The Foundation of Prophecy: Jesus the Messiah

Before I go through prophecies about the end times, governments, rulers, and so on, there is one kind of prophecy you should know about first. Nothing else matters if prophecies about Jesus being the Christ were wrong. That is why I am going to go over this with you before we do anything else.

The entire Old and New Testaments are centered around Jesus. From Genesis to Malachi, every book is a revelation of the coming Messiah who would save us from our sins. From Matthew to Revelation, every prophecy about the end times, governments, judgments, and so on points to His coming again. It is all a progression of time and events leading up to Jesus.

Prophecies about Jesus make up most of the prophecies in the Bible. Many are so specific that it would be completely impossible for them to be fulfilled without divine intervention. These prophecies alone are more than enough to prove that the Bible is the Word of God and that there is no other.

The Jewish Rejection of Jesus

With such detailed prophecies (as we will soon go over), you would think it would be impossible for the Jewish people to miss the coming of their Messiah. But there are two reasons why they did.

The first reason is spiritual blindness. They simply were not looking for Him. They were paying attention to the politics of the day and to daily life rather than to the Scriptures. They were blinded by the distractions of the enemy. They missed His first coming for the same reason people are going to be taken by surprise at His second coming: they had spiritually fallen asleep.

The second reason many still have not recognized that Jesus is the Messiah is because they expected every prophecy to be fulfilled at one time, in sequence, without delay. But prophecy does not always work that way. When they saw Jesus fulfill certain things at His first coming, they rejected Him because they had not yet seen Him fulfill everything He will do at His second coming.

In other words, they refuse to believe until everything is said and done. Just as God said, they refuse to believe Him even though He has never failed before. They would rather wait until judgment is over before they believe it was even happening in the first place. And that is why they have not only rejected Jesus, but have also rejected salvation through Him. Their own unbelief has blinded them to what is happening right in front of their eyes.

But if they had believed the Scriptures, they would have known when He was supposed to come, what He was supposed to do, and that He would return a second time to complete His work. All of that is in the Old Testament.

How the Wise Men Knew When the Messiah Would Come

Have you ever considered how the wise men in the Christmas story knew that Jesus had been born? The Bible does not simply call them wise men. The Greek word used is Magi. The Magi were men from the region where Babylon once stood who specialized in astronomy, astrology, and the interpretation of prophecies. They were often advisors to royalty.

That means they most likely had access to the prophecies of Daniel, who, as we discussed in our last study, was considered the chief wise man of Babylon. See the previous study to understand why the book’s date of writing is contested, yet firmly rooted in the sixth century BC.

These Magi would likely have studied the prophecies in Daniel and calculated the date of His arrival from them. Since they were astrologers, they kept track of time by the stars. It is therefore entirely possible that when they spoke of seeing His star, they were referring to the correct alignment of the stars for the appointed time.

Think about that. Strangers from a foreign land believed the Scriptures and recognized Jesus before the Jewish people did—because they believed God would do what He promised.

The Prophesied Birth of Jesus

Let’s talk about some of the key prophecies about the coming of Jesus that the Jewish people missed and still refuse to accept as having been fulfilled.

I will go over this passage in much greater detail in a later study. For now, let me simply say that when it refers to seventy weeks, it is not talking about seventy Monday-to-Sunday weeks. The term week is symbolic of seven years, as can be shown from the context—something we will examine later.

What this prophecy means is that there would be a total of 490 years in which God would work with Israel. It tells us this period would begin when the command to restore and rebuild Jerusalem went out. That command was given in Artaxerxes’ decree to Nehemiah (445/444 BC).

The prophecy then tells us that before the final seven years of the total 490, the Messiah would come—meaning 483 years after the decree of Artaxerxes. Using the prophetic year of 360 days, we can count forward from 445 BC to approximately AD 27–30. That corresponds to the time of Jesus’ public baptism and the beginning of His ministry.

If, however, you try to align this prophecy with His birth (around 4–6 BC), the numbers do not fit. The prophecy overshoots by decades. But the prophecy was not referring to His birth—it was referring to His ministry.

The Hebrew word translated Messiah is Mashiach, meaning “anointed one.” In Jewish practice, anointing marked the official appointment to ministry, not birth. We see this pattern repeatedly in the anointing of kings and priests throughout the Old Testament.

When Jesus was baptized by John, God publicly confirmed His appointment to ministry, and He was anointed with the Holy Ghost as the Messiah.

That is why the 483 years end with His baptism—the moment He was officially recognized as the Messiah, the Anointed One. Before He was anointed, the prophecy could not be completed. It had to culminate in His anointing, not in His birth.

These were the prophecies of Daniel, given centuries earlier, that the Magi would have been able to use to calculate the exact time Jesus would begin His ministry.

Daniel gives us the precise time when Jesus was to appear, hundreds of years before it happened. And there are many more prophecies given centuries earlier that could not have been fulfilled by coincidence or by human effort.

These prophecies even include the method of His conception.

Matthew directly tells us that the prophecy in Isaiah was about Jesus. However, there is an issue that arises if you read the entire passage in Isaiah.

Who Was the Sign Given To

Isaiah 7:10–13 records Isaiah speaking directly to Ahaz, offering him a sign. Ahaz refuses. At that point, the audience changes. The sign is no longer being offered to Ahaz personally, but to the House of David—the royal line through which God promised the Messiah would come.

That means the sign is not limited to Ahaz’s lifetime. It is given to the entire royal line of David. It is not just for those listening at that moment. It is for every person who has a part in the House of David—the house over which Jesus is King, and the house in which every believer, past, present, and future, has a place.

That means it was not given only to the men standing there. It was given to others who were not even alive at the time.

What Was the Sign — and What Wasn’t

Isaiah then says:

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

The text does not say that the virgin birth was meant to be an immediate reassurance to Ahaz. It simply states that God Himself would give a sign to the House of David.

The commonly assumed interpretation is that the birth of the child was the sign proving the two kings would fall. But the text never actually says that.

Instead, Isaiah says:

“For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.” (Isaiah 7:16)

Notice what really is—and is not—said. It does not say the child would be born before the kings were removed. It says the kings would be gone before the child became of age. That means the kings did not necessarily have to be alive when the child was born. They only had to be removed before He reached maturity.

Here is where it becomes interesting.

The Kings Were the Sign — Not the Fulfillment

This reverses the usual assumption, but it fits the text precisely.

The prophecy is not saying, “A virgin will give birth so you’ll know the kings will be removed.”

The prophecy is saying, “The kings will be removed, and this will stand as a sign that God’s promise to the House of David—the birth of Immanuel—will surely come.”

In other words, the historical event (the fall of the two kings) authenticated the future promise of Jesus. This means the prophecy is literal, true, and fulfilled—without requiring a virgin birth during Ahaz’s lifetime.

The Context Confirms a Long-Term Fulfillment

The remainder of Isaiah 7 does not describe peace or relief, but judgment:

• Assyria is coming (vv. 17–20)
• The land will become desolate (vv. 21–25)
• Butter and honey become survival food, not symbols of prosperity

Isaiah even says these days will be unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah, placing the prophecy of the child far enough beyond Ahaz’s time for the land to be deserted, the economy to collapse, and enemies to settle in the land.

The child being born of a virgin was not the sign; it was what the sign pointed to.

Not Isaiah’s Son — Not a Near Fulfillment

Isaiah 8 introduces the birth of Isaiah’s own son. Many have claimed this child fulfilled the prophecy, but the text does not support that conclusion:

• He is not born of a virgin
• He is not named Immanuel
• He does not rule
• He does not sit on David’s throne

This child is a foreshadowing, not the fulfillment of the prophecy. While this foreshadowing may have been comforting to Ahaz, the prophecy itself was not fulfilled in him even though it mentions similar themes. Later, Isaiah prophesies again:

The same child promised in Isaiah 7 reappears—now unmistakably as the Messiah. Even the name Immanuel means “God with us.” Only one person has ever been rightly called Mighty God and Everlasting Father. Only one person could truly be God with us. That person is Jesus.

So Matthew 1:22–23 is not saying Isaiah spoke metaphorically about Jesus. He is saying the literal fulfillment of a promise given to the House of David centuries earlier—a promise authenticated by historical signs involving the removal of kings—was fulfilled in God’s appointed time.

Isaiah told the people in the time of Ahaz that the two kings coming against them would serve as a sign to those who trusted God. That sign was that those kings would soon pass away and be gone. Their removal would stand as proof that God’s promise to send the Messiah would not fail.

And hundreds of years later, a child was born to a virgin, from the House of David, exactly 483 years from the command to rebuild Jerusalem, just as Daniel foretold.

No man could force this prophecy to occur. It could not be accomplished by natural means. Only God could declare it centuries in advance and bring it to pass, word for word, centuries later.

This is only two examples of the evidence that the God of the Bible is the one true God who controls history. There are many more prophecies about Jesus that we will begin covering in the next study.

Continue To Unit 7:6 – The Two Missions of the Messiah OR

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