PROPHECIES POINT TO THE CROSS CONFIRM WORD OF GOD   part 2.

Psalm 96:10 reveals that we   ‘Say among the nations, the Lord reigns’. Huegel showed that it means ‘from the tree.’ Is it possible that Christ reigns from the cross, when despised, and bearing shame, humiliation and suffering . Yes, it is so. The Lord reigns in the hearts of every believer, having been wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.‘   Religious leaders taunted HIM, with

’ If you are the King of the Jews, come down from the cross, and we will believe.’

God made Calvary unchallengeable: a heavenly not natural choice.

1,000 years before the Lord came, David wrote in Psalm 110,1, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool.’   Our Lord quoted these words precisely when Pharisees and Sadducees attacked Him, showing His complete reliance on holy Scripture. Indeed, He challenged them, ’How can they say that the Christ is David’s Son?’ They disbelieved the virgin birth of our Lord.   Nor would they recognise His impending death, resurrection and His ascension to the throne. David’s psalm pointed to His victorious death and promotion to glory.    

As soon as our first parents sinned against God, Moses recorded this remarkable prophecy, ’ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed.   He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel. (Genesis 3;15)    My wife hates the thought of snakes, like most women, but spiritually, that fall launched hatred   between Christ, satan and the human family.   Satan would bruise His earthly heel, referring to Christ’s terrible crucifixion suffering and bodily deformity. The devil assaulted the Son of God.   Yet in submitting to indignity and disgrace at Calvary, our beloved Lord eternally bruised satan’s head.’ A reptile’s muscles contract for hours after it is slain; so satan writhed in death’s agony since defeated at Calvary: persisting only until our Lord returns in triumph.

While insignificant, the striking of our dear Lord is foretold in Micah 5:1. In the night prior to His Calvary suffering, the Son of God was assaulted by Pilate’s henchmen, who pummelled His face.    ‘They will strike the Judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.’ Unaware, they fulfilled Bible prophecy in assaulting the King of glory. Matthew reported ( 27:29) ‘They mocked Him, Hail, King of the Jews. They spat on Him, took the reed, and struck Him on the head.’ This Scripture documented Bethlehem as the birthplace of the Messiah, (verse 2 ) so recognising His humanity, and leading to His eternal Being, ‘as Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.‘ Scripture is well balanced.

No wonder that our dear Jewish friends pass over Isaiah 53, for the whole chapter tells of His atoning suffering although recorded 700 years before the Saviour’s birth.

‘His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.- (52:14) Christ’s face was unrecognisable from the pounding, and scourging.     ‘He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.‘(v3 )   They annulled and disowned their Messiah. Because national conscience distresses them, they are unwilling to study this precious word. Let’s study the references to our dear Saviour’s crucifixion in this stellar page.  

Verse 4 tells how, ‘We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.   Although the crucifixion events seem chaotic, and the suffering beyond expectation, yet God, the Father, was in command. He was smitten of God, who had no other salvation. Then we staggered, ‘For He was wounded for our transgressions., He was bruised for our iniquities.   The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.’ (v5)   He was wounded with every lesion which my medical textbooks illustrate: so vast was my transgression.   His bruising for my hidden sins and blemishes covered my vileness.    Isaiah 700 BC points clearly to the cross.

Our selfish drive demanded active atonement as ‘All we like sheep have gone astray.   We have turned everyone to his own way;’ and pin-pointed the cross, ‘the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity ( or inner rottenness ) of us all. The self-dominated , self-obsessed person seeks the Son of God at the cross.   No other remedy suffices, for ‘the Father took the whole weight of our wickedness, deliberately laying it upon His beloved Son. Our self-controlled life must be nailed to the cross with our Lord.

Christ’s gentle. inoffensive, uncomplaining bearing on the cross was mind-boggling. Isaiah foretold it, ’ He was oppressed , and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not His mouth.’ Such staggering detail   in Holy scripture reveals the refined, long-suffering, unprotesting Saviour.

How could this chapter predict the senseless trials of the High priests, Governor Pilate and King Herod? Yet, this chapter strengthened my faith in Christ especially during my teens.   Verse 8 reads, ‘ He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? ’   Rome robbed the Judge of all the earth of a reasonable, just, and fair trial’:   they submitted God’s Son to numerous, illegal, night trials, without spacing them , and calling fresh witnesses,   For he was cut off out of the land of the living.   For the transgression of My people was He stricken.’ No eulogy of the perfect Son   of God traced His genealogy, as Luke and Matthew later wrote.   Only Pilate placarded over His lifeless body ‘JESUS OF NAZARETH; THE KING OF THE JEWS.   Prophetic silences were fulfilled at His crucifixion.  

‘In extraordinary detail, Isaiah wrote, ‘He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death.’ Christ was crucified with 2 thieves, one of whom responded to the Saviour’s loving plea: while wealthy Nicodemus urged Pilate to release the body of our Lord that he might anoint His body for burial in his hewn grave. ‘ An incredible fulfilling of God-breathed Scripture. Thank HIM for it.

‘He poured out His soul unto death (v12 ), when he majestically surrendered His life.

He prayed for His murderers, for ’He made intercession for the transgressions.’ ’Father, for give them . They know not what they do.’ He still prays for you.