The Bible is filled with Messianic prophecies. Mathematician Peter Stoner calculated the odds that one man could fulfill the 48 specific MESSIANIC prophecies would be one in ten to the 157th power! That is one in 10 followed by 157 zeros!!! In other words, it would be nearly IMPOSSIBLE for one man to fulfill the 48 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, let alone the myriad of more nebulous ones that point to the Messiah.
In order to comprehend this staggering possibility, Stoner illustrates:
“…we take 10^17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly. Blindfold a man and tell him that he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one?”
“Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing just eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote in their own wisdom… This means that the fulfillment of just eight prophecies alone proves that God inspired the writing of those [eight] prophecies to a definiteness which lacks only one chance in 10^17 of being absolute.”
Peter Stoner
As it turns out, Jesus Christ (Yahushua Ha Mashiach) fulfilled all of the 48 specific Messianic prophecies in the Bible AND he fulfilled more than 324 prophecies RELATED to the Messiah. 😲
Luke 24:” 25 And then He (Jesus) said to them, “You foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to come into His glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the Prophets, He explained to them the things written about Himself in all the Scriptures.
Jesus KNEW that the Old Testament Scriptures (Torah/Tanakh) were about HIM because HE is the WORD OF GOD made FLESH.
Here is an example of just FIFTEEN prophecies that Jesus fulfilled perfectly…
- Messiah is to be born in Bethlehem.
See Micah 5:2; fulfilled in Matt. 2:1-7; John 7:42; Luke 2:4-7- Messiah is to be preceded by a Messenger.
See Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1; fulfilled in Matthew 3:1-3; 11:10; John 1:23; Luke 1:17- Messiah is to enter Jerusalem on a donkey.
See Zechariah 9:9; fulfilled in Mark 11:1-3; Matthew 21:6-11- Messiah is to be betrayed by a friend.
See Psalms 41:9; 55:12-14; fulfilled in Matthew 10:4; 26:49-50; John 13:21- Messiah is to be sold for 30 pieces of silver.
See Zechariah 11:12; fulfilled in Matthew 26:15; 27:3- The money for which Messiah is sold is to be thrown “to the potter” in God’s house.
See Zechariah 11:13; fulfilled in Matthew 27:5-7- Messiah is to be born of a virgin.
See Isaiah 7:14; fulfilled in Matthew 1:18-2:1; Luke 1:26-35- Messiah is to be hated without cause.
See Isaiah 49:7; Psalm 69:5; fulfilled in John 15:24-25- Messiah is to be silent before His accusers.
See Isaiah 53:7; fulfilled in Matthew 27:12- Messiah is to be executed by crucifixion, by having His hands and feet pierced.
See Psalm 22:16; fulfilled in John 19:28- Messiah is to be given vinegar to quench His thirst.
See Psalm 69:21; fulfilled in Matthew 27:34- Messiah is to be executed without having a bone broken.
See Exodus 12:46; Psalm 34:21; fulfilled in John 19:33-36- Messiah is to be buried with the rich when dead.
See Isaiah 53:9; fulfilled in Matthew 27:57-60- Messiah is to be raised from the dead.
See Isaiah 53:9-10; Psalm 2:7; 16:10; fulfilled in Matthew 28:1-20; Acts 2:23-36;13;33-37; 1 Corinthians 11:4-6- Messiah is to be executed by crucifixion as a thief.
See Psalm 22:16; Zechariah 12:10; Isaiah 53:5, 12; fulfilled in Luke 23:33; John 20:25; Matthew 27:38;
Isaiah is the most complete scroll found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. This ancient scroll nearly exactly matches the book of Isaiah that is found in our current Bibles. Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet who wrote about the “coming Messiah” (aka Savior) somewhere between 701 and 681BC. The Old Testament prophets were people who had a close relationship with God, our Creator, the God of Israel, and who delivered messages from Him. The messages they delivered generally included a request for repentance along with the accurate foretelling of future events. Isaiah wrote his scroll CENTURIES before Jesus walked the earth. Keep this in mind as you read Isaiah 53 below and see if you don’t recognize Jesus.✝️
Isaiah 53:
Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,🌱
And like a root out of dry ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we would look at Him,
Nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.
3 He was despised and abandoned by men,
A man of great pain and familiar with sickness;
And like one from whom people hide their faces,
He was despised, and we had no regard for Him.
4 However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore,
And our pains that He carried;
Yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted,
Struck down by God, and humiliated.
5 But He was pierced for our offenses, ✝️
He was crushed for our wrongdoings.
The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him,
And by His wounds we are healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way; 🐑
But the Lord has caused the wrongdoing of us all
To fall on Him. ✝️
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off from the land of the living
For the wrongdoing of my people, to whom the blow was due?
9 And His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the Lord desired
To crush Him, causing Him grief;
If He renders Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,🐑
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied; 🐑
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
For He will bear their wrongdoings. ✝️
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the plunder with the strong,
Because He poured out His life unto death, 💀✝️
And was counted with wrongdoers;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the wrongdoers
