Jesus and Eight Fulfilled Prophecies

In addition to personal experience, the Old Testament prophesies are what convinced me that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah who came to save sinners. He fulfilled 365 of them written over hundreds of years by men who didn’t even know one another. The statistics are staggering!

Either he met every single one or Jesus was a fraud. I’ve chosen just eight to review here.

1.  Micah, writing 700 years before the birth of Christ, said: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past, will come from you on my behalf.”

The Roman governor commanded that all his subjects go to their ancestral hometowns for a census. Joseph was from Bethlehem which is how Jesus came to be born there.   

2.  The prophet Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would be preceded by a messenger, calling the people of Israel to repentance: “Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, ‘Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!’”

Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist preceded him and called Israel to repent.

3.   Zechariah prophesied that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem riding on a donkey. “Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt.”

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the foal of a donkey.

4.  The psalms of David also contain Messianic prophesies. In Psalm 41 he wrote: “Even my best friend, the one I trusted completely, the one who shared my food, has turned against me.”

Judas sat next to Jesus at the last supper. He left early to betray him.

5.  In Zechariah 11:12-13, God said that He was valued by His people as worth only thirty pieces. “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to. So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.”

The chief priests gave Judas 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus in the garden.

6.  Zechariah also prophesied that the thirty pieces of silver would be thrown in God’s house, and used to buy a potter’s field. “And the Lord said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’—this magnificent sum at which they valued me!’ So I took the thirty coins and threw them to the potter in the Temple of the Lord.”

After betraying Jesus, Judas tried to return the money. The priests refused. “This is blood money. We can’t put it in the treasury.” So they bought a field to use to bury paupers.

7.  Isaiah also prophesied, “He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word.”

When on trial for his life, “Jesus kept silent.”

8.  David also predicted the crucifixion, even though it had not yet been invented, including Jesus’ words on the cross, the soldiers’ insults, his dehydration, the piercing of his hands and feet, the casting of lots for his clothing, and the sword that pierced his side.

 
In 1969, Dr. Peter Stoner published a book called “Science Speaks.” A renowned mathematician, he calculated the probability that any one man could fulfill just these eight prophecies to be 1 chance in 10 to the 17th power. (A 1 with 17 zeros after it.)

Jesus fulfilled all 365—a statistical impossibility.   

When I realized the mathematical truth of who Jesus was, I was able to make a personal response to him. Why? Because to do otherwise would be sheer foolishness.