God called me out as a little girl. At the tender of age of just 4 years old, I climbed the church bus every Sunday morning to go to Sunday School and worship at a large church in Miami, without my family.
When I was 7 years old, we moved to a small town in Arkansas. Our new neighbors, an older couple from across the street, came to welcome us with sweet treats and an invitation to attend their church. My mom responded, “I don’t go to church, but she does,” pointing to me. That sweet couple took me to church with them every week until I was 12. My walk with Jesus would continue on through my teen years, when I lived with my Grandmother who did not attend church with me either, but was sure to get me there.
I didn’t realize it at such a young age, but God would use me later, as both a teen and as an adult, to share the Gospel with my mom. Many times. It was not readily accepted, for she had formulated in her mind and heart her own ideas of what it meant to “believe” and be a Christian. Ideas based not solely on the Truth of the Scripture. Even smart people are easily deceived.
My mom was an avid reader and read through the Bible many times. She knew what it said, she just didn’t believe it all to be true. I struggled with that mindset. I asked her one time, “just how do you pick and choose what is truth and what is not?” I don’t remember her exact words, but I remember being left with the sense that her heart was not completely closed off to the possibility of one day believing in Jesus as Messiah.
About a year before Mom would succumb to a rare form of thyroid cancer, she challenged Ben to read through the Bible with her in 90 days, allowing him (then just 9 years old) to use the Egermeier Bible Story book — a 600+ page book filled with more than 300 classic Bible stories. We didn’t know what fate lay ahead for her just a year later, but I remember at the time believing that this reading of the Bible needed to be different for her. So I asked her to do me one favor — I asked her to look for Jesus as she read through the Old Testament.
For people like my mom, who don’t come to complete faith in the saving grace of Jesus easily, finding Him in the Old Testament prophecies may be the best way to reach them with the Truth of the Gospel. If prophets who lived hundreds of years before Jesus was born were able to foretell with amazing accuracy of the coming of Jesus, and of the details surrounding his birth, life, death, and resurrection, surely that is proof that we can trust their words as Truth.
Today, I want to share a quick trip through the book of Isaiah. Isaiah is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Not all of the prophecies surrounding Jesus are found there, but many are. So, if you are someone who struggles with belief, or you are looking for help in presenting the gospel to someone who is a hard nut to crack, I pray you will find these references useful. And please . . . feel free to contact me if you have questions about Jesus. I would be thrilled to share Him with you.
Prophecy: The Messiah will be born of a virgin
OT prophecy: Isaiah 7:14 — Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
NT fulfillment: Matthew 1:22-23 — All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Prophecy: The Messiah will be called Immanuel
OT prophecy: Isaiah 7:14 — Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
NT fulfillment: Matthew 1:22-23 — All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
Prophecy: The Messiah will be an heir to the throne of David
OT prophecy: Isaiah 9:7 — Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
NT fulfillment: Luke 1:32-33 — He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Prophecy: The Messiah will be exalted
OT prophecy: Isaiah 52:13 — Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
NT fulfillment: Philippians 2:9-11 — For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Prophecy: The Messiah will be disfigured
OT prophecy: Isaiah 52:14 — As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind.
NT fulfillment: Mark 15:15-20 — The soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Romancohort. They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. After they had mocked Him, they took the purple robe off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.
Prophecy: The Messiah will make a blood atonement for sin
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:5 — But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
NT fulfillment: 1 Peter 1:2 — According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
Prophecy: The Messiah will be rejected
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:1-2 — Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
NT fulfillment: John 12:37-38 — Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Prophecy: God’s Spirit will rest upon Him
OT prophecy: Isaiah 11:2 — And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.
NT fulfillment: Luke 3:21-22 — Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Prophecy: The Messiah will bear our sins and sorrows
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:4-5 — Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
NT fulfillment: 1 Peter 2:2-25 — He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Prophecy: The Messiah will be silent before his accusers
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:7 — He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
NT fulfillment: Luke 23:9 — So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer.
Prophecy: The Messiah will die with transgressors
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:12 — Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
NT fulfillment: Mark 15:27-28 — They crucified two robbers with Him, one on His right and one on His left. [And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And He was numbered with transgressors.”]
Prophecy: The Messiah will be buried in a rich man’s tomb
OT prophecy: Isaiah 53:9 — And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
NT fulfillment: Matthew 27:57-60 — When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of the tomb and went away.
As you might imagine, this is just a sampling of Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming Messiah that were fulfilled in the New Testament. There are many more from Isaiah as well as other Old Testament prophets. Even so, it is my prayer that through these 12, the Truth that Jesus is the Messiah is very clear. Do you have questions? I’m here. You only need to ask.