Bible Prophecy

Messiah

And The Cross

"Surely, the Lord GOD does nothing

unless He reveals His secret

to His servants the prophets . . ."

(Amos 3:7)

"For I am God and there is no other.

I am God, and there is none like Me,

Declaring the end from the beginning,

and from ancient times

things that are not yet done . . ."

(Isaiah 46:9-10)

                "I will put enmity (hatred)

                 between you (Satan) and the woman (Eve),

                And between your seed and her Seed (the Messiah);

                He (Messiah) shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."

                (Genesis 3:15)

In this prophecy we are told the 'seed of the woman', the Messiah, would have his heel bruised.  If you study the physical trauma associated with Crucifixion, you soon find it was designed to cause extreme pain and torment before death.  The word "excruciating" comes from the root word "crucify."  Crucifixion was a cruel, slow, agonizing, and tortuous form of execution designed to kill through slow suffocation.  The shoulders of the person being crucified would quickly dislocate and separate.  The only way the person nailed to the Cross could breathe (or speak) would be to gather as much strength as they could and try to stand up on the nail or the spike that had been driven through their feet.  The feet were severely bent forward and pressed together in order to nail them to the Cross.  When the feet were nailed securely to the Cross, one heel would be pressed tightly against the wood of the Cross.  So, in order to breathe or to speak, the person nailed to the Cross had to put all of their weight on the heel and the large spike that had been driven through the feet in order to stand up far enough to gasp for breath.  This incredibly tortuous process would painfully bruise that heel.  Also, we are told that Jesus was scourged by the Romans before He was crucified.  These "stripes" He took on His back were another form of cruel punishment derived by the powers of the day.  The Roman "whip" used for scourging was small with pieces of metal and bone attached.  The prisoner’s back was stretched tight as He, in this case, Jesus, was tied to a post.  The Roman whip was designed to dig into the skin of the back and then tear the skin away from the bone.  By the time Jesus was crucified the skin of His back that had been torn from the "stripes" would have been hanging loosely off of the bone like a tattered cloth.  Take a moment to consider the amount of pain shooting through the body of Jesus-Yeshua, the Messiah, as He struggled with dry, parched lips and gasping for breath to stand up by pressing down on that heel which was nailed to the Cross, causing His tattered back with its exposed bone to rub against the roughly hewn wood of His Cross in order to clearly speak those words . . .

     "Father forgive them,

       for they know not what they do."

       (Luke 23:34)

Note to Christians:  It is wrong and a blasphemy against God and Jesus to ever blame the Jews for Jesus’ death.  As one pastor put it, "If you are going to blame anybody blame me, for it was because of my sins that the Messiah stepped forth from Eternity and took on the form of Man, as the Son of Man ... the Son of God, to suffer and die ... as the Passover Lamb of God ... whose blood will cover us and wash us clean of all our sins ...

Believing Christians are commanded in the Bible to help Israel and her people . . .

                "Cursed be everyone who curses you (Israel),

                  and blessed be those who bless you!" 

                 (Genesis 27:29)

God has a covenant with Israel that will never be broken.  He has revealed a destiny for the nation Israel which will soon be completed.

God has declared a new covenant (see Jeremiah 31:31) and destiny for a people to be drawn from the whole world, through His Messiah, including any and all of the children of Israel who recognize and come to know their Messiah from Scripture.  This new covenant is a promise for all who believe in Him (Jesus-Yeshua, the Messiah ... also sent forth as 'a light unto the Gentiles') and will accept Him as their Lord and Savior (saving us from our sins and from the darkness and torment of Hell.)

   "He (Messiah ... the King)

     will be revealed

     7 weeks + 62 weeks ( = 69 weeks of years)

     AFTER the commandment to rebuild Jerusalem    

     and its walls,

     THEN He (Messiah)

     will be CUT-OFF   (executed!! ..."karath")

     but NOT for Himself."      (He willingly died on the Cross as the sacrificial "Lamb of God".)

     (Daniel 9:24-25)       (MESSIAH REVEALED:   A remarkable MATHEMATICAL prophecy from the book of Daniel)

With these words from the Cross, Jesus-Yeshua was pointing the Jewish leaders to Psalm 22 . . . The Jewish leaders who were gathered around the Cross knew the Scriptures well.  Psalm 22 is a detailed prophecy foretelling the death of the Messiah on the Cross, written a thousand years before the Cross and written centuries before this form of execution was even invented - written when the Jewish form of execution was stoning ...

Also, we are told Messiah (Jesus ... Yeshua) "became sin" for us, so He could be "forsaken" and experience the utter darkness, aloneness, and torment of Hell for us ... and so that all who will believe and trust in Him to save us from our sins and from Hell will never have to experience the feeling of being "forsaken" and completely separated from God in the utter darkness of Hell . . .

Psalm 22 ...  A prophecy of the Cross from the Messiah's perspective while hanging from the Cross ... this prophecy was written by King David 1000 years before the Messiah bore our sins on the Cross ... study the eyewitness accounts of the Crucifixion in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John to see how incredibly precise the prophecies found in these verses (written 1000 years before the Cross) are ...

Psalm 22  -  A Psalm of David

   "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken Me?   (Jesus, the Messiah, was pointing them to this Psalm!)

     why art thou so far from helping me,

     and from the words of my roaring?

     O My God, I cry in the daytime,

     but thou hearest not;

     and in the night season, and am not silent

     But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

     Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

     They cried unto thee, and were delivered:

     they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

     But I am a worm, and no man;

     a reproach of men, and despised of the people.  

     All they that see me laugh me to scorn:

     they shoot out the lip,

     they shake the head,

     saying, He trusted on the LORD that He would deliver him:

     let Him deliver him, seeing He is delighted in him.

     But thou art He that took me out of the womb:

     thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

     I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

     Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

     Many bulls (strong men) have compassed me:

     strong (bulls) of Bashan have beset me round.

     They gaped upon me with their mouths,

     as a ravening and a roaring lion.

     I am poured out like water,

     and all my bones are out of joint:

     my heart is like wax;

     it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

     My strength is dried up like a potsherd;

     and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws;

     and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

     For dogs have compassed me:

     the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me:

     they pierced my hands and my feet.

     I may tell all my bones:

     they look and stare upon me.

     They part my garments among them,

     and cast lots upon my vesture.

     But be not thou far from me, O LORD:

     O my strength, haste thee to help me" ...

     (Psalm 22 1-19)

Isaiah 53 ... Is another incredibly precise prophecy of the suffering Jesus-Yeshua, the Messiah would go through for our sins ... the Bible tells us He would suffer for our sins.  Some Jews have been taught to believe the suffering in these verses represents the nation Israel, but the pronouns are singular and specific ... grammatically these verses can only be speaking of a single person ... the Messiah.

Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of the Messiah written 700 years before Jesus (Yeshua), the promised Messiah bore our sins on the Cross.  A full copy of the book of Isaiah was found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (written over 100 years BC) and the words in the scroll are exactly the same words found in our Bibles today, and the full scroll is now on display in Israel ...

Isaiah 53 ... A prophecy of the Messiah

   "He is despised and rejected of men;

     a man of sorrows,

     and acquainted with grief:

     and we hid as it were our faces from Him;

     He was despised,

     and we esteemed Him not.

     Surely He hath borne our griefs,

     and carried our sorrows:

     yet we did esteem hHim stricken,

     smitten of God, and afflicted.

     But He was wounded for OUR transgressions,

     He was bruised for OUR sins (iniquities):

     the chastisement of our peace was upon Him;

     and with His whip lashes (stripes) we are healed.

     All we like sheep have gone astray;

     we have turned every one to his own way;

     and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

     He was oppressed, and He was afflicted,

     yet He opened not His mouth:

     He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter,

     and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb,

     so He openeth not His mouth.

     He was taken from prison and from judgment:

     and who shall declare his generation?

     for He was cut off out of the land of the living:

     for the transgression of My people was he stricken.

     And He made His grave with the wicked,

     and with the rich in His death;

     because He had done no violence,

     neither was any deceit in His mouth.

     Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him;

     He (God) hath put Him to grief:

     when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,

      he shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

     and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

     He shall see of the travail of His soul,

     and shall be satisfied:

     by His knowledge shall My righteous servant save (justify) many;

     for He shall bear their sins (iniquities).

     Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great,

     and He shall divide the spoil with the strong;

     because He hath poured out His soul unto death:

     and He was numbered with the transgressors;

     and He bare the sin of many,

     and made intercession for the transgressors."

     (Isaiah 53:3-12)

Please remember . . . 

The Kingdom of Heaven is available to every man, woman, boy, and girl in this world, no matter who they are, where they live, or what they have done.  It is freely offered to any and all who will receive it.  Simply learn of Jesus (Yeshua), the promised Messiah, invite Him into your life as Lord, believe He died on the Cross for all of your sins and rose from the grave (proving there is a Kingdom of Heaven ... and a Hell).  Learn of Him and believe in Him . . . for He was the only one who has ever loved you enough to substitute Himself for you on the Cross.  He shed His blood, suffered, and died on the Cross to save you from your sins and from the utter darkness and torment of Hell, if you will accept it, believe it, and trust in it.  That is why Jesus is called Savior.  He now lovingly and graciously offers you life in Heaven (and we are warned it is a "take it or leave it" proposition.)  We have to consciously receive it and accept it in faith.  If you sincerely admit you have sinned (which means you will need a Savior to get into Heaven) and ask Jesus to come into your life and honestly try to stop doing (and saying) those things God says are wrong, you will go to Heaven ... and with open arms and tears of joy He will receive all who will come to Him in faith and in love ... It's God's Promise!!!

The only unpardonable sin is to reject God's love and His free offer of life in the Kingdom of Heaven by rejecting Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha'Mashiach in Hebrew) who stepped forth from Eternity ("from of old, from everlasting"... see Micah 5:2) ... not to condemn the sinner, but to save the sinner (from the torment of Hell) and who willingly and lovingly shed His blood on the Cross so we can be washed clean of all our sins.  The Bible warns there will be no peace in our lives until we make peace with God through His Son, Jesus (Yeshua), the promised Messiah.  The Bible also says there will be no peace in Israel or on Earth until Jesus (Yeshua), the Messiah returns . . .

Grace and Shalom