Death Predictions
As a person who lived and breathed, Jesus Christ is perhaps the best-known person from antiquity. In his book, Jesus, Malcolm Muggeridge called His walk on earth ”the most stupendous event in human history.” Although most know of Him only because of Christmas, many remember Him because of the Easter story. Jesus Christ lived a solitary life, sought neither fame nor fortune, yet, as Easter illustrates, His sojourn on our world impacted society like no other.
In the 1866 Bampton lecture at Oxford, Henry Liddon said: “The events which move the world are not always those which men think most noteworthy. The men who most deeply influence their fellows are not those of whom everybody is talking. The currents of thought and feeling which will shape the future are not those which (sic) are welcomed by the organisers and interpreters of current opinion. When Christ appeared, the Palace of Caesar seemed to be more likely to govern the destinies of mankind. . . .”
The significance of Easter cannot be overestimated because it reminds the world of the reason Jesus came in the first place—to save our race from the penalty of sin. His death some 2000 years ago is recalled at this time of year by Christians celebrating and, in some cases, re-enacting His crucifixion and resurrection. It’s a time when many devotees ponder His death and rejoice because of what that death means to them—peace, anticipation and deliverance—in 2004.
Easter is also an important tradition because it symbolises two crucial events: First, Christ’s death and resurrection legitimised salvation for all believers. Second, after the resurrection, the prophecies about His death, as recorded in the Bible, could be taken at face value as fulfilled. We can trust them, because the predictions came true and are historically valid.
The life of the historical Jesus was predestined by the forecasts concerning His death. Following are seven Bible prophecies concerning the last 24 hours of Jesus’ life, given to the Jews in ancient times, which were fulfilled.
1. He would be victorious in the conflict between good and evil. “So the Lord said to the serpent . . . ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel’” (Genesis 3:14, 15).
This prophecy, recorded by Moses, is generally recognised as the first prediction of a violent struggle for the human race between the serpent (identified as the devil in Revelation 12:9) and Jesus. In the first half of the prediction (“you will strike His heel”), the serpent thought he struck a fatal blow when Jesus was crucified. However, in Romans 16:20, the apostle Paul restates the completion of the prophecy (“[He] will soon crush Satan”) with Christ’s imminent victory over Satan.
2. He would be rejected by His friends. “He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him” (Isaiah 53:3, NKJV).
All commentators agree this fourth Servant Song of Isaiah refers to the coming Messiah. Starting in chapter 52:13, K M Yates (Preaching from the Prophets) called Isaiah 53 the “Mount Everest of Messianic prophecy.” In 1905 artist Sigismund Goetze epitomised the scene with his famous canvas Despised and Rejected.
3. He would be betrayed by a friend. “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9).
Originally a psalm of king David lamenting the treachery of his former friends, Jesus, in John 13:18, ascribes this prophecy unequivocally to Himself. In his duplicity, Judas committed a heinous crime, betraying an innocent man.
4. He would have His hands and feet pierced. “Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16).
In his work the Treasury of David, the preacher C H Spurgeon says of Psalm 22: “This is beyond all others, ‘The Psalm of the Cross.’” Evil men may well have surrounded David, but he did not suffer the wounds of Jesus. As David’s prophetic gaze pierced time, he saw the cross and heard his Redeemer utter these fateful words. Jesus was taunted by His enemies at the foot of the cross. Matthew (27:39) vividly reveals the fulfilment of this prophecy.
5. He would be buried with the rich. “He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth” (Isaiah 53:9).
Joseph from Arimathea was a member of the Jewish Ruling Council and a secret disciple of Jesus (John 19:38). Rich and influential, he disagreed with the decision to execute Christ and, like Nicodemus (verse 39), “came out” as a follower at the crucifixion. He thought it a privilege to give the dead Christ his new tomb. The apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:22) cautions Christians to follow Christ’s example in the second half of this verse. Deceit, craftiness and fraud are not the qualities of those who are believers.
6. He would rise from the dead. “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40).
The predictions about Jesus’ death are impressive, but worthless unless He also rose from the dead. Many great religious leaders have walked the earth and remain in their graves to this day; only Jesus Christ came back to life. It is this event, perhaps above all others, that brings power to the Easter message: Jesus is alive, and because He lives forever, we can live eternally too, if we accept His teachings.
7. He would bear the sin of the world and die among criminals. “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isaiah 53:12).
God gave us His Son that we might live; and for us to live, Jesus poured out His life—once, for all, and forever. That sacrifice two millennia ago covers all sin. Hebrews 12:2 states Jesus suffered the cross—“for the joy set before him.”
Paul said, “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you?” (1 Thessalonians 2:19).
His reward is still future and, in one sense, the passage in Isaiah 53:12 is a continuing prophecy. Christ’s intercession in Hebrews 7:25 continues to bestow the merits of His blood on sinners, and Jesus will continue to mediate for the human race until it is time for Him to return to this earth and claim His prize.
With all the information available, it’s no wonder Jesus is the best-known person from antiquity. But the Easter story is still incomplete, because Jesus is a living Saviour. He made a promise: “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am (John 14:2, 3).
That’s the message of the Bible, and that’s the message of Easter.
Predictions about Jesus’ death
| EVENT | PREDICTION | FULFIlLMENT |
| 1. Rejected by His people | Isaiah 53:3 | Luke 23:18 |
| 2. Betrayed by a friend | Psalm 41:9 | John 13:21 |
| 3. Sold for 30 pieces of silver | Zechariah 11:12 | Matthew 26:14, 15 |
| 4. Silent during interrogation | Isaiah 53:7 | Matthew 26:63 |
| 5. Hands and feet pierced | Psalm 22:16 | Luke 23:33 |
| 6. Heads shaken at Him | Psalm 22:7 | Matthew 27:35 |
| 7. Would be ridiculed | Psalm 22:17 | Luke 23:35 |
| 8. Felt forsaken by the Father | Psalm 221 | Matthew 27:46 |
| 9. Clothes divided and raffled | Psalm 22:18 | John 19:24 |
| 10. Died with criminals | Isaiah 53:12 | Mark 15:27, 28 |
| 11. Side pierced | Zechariah 12:10 | John 19:34 |
| 12. Bones kept intact | Psalm 34:20 | John 19:33, 36 |
| 13. Buried with the rich | Isaiah 53:9 | Matthew 27:57-60 |
| 14. Bears our sin | Isaiah 53:11 | 1 Corinthians 15:3 |
| 15. Rises from the dead | Psalm 49:15 | Luke 24:34 |
| This is an extract from April 2004
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