judgment on Satan was the first prophecy of Christmas. How will Satan be defeated? Through the birth of a little child. An offspring of Eve – the seed of the woman – will crush Satan’s head.
Galatians 4:4–5(NIV) But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.
Jesus is the seed of the woman who was born into our world to defeat Satan and to bring us into God’s forever family.
Another key prophecy relating to Christ’s birth is that Jesus would be born of a virgin.
Isaiah 7:14(NIV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Matthew recognised this prophecy as fulfilled in Christ when he wrote this about Jesus’ birth in Matthew 1:22–23(NIV) All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
A third key prophecy concerning Christ’s birth has to do with the place of his birth.
Micah 5:2(NIV) “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
Matthew 2:4–5(NIV) When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem for multiple reasons, and one of those was because the name of the city attested to Who Jesus was. Maybe it could be better said that the city was named Bethlehem, the city of bread because Jesus was to be born there.
The very reason man eats and drinks is to point him to Jesus. Jesus being the Bread of Life would not have made sense apart from mankind’s need to eat. Jesus being the Fountain of Living Water would not have made sense apart from mankind’s need to drink.
This Christmas, remember your need for Jesus as the Bread of Life.