Today we’re starting our Christmas series of talks. I’ve given the series the title ‘NOT YOUR USUAL KING’.
After Jesus was born, magi – astrologers – came from the east to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is he who has been born KING OF THE JEWS?’ [Matthew 2:2]. After the magi found Jesus, ‘they fell down and worshipped him’ [Matthew 2:8]. This is a big hint that Jesus is not your usual king! These magi came so far to find Jesus – a young child – and then fell down and worshipped him? Surely, they wouldn’t have done that for any ordinary king.
As we shall see, Jesus is NOT your usual king. What king is announced by a star? What king is born in a stable? What king is God?! What king will come again? Jesus is certainly not your usual king.
But today we’re looking at another way that Jesus is not your usual king. No king was as long-awaited as Jesus.
Most of us know that the Old Testament contains lots of prophecies about Jesus. Some of the oldest prophecies go back to Genesis and some people would even say that the first prophecy of all comes from something God said to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. God told the serpent – Satan – that the woman’s seed would crush his head. Some people take ‘the woman’s seed’ to mean Jesus. I don’t know if that really is a prophecy about Jesus. If it is, it goes back perhaps 8 or 10,000 years. But even if that isn’t a prophecy about Jesus, there are certainly others which go back almost 2,000 years before Jesus. How about this one, also in Genesis:
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
We might think that Old Testament prophecies aren’t all that important to us. But actually these ancient prophesies are still important to us today. That might be a bit difficult for us to get our heads around.
We probably get it that prophecy is useful BEFORE an event.
Let me give you an example. Your grown-up children telephone a few days beforehand to let you know they’re coming. So you spruce the house up; make a cake. I’m not quite sure if this example works the other way round. If you are visiting your grown-up children, do they spruce the house up and make a cake? You can tell me your experience of that afterwards…
The point is, advance warning is helpful. You know who or what is coming. You get ready. Prophecy works the same way. God sends a message via a prophet that he’s going to do something. People get ready. In various ways, God told his prophets that that he would send his son into the world. To some extent, it was in order that people should get ready.
And when Jesus came, people WERE expecting a messiah. We can see that in the New Testament. King Herod heard that the magi were looking for a king of the Jews and he asked the religious leaders where the Christ would be born. The Samaritan woman who Jesus met by a well said she knew Messiah was coming. Martha, Lazarus’s sister, said she believed Jesus was the messiah. So, when Jesus came, people were expecting a messiah. But they didn’t know who the messiah was.
So prophecy is useful BEFORE an event. But it was often AFTER the event that the prophecy was most useful.
Quite often, Jesus’ disciples noticed AFTER Jesus did something that it fulfilled prophecy. The prophecy then gave them confidence that Jesus was the person they thought he was.
Although we live 2000 years after Jesus’ disciples, we’re in a very similar situation to them. Just like them, we can see AFTER the event that some part of Jesus’ life fulfilled prophecy. That fulfilled prophecy then gives us confidence that Jesus is the person we believe he is.
Let me try a little illustration out on you.
In August 2016 the company I worked for sent me to attend the opening of a new building for a Christian youth organization called Youthscape. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the opening.
Let’s imagine that 30 years from now I’m conscious that my memory isn’t what it was. I wonder to myself, did the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge really attend that opening? So I go to the archive of Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Bedfordshire. I know that the Lord-Lieutenant would have been involved in planning the royal visit. If I didn’t find some correspondence in the archive about the royal visit, I would be very suspicious. But I find lots of letters and emails about it. They show me the when, where and who of the Cambridges’ visit. I’m sure that the letters are genuine and date from before the visit and they correspond with what I remember. Now I’m confident that the Cambridges really visited.
We’re in the same situation. Christians sometimes have doubts about their faith. But Old Testament prophecies are like the correspondence before the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s visit to Youthscape. We know – for example, from the Dead Sea Scrolls – that the Old Testament was written before Jesus. The prophecies aren’t fakes, written after the event. They tell us the when, where and who of Jesus’ entering our world. The prophecies correspond with what happened and give us real confidence that Jesus is indeed the messiah, the anointed one, whom God had promised.
Today I’m going to look at three prophecies which tell us the ‘when’, ‘where’ and ‘who’ of Jesus’ birth. Of course, there are many other prophecies about other parts of Jesus’ life.
I’ll start with the WHEN. This is a little tricky. It gets easier after this!
The prophet Daniel prophesied WHEN the Messiah would be born. Daniel wrote:
“From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary” [Daniel 9:25-26].
I can’t remember anyone in a church service unpacking this prophecy. It IS a little complicated. But it’s a pity if we don’t look at it, because it’s a very good prophecy about when Jesus would come. It also helps us to understand what was going on at the time when Jesus lived. I’ll come back to that.
Daniel refers to seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ The ‘sevens’ probably mean periods of seven years. Seven ‘sevens’ and sixty-two ‘sevens’ makes sixty-nine sevens, and sixty-nine times seven makes 483 years. So Daniel is talking about something that would happen 483 years after ‘the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem’. When Daniel was writing, Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Babylonians and Daniel and most of the rest of the Jews were in exile in Babylon. Many years after Daniel died, the Persian king Artaxerxes gave Nehemiah permission to return to Jerusalem and rebuild its wall. Maybe that’s the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem which Daniel was prophesying about. But we don’t know for sure.
The remaining parts of Daniel’s prophecy are clear. Daniel wrote that ‘the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing’. Jesus was, of course, put to death.
Then Daniel wrote that a ruler would come and destroy the city and the sanctuary. That was also true. The Romans came in 70 A.D. and destroyed Jerusalem.
So the prophecy looks very applicable to Jesus. But it’s difficult to figure out which events in history match Daniel’s prophecy.
However, even if we can’t see precisely how it matches up, it’s important to understand that there was such a prophesy.
I said earlier that this prophecy helps us to understand what was going on at the time when Jesus lived. At the time Jesus lived, people in Judea were expecting a messiah. Herod was, the woman at the well was, Martha was. Why were they expecting a messiah AT THAT PARTICULAR TIME? The answer is, this prophecy in Daniel.
I read two articles on this prophecy. Both said that at the time of Jesus various religious groups were studying Daniel’s prophecy and had worked out from it the approximate date when the Son of David would come – and that was the reason why people were expecting a messiah in Jesus’ time. So, Daniel’s prophecy had done its job. People were prepared. It continues to help us today too. It’s another indication that Jesus is who we believe he is.
[N.B. If you’re interested, the two papers are ‘The seventy-weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24–27 and first-century AD Jewish messianic expectation, by David Hamstra and ‘Daniel 9 and the date of messiah’s coming in Essene, Hellenistic, Pharisaic, Zealot and early Christian computation’, by Roger Beckwith.]
Let’s go on now to WHERE. When the magi came to Jerusalem they asked, ‘WHERE is he who has been born king of the Jews?’ Herod asked the chief priests and scribes. They told him that the Christ would be born in Bethlehem. That was based on a prophecy in Micah. Micah wrote:
“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah…
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days” [Micah 5:2]
That seems very clear and I don’t think there’s anything more I need to say on that.
Finally, we come to WHO. Let’s go back to Isaiah 9. Isaiah anticipates a time when people walking in darkness would see a great light, when the rod of the oppressor would be broken. How will that happen? Something extraordinary would happen. Isaiah tells us:
“For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
WONDERFUL Counsellor, MIGHTY GOD,
EVERLASTING FATHER, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will REIGN on David’s THRONE
and over his KINGDOM,
establishing and upholding it
with JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS
from that time on and for ever.” [Isaiah 9:6-7].
Let’s reflect on these words.
MIGHTY GOD and EVERLASTING FATHER can ONLY refer to God and in the Old Testament the word that is used for WONDERFUL ALMOST ALWAYS refers to God. So Isaiah clearly foretells that this child will be God himself.
REIGN, THRONE, KINGDOM… This is a king we’re talking about!
What is this king going to do? He’ll set about establishing and upholding his kingdom with JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. These are words with a moral dimension. They are to do with right and wrong, good and evil, sin and what to do about it. Justice and righteousness are the foundation of God’s throne. But sin has entered the world. It has to be dealt with. That requires justice and righteousness.
I’ll conclude.
Hundreds of years before Jesus entered this world, God told us, through Daniel and Micah WHEN and WHERE God’s anointed, the messiah, would be born. Isaiah told us WHO he was.
The messiah would be a king. But NOT YOUR USUAL KING. Not in the least bit.
He is a wonderful counsellor. He can help and guide us.
He is a Mighty God! He has power to help us and save us.
He is Everlasting Father. He welcomes us into his family!
And he is Prince of Peace. He brings us peace with God now, and one day he will establish peace in the whole world.
Wow! What a wonderful king! And we’re not just imagining it. The evidence is there! We need to do what those magi did, and worship him.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 28 November 2021
