Meditations

Openline program on moody radio on September 14, 2019 opening study:

Let’s talk whether the Old Testament predicted the Messiah. I once went to an academic conference and heard a paper read by an Old Testament professor from one of the world’s leading bible believing seminaries. His paper was about whether the old Testament prophets really predicted the Messiah. All the listeners sat there in shock as he made the case that there wasn’t one verse, not one solitary verse in the whole Hebrew bible that predicted a Messianic figure. In fact, he argued that the whole idea of the Messiah was made up in the time period between Old Testament and the New Testament. Since the New Testament maintained that Jesus was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies, he needed to come up with some sort of explanation, some way of dealing with that issue and he did, he argued that human authors of the bible only wrote about what was going on in their own day but that the Holy Spirit had a deeper and fuller sense. He believed that the divine inspired of the scriptures had it mean something more than the human authors intended or understood. To me, this argument had several faults. The first of which was that the prophets didn’t know that they are writing about the Messiah. This idea is rooted in the mistake in interpretation of 1 Peter 1:10 through 12. There it says the Old Testament Prophets made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Messiah within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Messiah and the glories to follow. The passage doesn’t say they didn’t know they were writing about the Messiah, it does say they didn’t know when the Messiah would come or who he would be. Assume today that we know that there would be future false Messiah and anti Christ coming but we don’t know when or who he would be, this passage in 1 Peter 1:10 through 12 goes on to say that it was revealed that they weren’t writing about their own day but about the Messiah’s arrival in the distant future. Another problematic aspect of this view is the unusual view of biblical inspiration. The bible is an inspired text. That’s according to 2 Timothy 3:16. Because human authors were moved by the Holy Spirit to write the very words God intended, using their own ideas, personalities and styles. That’s found in 2 Peter 1:21. In other words, both the divine author and the human author had to have the same meaning when they wrote. They have to have the same intention. In fact the Holy Spirit superintending of the human author is what guarantees the truth of what the human author said. The Holy Spirit is the one who enabled biblical prophets to predict the future Messiah. Yet another problem with this view is that the Lord Jesus, the Messiah himself, disagrees with it. Think about when the Lord Jesus met Cleopas and his friends on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24: 25-27, he told them that the only things that kept them from believing in Messianic prophecy was that they were foolish and lacking in faith, he goes on to say the prophets were told that the Messiah would suffer and then enter into his glory, that’s a reference to his resurrection. Then Luke says beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. Just a little further down in Luke 24, the Lord Jesus had a resurrection appearance with his disciples. He meets them in the upper room and tells them, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And what did he say was written? That the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead. That’s found in Luke 24: 44-46. And just be clear that the Old Testament authors understood their words. Remember that Jesus told Israel leadership in John 5:45-47, do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, your accusers are Moses. If you believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. Jesus point is that at the final judgement, Moses himself will convict them, because they should have believed in the predictions of the Messiah, How could Moses do that if he himself didn’t understand that he’s writing about the Messiah. According to Jesus’s words, the authors of the Hebrew bible understood they were predicting the Messiah. Last century, biblical scholar A.T. Robertson commented: Jesus found himself in the old testament, a thing that some modern scholars do not seem to be able to do. Roberson was jabbing the critical scholars of his own day whose own anti-supernaturalism kept them from recognizing any direct predictions of the Messiah in the Hebrew bible. How sad to me that the view to these critic have become so influential that they infiltrated even bible believing scholars. God used Messianic predictions to lead me to faith in the Messiah Jesus and to have confidence in the inspiration of scriptures. We need to reclaim Messianic prophecies as one of the great evidences that Jesus is truly the Messiah and that His word is absolute truth.

1 Peter 1

¹⁰ Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, ¹¹ searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹² To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into. -nkjv

2 Timothy 3

¹⁶ All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, -nkjv

2 Peter 1

²¹ for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. -nkjv

Luke 24

²⁵ Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ²⁶ Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” ²⁷ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. -nkjv

Luke 24

⁴⁴ Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” ⁴⁵ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

⁴⁶ Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, -nkjv

John 5

⁴⁵ Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you—Moses, in whom you trust. ⁴⁶ For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. ⁴⁷ But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” -nkjv