Jesus Foretold: False Witnesses (MP 68)

Did God seal the fate of Jesus His Son, By dulling the Jews’ spiritual insight? False witnesses told guilty things He’d done; They were not believed to testify right! Speaking of His body, Jesus had said, “Destroy this temple; it’ll rise in three days.” Two testified He meant the building instead— That it was the temple He claimed to raise! To explain His words, Jesus did not try; By God’s Master Plan, He had to be slain; At the hands of Israel, Jesus must die, So being God’s Son He did proudly claim! False witnesses did not Jesus convict; “I am God’s Son!” caused the “Guilty” verdict! Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added] Israel dulled: Isaiah 6:9-10—“He [the Lord, to Isaiah] said, ‘Go and tell this people [Israel]: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.’ “ (Written in the 7th century B.C.) Prophecy Made: Psalm 34:11—“Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.) Prophecy Fulfilled: Mark 14:55-59—“The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against him, but their statements did not agree. Then some stood up and gave this testimony against him: 'We heard him say, I will destroy this man-made temple and in three days will build another not made by man.’ Yet even then their testimony did not agree.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.) Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: False Witnesses” No human tribe may have been capable of meeting God’s standards of obedience to the Mosaic Law; certainly Israel wasn’t, and by Isaiah the prophet’s time, God decided that Israel was incapable of becoming a “nation of priests” for Him. Therefore, His Master Plan included instructions for Isaiah in about 700 B.C. to tell them that He (God) was dulling their spiritual insight so that they would be unable to recognize and accept Jesus (God) when He came to redeem all people from condemnation (See Isaiah 6:9-10). In Jeremiah 31:31 God announced a new covenant; this new covenant was not based on absolute obedience to laws, but on the grace of God through the faith of men. To be saved from condemnation, all a man or woman was required to do was to believe that Jesus was sent from God; also, He turned from offering salvation to Jews only but also to Gentiles; instead of the nation of Israel becoming a nation of priests, God would establish His “church”, composed of believers in Jesus, and commanded to preach the gospel to all the world. Israel is not rejected from salvation, but a Jew must believe in Jesus as the Messiah in order to become saved, exactly as do Gentiles. Most of the common people of Israel believed Jesus was sent from God. Most of the Pharisees, Saducees, priests, and leaders of Israel were too spiritually dull to understand the spiritual truths He taught; they had failed to interpret the Mosaic Law and the prophets correctly; they had twisted and perverted God’s words until the Law as interpreted was nothing like God had intended it to be. Jesus castigated them vehemently, especially in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) and His accusations to the Pharisees in the temple, and they hated Him and plotted to kill Him. David had prophesied that false witnesses would be used against Him in their attempt to slay Him, and there were many false witnesses heard in His trial before the Sanhedrin. However, none of the testimony of the false witnesses held up under cross-examination. Jesus was determined to die at Israel’s hands, for that was His mission to earth—His death would atone for Adam’s original sin that brought condemnation, as well as all the sins committed by all men and women who ever lived. If Israel did not kill Jesus to show their rejection of belief, His coming would have failed. So when the high priest asked Him point blank if He was the Son of God, He clearly answered “Yes”. That claim, that Jesus was the Son of God, was the evidence that killed Jesus. When modern-day people reject Jesus as God’s Son, they, too, are condemned for disbelief, just as Jews were of that day. They, too, are voting Him guilty of death. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Lots Cast For Clothes (MP 67)

Fully clothed, He would have been shamed enough, But they stripped Him nude, and then nailed Him down, Leaving Him bare, wearing none of His stuff, Lifted on view with naught but thorny crown! The piercing hurt less than being unclothed; His enemies jeered and mocked His manhood, While His friends wept, with eyes downcast or closed, To spare Him shame by as much as they could! His clothes were divided when lots were cast Among the soldiers who had brought Him there; His seamless tunic was held until last— Made of one piece, it was very rare. God revealed the lot-casting in advance, Jesus’ credentials as His Son enhance! Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added] Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:18—“They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.) Prophecy Fulfilled: John 19:23-24—“When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, divided them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment [tunic] remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ‘Let’s not tear it,’ they said to one another. ‘Let’s decide by lot who gets it.’ This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said: ‘They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.’ So this is what the soldiers did.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also, Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:34) Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Lots Cast For Clothes” Jesus was crucified naked, which must have shamed and embarrassed Him even more than being nailed to the cross. In Psalm 22, King David prophesied that His clothes would be divided and lots cast. This had to be revealed to David by God, for there is no way he could have guessed it or made it up. Jesus wore an outer full-length robe, an inner linen garment next to His skin, a loin-cloth inside, a sash about His waist, sandals, and a turban-type head covering normally, There were four Roman soldiers who divided the clothes. The tunic, called an “undergarment” in scripture, was very unusual. It was woven in one piece, starting at the neck; it had sleeves and reached below the knees. The High Priest of Israel wore such a tunic (See Exodus 39:27). It is prophesied in the Bible that Jesus Christ will be the High Priest as well as the King of Israel during the 1000-year reign (See Hebrews 4:18). Was Jesus wearing such a tunic as His due? If so, where did He get such a rare garment? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Roman 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: No Bones Broken (MP 66)

Blood and water flowed from the Savior’s side,
Pierced by a spear to make sure He was dead;
Else His legs be broken so that He died—
One or the other would be done instead!
No broken bones, had David prophesied,
So the spearman the prophecy fulfilled;
A vital role had the Roman guard plied,
In proving Jesus did God’s Kingdom build!
The blood of Jesus blots out all men’s sin,
And redeems from hell any that believe;
Eternal life that precious flow gives men,
And into the gates of heaven receive!
That spearman did more than broken legs saved—
The pathway to enter heaven he paved!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:17—“I [Jesus] can count all my bones; …” Also, Psalm 34:20—“he [God] protects all his [Jesus’] bones, not one of them is broken.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: John 19:31-37—“Now it was the day of Preparation [the day before the Sabbath, when Jesus was crucified], and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken [to bring sudden death] and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. … These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: ‘Not one of his bones would be broken.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: No Bones Broken”
It was no accident that Jesus died late in the afternoon of Preparation day, the evening before the Jewish Passover. Maby things about the life of Jesus was prophesied or pointed to in the Mosaic Law. Passover was a memorial celebration observed annually to commemorate the “passing over” the homes of Israelites by the death angel in Egypt, when the firstborn son of every Egyptian family was slain. It was the tenth and final plague God brought upon Egypt because of the hardness of Pharaoh’s heart in freeing Israel from slavery. Every Israelite family was told by God to kill a lamb on the day before the angel was to pass over the land. They were to put a mark of the lamb’s blood on the door of each Israelite house and eat every bit of the meat of the lamb, being careful to break none its bones, For 1500 years they had followed this custom, killing and eating a Passover lamb, and breaking none of its bones. Jesus was Israel’s Passover lamb in 32 A.D., slain on Preparation day; His blood is shed to atone for the sins of all mankind, redeeming men and women who believe in Him as being sent by God.

Don’t think the Jewish high priest, Pharisees. and elders were unaware of the significance of Jesus’ death on the cross that day and the fact of no bones being broken, knowing that His followers would put Him forward as God’s Passover Lamb. They had hounded and pressured the Roman governor until he had given in to His execution early that same morning. The Jews were back before noon, asking permission to break the legs of all three crucified men, so that they would die suddenly, and be removed and buried before 6 p.m., which was the time the Sabbath began. A person nailed to a cross has difficulty breathing. His entire weight is pressing down on his lungs, therefore, to inhale air, he must push himself upward on his pinioned ankles, causing horrific pain. A crucified man usually required about three hours to die of suffocation, when he can lift himself no more and cannot breathe. If his legs are broken, he cannot draw only a single breath, because he has no means of pushing himself upwards.

Pilate gave his permission; the two thieves had their legs broken, but not Jesus, for He was already dead. A Roman spear pierced His side, and a large amount of His blood gushed out. Yes, Jesus was God’s sacrificial Lamb; He complied to every requirement of the Law, and He had no bones broken.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Crucified (MP 65)

Three six-inch nails pinioned Him to the cross;
When lifted up, Jesus could barely breathe;
Pushing up on torn ankles at horrid cost,
He inhaled, His air-starved lungs to relieve!
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do,”
Jesus spoke, a gracious, forgiving plea,
For the Romans who’d driven the nails through
His hands and feet into the wooden tree!
The agony which possessed His Being,
Did not compare with that flooding His mind—
That men He’d created enjoyed seeing
Their Maker unmade by mere humankind!
Seven times He spoke, dying on the tree;
Not one curse was uttered for you or me!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:1, 16—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? … Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.” (Written by David in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Luke 23:33-34—“When they [Roman soldiers, those to be executed, and onlookers] came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D., also Matt. 27:35, Mark 15:14, and John 19:16-18)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Crucified”
When David wrote Psalm 22, crucifixion had not been invented, so his use of “they have pierced my hands and feet” is truly prophetical. The ingenious but diabolical mind that invented this cruel way of execution should win the blue ribbon for fiendishness. It is horrible to consider the victim’s pain of having six-inch nails driven through the palms of his hand and his ankles into the cross of wood, so that, spread-eagled, he can be lifted upright to a standing position, but that is nothing compared to the pain of drawing breath. The weight of his upper torso presses his lungs closed, so that to draw fresh air he must push upward to raise his full weight on broken and bloody ankles several inches to open the lungs and air can be inhaled. The person crucified usually dies in three hours or less, not from blood loss but from suffocation. Since more air must be inhaled in order for him to speak, the seven times Jesus spoke was remarkable.

The custom in Israel at that time was when a person died, he was buried the same day. The friends of Jesus there faced a special problem, for this was on a Friday—at 6 pm the Sabbath day began, and if they could not complete the burial before that time, the penalty was stoning to death. At about 3 pm, the Roman soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves crucified with Jesus; this was customary, for it brought immediate death, and allowed sufficient time to bury them. However, when they investigated Jesus, they found that He was already dead, so they didn’t break His legs. This was of particular importance, for another Old Testament prophecy foretold that Jesus would die with no broken bones.

One of the spoken lines that Jesus voiced on the cross was identical to the first line of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some modern scholars have surmised that He spoke these exact words as a reminder to the Jews present, friends and enemies, to make sure they recognized that David had written the psalm 1000 years before, and that God intended that it be a prophecy of His death. However, most theologians believe that His saying these words was a demonstration of His great mercy, that He literally desired them to be forgiven for the sinful thing they were doing. Regardless of what Jesus meant when He spoke the words, they represent a great witness to non-believers. You may wonder, “How could His Father forsake His own Son?” Remember, Jesus Christ died in atonement for all the sins of the world; at some point in His execution, God did “forsake” Him, by turning His face from His suffering Son. The Bible makes it crystal clear, that God despises sin, even if His own Son is bearing on His back all sin, and He will not look at it; therefore, He turned His face from Jesus at some point, and for that awful moment, God did forsake Jesus. That moment was the crux of what God did for you and for me. Won’t you acknowledge Him by believing in His Son, Jesus?

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in you heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Mocked And Ridiculed (MP 64)

The stones of Golgotha tremble and shake,
Aghast at sacrilege men do and say
To their Creator, lest He them unmake,
Open earth and let it swallow them away!
How can they sneer, mock, and despite the One,
Who left behind the glories of His throne,
Who came and suffered for nothing He’d done,
But to pay their debts and naught of His own?
They knew He was coming to them some day,
But blind and deaf to prophecies of God,
They killed Him rather than do things His way,
And stubbornly to hell they chose to trod!
David must have watched sad and with dismay,
His psalm coming true on that awful day!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 22:7-8—“All who see me [see Jesus, as foretold by David] mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads: ‘He trusts in the Lord; let the Lord rescue him [from being nailed to the cross]. Let him [God] deliver him, since he delights in him,’ “ (Written in the 10th century)

Prophecy Fulfilled; Matthew 26:39-41—“Those [people] who passed by [Golgotha] hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God.’ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him if he wants him, for he said, I am the Son of
God.’ “ (written in the 1st century A/D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Mocked And Ridiculed”
The Roman soldiers who put a purple robe on Jesus after flaying the skin off His back; who cruelly pressed a crude crown of thorns into and around His head; and then mockly bowed and addressed Him as “Your Lowness”; could not have known the enormity of sacrilege of which they were guilty. However, it would not have been so with the priests, teachers of the law and elders that publicly made sneering statements to Him, such as, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, and we will believe!” They would not have let themselves believe, no matter what miracle He performed; they proved that, for they had already seen and knew for a fact of dozens of miracles Jesus had already performed in full view of them or their trusted agents, including raising people from the dead. The truth is that they must have known by now that He was who He said He was; they could not afford to accept Him as the Messiah without admitting their false teachings and perversions of prophecy from God, which had led the common people far from the spirit of the law into slavery to a system that poured riches into their coffers.

Besides, there was already a miracle well known to them concerning their very own mockery—it was the prophecy of their most famous King David, who had written into the words of one of their hymns about this very heresy 1000 years ago, found in Psalm 22 quoted above, They could not pretend ignorance—the psalms were sung over and over through all those years, and they had spent entire lives studying and discussing them. It would be like me denying Jesus had died on the cross after 85 years of singing “The Old Rugged Cross” in church. The words and tune are so familiar to me or any other older Baptist who was raised singing hymns in church that it would be unthinkable to us that Jesus died in any other way. However, I’m afraid the younger generation is being deprived of that very dear privilege, for modern Baptist churches have switched from hymns to “praise” choruses, whose major characteristic is a jungle beat and whose words constitute a phrase repeated many times over. Hymns are more majestic and worthy of worship of God than rap or beat music, no matter how popular those forms are with younger people.

Many Old Testament prophets made prophecies without being conscious that the words they were writing were prophetical. God knew, however; He purposely revealed glimpses of future events in the words spoken or written hundreds of years earlier.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected (MP 63)

If only men could live and never die,
Has been the greatest wish of humankind;
Jesus died, but lives again, in the sky,
The wish became truth, in believing mind!
“I must die,” Jesus said, “but live again;
He who believes in me will never die;
When I call, graves will vomit up their slain—
Most to live in hell; saved to life on high!”
O death! Where is thy sting? You are no end,
But the beginning of eternal life;
New bodies of old He’ll ev’ry one mend,
To live forever, whatever the strife!
Jesus rose, first man to overcome death,
Leading all people to regain their health!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 16:9-10—“Therefore my [Jesus/
Christ’s] heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you [God] will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One [Jesus/God] see decay.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Mark 16:5-6—“As they [Mary, mother of Jesus, Magdalene, and Salome) entered the tomb, they saw a young man [an angel] dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene [of Nazareth], who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also Matt. 28:5-9; Luke 24:5-7; John 20:11-16; Acts 1:2, and 2:22; etc.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected”
God’s Plan not only included his coming to earth as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, and dying on a Roman cross for all the sins of men, but also included His miraculous resurrection from the dead. In Psalm 2:7 (quoted above) King David of Israel wrote a hymn of praise to God which contained the prophecy that God’s Holy One, His only begotten Son, would not be allowed to decay, meaning He would be raised to live again. Jesus had told His disciples that He would die, but that He would also be raised on the third day,

God created Adam and Eve and their descendants to live forever. He did not intend for us to ever die. However, God hates sin so much that He commanded Adam (and all of us) not to eat of one particular tree in the Garden of Eden. He had decreed that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Adam and Eve ate fruit from the forbidden tree, God condemned them to die; and since Adam represented all of his descendants, including you and me, his sin was imputed to us all; Adam died physically, and so do we. That is why Jesus of Nazareth (who was God in the body of a man) also died, but His was voluntary, because Jesus committed no sin, not even the imputed sin of Adam (His mother was a virgin, His Father God). Death could not hold Jesus/God; He arose and still lives today. He is now in heaven directing all the affairs of men and the universe. When Jesus lived, He offered to all men and women everlasting life as a free gift with one condition—whoever BELIEVES that Jesus is sent from God will be given life after physical death; those who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday; He died about three or four o’clock in the afternoon; since the sacred Sabbath began at 6 p.m., after which no work could be done, not even burial. He was hurriedly placed in a nearby tomb. I believe He was brought back to life immediately; in any event, 36 hours later, early on Sunday morning, the ladies (See above) found the tomb empty. You see, the Jews’ counted Friday as one day, Saturday as one day, and the pre-dawn hours Sunday as one day. He was resurrected in the same body, because He showed His disciples the nail scars in His hands after He arose. Do you recall that when God created the first man, he was made in the image of God? Hence, when we, too, are resurrected, our bodies will look much the same as they did when we lived; there will be no handicaps such as might be the case before our deaths. There will be no decay.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: The Son Of God (MP 62)

God came to earth as His only begotten* Son;
During that time, as Father, God remained;
Though two, He was ev’ry bit God, each One;
E’en Three, at times, when the Spirit constrained**!
Let not the mystery of God-in-Three
Obstruct your belief in Jesus as Lord,
For each new babe***, in time, knows all that be;
God will explain it, of His own accord!
Whether you know Him as God or the Son—
This Jesus, who died for us on the cross,
And did all those things the Book says were done—
Be saved: Believe that Jesus paid the cost!
There is no other name given to men
By which man can be saved from His sin!****

*begotten = fathered; **constrained = convicted of sin;
***babe = untaught believer; ****Acts 4:12

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 2:7—“I [Jesus, the Son of God] will proclaim the day of the Lord: He [God] said to me [Jesus], ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father.’ “ (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Luke 3:21-22—“When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized, too. And as He was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: The Son Of God”
God’s Master Plan required for him to come to earth and remain continuously in the body of a man for a period of 33+ years, in order to justly nullify the condemnations of some. He would not be considered just in carrying out His own laws if He failed to meet some particular conditions: He had to exist as a man, with no supernatural help in resisting sin; He had to be sinless, including the sin of Adam, under which all other men were considered sinful and condemned because Adam imputed his disobedience to them; and having lived a sinless life, He had to be rejected by Israel as the Messiah, or Christ, the promised One of God, and slain by them, as Israel had annually slain a lamb and sprinkled its blood on the ark in the Holy of Holies as atonement for all their sins.

But how could God vacate His throne where He was actively engaged in managing the affairs of the universe for such a long period of time? It was easy for God, because for Him, nothing is impossible, as He told Abraham, and proved to the Israelites when He brought them out of Egypt and settled them in Canaan. He “cloned” Himself, or divided Himself into Three beings; God stayed in heaven on the throne as the Father; God came to earth as His own Son, born miraculously of a virgin as a baby in Bethlehem, and lived 33+ years as Jesus of Nazareth; and God continued His work as the Holy Spirit, entering the hearts of lost men and women, convicting them of sin. Bible scholars have named this the Trinity, God-in-Three beings. In this way men and women can more easily understand how God could do all these things simultaneously, as illustrated at the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist in the Jordan. When Jesus emerged from immersion in the water and prayed to His Father in heaven, a dove landed on His shoulder, which was God, the Holy Spirit; and a voice spoke from heaven, from God the Father. Many Israelites saw and heard this divine depiction of the Trinity. Islam refuses to accept that Christians worship one God only, saying that these are three Gods.

While Jesus lived on earth as the Son of God, He taught men and women how to escape the condemnation brought upon them by Adam. He said that if any man or woman believes that God sent Him from heaven, he or she would be saved. He chose 12 men to be His apostles and taught them to spread the good news of their salvation from condemnation to all corners of the earth. All these men, except Judas Iscariot that betrayed Jesus, remained faithful and, with the help of many new believers, these apostles spread the word that Jesus taught everywhere. Christianity was started by Jesus of Nazareth! God is especially adamant about a person’s believing in Jesus to be saved. The modern cultural pressure of postmodernism is keeping most people from “putting all their eggs in one basket”, insisting that there are many ways to be admitted to heaven. This is contrary to the truth of the Bible, which holds there is only ONE road to heaven. Jesus Himself said in John 14:6: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Dear reader, you will not have eternal life if you do not believe Jesus came from heaven.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Roman 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: The Prophet (MP 61)

Directly to Israel the Lord first spoke,
Mount Sinai aflame with flash and thunder;
So frightened, they shrank away from the smoke,
Lest they be consumed by God’s great wonder!
Through inspired prophets then God chose to speak,
Saving a special One until the last;
He planned to come Himself, believers seek,
Leaving their condemnations in the past!
The last Prophet’s words save men from sin;
Those who listen not must account to Him,
But who hears His words, eternal life win,
While those who do not, the Lord will condemn!
Of prophets from God, there will be no more,
Despite false ones from Satan by the score!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) (Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Deuteronomy 18:18-19—“ ‘I [God speaking] will raise up a prophet [Jesus/God] like you [Moses] from among their [Israel] brothers; I will put my {God’s] words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet [Jesus] speaks in my name, I myself [God] will call him to account.’ “ (Written in the 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: John 12:49-50)—“ ‘For I [Jesus/God speaking] did not speak of my own accord, but the Father [God] who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father commanded me to say.’ “ (Written in about 95 A.D.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Acts 3:22-23—“[Peter speaking of Jesus after His ascension] ‘For Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his own people.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: The Prophet
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, God led them to camp at Mount Sinai (also called Mount Horeb) where He gave them the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law. He had Moses assemble all the people at the foot of the mountain and spoke to them out of a covering of fire, smoke and cloud, complete with flashes of lightning, thunder and tremors of the mountain. God gave them the Commandments first in a thunderous voice. The people trembled in fear and shrank away from the mountain, afraid that they would die. They asked Moses to go up and speak with God for them, so that they would not have to listen directly to Him. For this reason God gave the prophecy quoted above in the book of Deuteronomy. Since God’s Master Plan called for Him to come to earth in form as a man as Redeemer from condemnation, the people’s request fit His Plan exactly.

Fourteen hundred years later, Jesus of Nazareth was born in Bethlehem of a virgin. During His ministry years He spoke to Israel words “commanded” by His Father. Jesus came as the “Son” of God, for His mother Mary was a virgin; Jesus was conceived by God, the Holy Spirit, who “covered” her—there was no sexual intercourse. In this way Jesus was a man, like all men, but He was free of the condemnation that came to all other men through Adam. Jesus fulfilled the words of Moses’ prophecy quoted above. Most of the Jewish leaders did not “listen” to His words, didn’t believe He was the Prophet sent from God, and they rejected Him. At the final judgment, those who reject Jesus as being sent from God will be sent to hell; as Peter said in the passage from Acts (above), they will be “cut off” entirely from the rest of Israel. By the “rest of Israel”, I mean the poor, uneducated non-leaders of Israel, for they did believe the words of Jesus.

God made use of “prophets” throughout the Old Testament, beginning with Moses. Jesus was God’s last Prophet, for in Daniel 9:24 His coming was to “seal up vision and prophecy”. However, an Arab descendant of Ishmael named Mohammed in 632 A.D., declared himself the “last prophet”, and recited words, supposedly from God conveyed to him through the angel Gabriel, that became to Islam a “third testament” called the “Kor’an”. Islam is a counterfeit religion of Christianity, begun by Satan to rob God of souls. Mohammad used the Deuteronomy 18 prophecy’s words that those who did not “listen” to him will be “called to account” to cut off the heads of any who did not confess Allah, their so-called god. Allah and God are vastly different beings, Allah based on fear and God based on love.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Balaam's Donkey (MP 60)

O Israel! How can you complain of mites,
When, unseen, your God is clearing ahead?
Baal’s prophet, paid to curse the Israelites,
Was forced by God to give blessings instead!
The angel of the Lord stood in the way,
And Balaam’s donkey kept turning aside;
“Why beat me?” Balaam heard the donkey say;
Then he knew that God was on Israel’s side!
Therefore, Balaam’s curse was not that at all—
‘Out of Jacob’s tribe a star would appear,
A ruler, who caused many nations fall’;
Balaam ‘beheld him, but he was not near!’
False gods for themselves men have ever made,
But through them all is God’s power displayed!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Numbers 24:17-19—“ ‘I [Balaam] see him [Jesus], but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter [David or Jesus] will rise out of Israel… A ruler will come out of Jacob and crush the survivors of the city.’ “ (Written in the 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Matthew 2:1-2—“After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi [Wise Men] from the east [the Orient] came to Jerusalem and asked, ‘Where is the one born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east [or ‘when it rose’] and have come to worship him.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary on: “Jesus Foretold: Balaam’s Donkey”
Balaam, a worshiper of Baal, was a seer, a diviner in black arts, who charged fees for telling people oracles about the future. When the Israelites approached Canaan prior to invading the Promised Land, they made camp in the plains of Moab, just across the Jordan River. When their camp, which was an awesome sight with row upon row of tents occupying about 30 square miles, was completely made, the Moabites were terrified, assuming Israel was preparing to conquer them. Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers with money to Balaam, asking him to come and put a curse on the Israelites, hoping to save his nation from conquest. Now Balaam knew about God and His power, but he only used Him as another source of power and fount of information to send messages concerning whatever his clients were inquiring about. When Balaam received Balak’s request, God told him in a dream not to put a curse on Israel for they were under His (God’s) protection. This account is found in Numbers 22-24 of the Bible.

Balak didn’t give up; he sent three delegations; finally Balaam agreed and set out for Moab on his donkey. The angel of the Lord stood in the road with drawn sword in front of Balaam, unseen by him, but seen by the donkey. Three times Balaam was diverted by the shying by his donkey off the road; three times Balaam beat the donkey. Then God caused the donkey to talk, and the donkey asked Balaam why he was being beaten. The soothsayer finally saw the Lord, and he fell on his face before Him. God told Balaam he could go to Balak, but that he must say only what God told him to say.

Following God’s instructions, Balaam spoke only what he was prompted to say, and everything he said was a blessing to Israel. However, in Balaam’s fourth oracle was included a prophecy about the coming of God as the man Jesus to earth. Balaam said he could see “him”, but not “now” and not “near”. In fact Jesus of Nazareth was born 1400 years later, as Matthew 2 reports; the “star out of Jacob” could be a reference to the star that appeared the night Jesus was born. The “Wise Men” from the Orient followed the star to Bethlehem, a small town near Jerusalem where King David was also born in 1030 B.C. The military victories included in the prophecy must refer to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, for He came as a meek and mild Savior the first coming. The “scepter”, signifying a king, may refer to the birth of David; it could also refer to the millenial reign of Christ when He returns.

God uses non-believers to accomplish the purposes of His pre-made Master Plan as well as believers.

“For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Born Of Judah (MP 59)

God told Abraham that through his offspring
[Jesus], blessings to all men will outflow;
But who told Jacob, from Judah a King
Would forever reign? How did Jacob know?
God told Jacob, revealing in advance,
Prophecies, so that we His Word believe,
And knowing they’re fulfilled, can take a stance,
Accepting Jesus, our new lives receive!
In God’s pre-made Plan, He chose to reveal
Glimpses of things to come, that men might see
Traces of the Supreme Being Who’s real—
One who dwells with men for eternity!
Through Judah King Jesus will have His birth;
With an iron scepter He will rule the earth!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Braclets added]
Prophecy Made: Genesis 49:1,10---"Then Jacob called for his sons and said: ‘Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.” “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he [Jesus Christ] comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.’ “ (Written in the 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Matthew 1:1-3,16—“A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob [Israel], Jacob the father of Judah, … [35 generations later], and Jacob [a different Jacob] the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary on: “Jesus Foretold: Born Of Judah”
God sprinkled prophecies of future events into the minds of men of the Old Testament who wrote them, and many were recorded by the authors of books in the Bible. This was no accident on God’s part. In His awesome mind the entire future is known as well as the entire past; an elderly human, having knowledge of things in the past as well as those to come, is likely to mingle them indiscriminately in his speech, but not God. He deliberately inserted snatches, as well as complete statements, into scripture of things to come. His reason for doing so? I think God wanted His followers to discover them, so that their faith in His existence be bolstered; their curiosity aroused, to motivate more indepth study of the Bible in assiduous “treasure” hunts through His Word that increase their knowledge of the supernatural world that created this natural world.

Often, two or more future events are extrapolated out of a single prophecy. In the scripture from Genesis (above), Jacob (Israel) is blessing his 12 sons before his death. All of them have their futures told, but we are concerned with that of Judah, whose descendants, according to his father Jacob. will always have the “scepter”, which foretells that a royal kingship will always belong to them; further, the “staff” will be “between his feet”, implying a time of disuse, “until he to whom it belongs comes”, which could be the coming of David (about 1000 B.C.); or the coming of Jesus Christ (about 2 B.C.); or the Second Coming of Christ. I believe it refers to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, because of the next phrase, “the obedience of all nations” (See Revelation 20). The first time Jesus came, He was rejected by the Jews to be their king, but when He returns, He will come in power and will rule Israel and all nations for 1000 years. The part of the prophecy in Judah’s blessing that has been fulfilled is that Jesus Christ (one of whose titles is “King”) will be born a descendant of Judah; this is verified in Matthew (above) and also in Luke 3.

This is the 3rd prophecy about the coming of Jesus Christ that I have written on; the first is found in Genesis 3:15, where God tells the serpent in the Garden that “the seed” of the woman will be his enemy. This is remarkable, for, as you must realize, God could have come to earth as a full-grown man wallking from the Holy of Holies in the temple, or in any form He wanted. But no, He came as a baby from the womb of a virgin, and went though a period of growth as does any man. The second prophecy, in Genesis 12:3, quotes God telling Abraham that through his descendants the whole world would be blessed. Jesus was Abraham’s descendant, and His redemptive atonement of dying for the sins of all men is certainly a blessing to all. Now, in Genesis 49:16, we learn that it is Judah, Jacob’s son, among whose offspring, a king will come and rule the world. These 3 bits of prophecy are enough by themselves to spotlight the Bible as being an inspired proof of the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth; yet, the Jews had these, too, and more than 300 more such fulfilled prophecies. How could they not believe in Jesus when He came? The answer? Spiritually dulled by God, brought upon themselves by repeatedly disobeying Him.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: Seed Of Abraham (MP 58)

What kind of man would knife his own son,
Just because an unseen voice told him to?
Abraham, of course! So he would have done,
Had God, the voice, in time, bade him not do!
God was testing how well he would obey,
For Abraham was to be the key:
To father two worlds, of spirit and clay;
To father his Father, his Savior be!
Jesus, second Adam, was born of him;
To men, He offered life, to all of them;
To those who love Him, and to those who don’t;
The first to heaven; the next could, but won’t!
Bless Israel, his offspring, and God’ll bless you,
But curse Abram’s seed—and you’ll be cursed, too!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Genesis 12:1-3—“The Lord had said to Abram [Abraham], ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you [through your descendant Jesus] will be a blessing. I will bless them who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all people on earth will be blessed through you {Jesus, Abraham’s seed, will redeem all from sin].’ “ (Written in the 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Made: Genesis 18:18—“ ‘Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.’ “ (Written in 14th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Acts 3:25-26—“ ‘… he [God] said to Abraham, through your offspring [Jesus, who had lived, been crucified, resurrected, and ascended to heaven a few weeks before] all people on earth will be blessed. When God raised up [sent] his servant [Jesus], he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.’ “ (Apostle Peter preaching to Jews in the temple; written in the 1st century A.D.)


Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Seed Of Abraham”
God’s Master Plan for mankind included a method of redeeming all men and women, who desired it, to be saved from condemnation brought on them by Adam. God planned to come to earth as a man, because Adam was a man, living a sinless life, then dying in order to pay the penalty incurred when Adam disobeyed. He would be the “second Adam”, standing where Adam fell, and He would offer by His grace to all men and women redemption from death and condemnation. He planned to be born as a baby named Jesus, and He chose Abraham to be His original “father”, or ancestor. God called Abraham and promised that he would be a “blessing to all nations”, the blessing being that Jesus of Nazareth would be among his seed.

The prophecy is contained in the fact that it was written down by Moses (in Genesis 3 above) more than 1400 years before Jesus was born. How could Moses know when he wrote the words, unless God revealed it to him, that 14 centuries later the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, would be born as a descendant of Abraham? The “blessing to all the earth” is described by the apostle Peter in the passage quoted above of Acts 3, written by Luke after the death of Jesus in 32 A.D., when Peter tells Jews in the temple at Jerusalem that what God promised Abraham, who is their ancestor also, that they have been taught, is now fulfilled by the blessing that Jesus has come to turn them from sin to righteousness. Instead of looking forward to an eternal separation from God, Jesus brought them the good news that they can now look forward to eternal life in heaven.

There are events, other than the genealogy of Jesus, in the poem and scriptures above, and they are as factual as the prophecy. For example, the warning about “cursing”, or doing harm, to Israel, is apropos for today’s world, also. Nations or individuals that harm Jews will be punished by God.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Jesus Foretold: The Serpent's Curse (MP 57)

(This is the first in a series of messianic prophecies that God revealed in the Old Testament by Plan,)

Learn from the poor Serpent, who lost so much,
When he allowed Satan to lurk within,
To beguile Eve, forbidden fruit to touch,
That led Adam to commit mankind’s first sin!
From living upright to sliding in dust,
From innocent to guilty, was his lot;
From friend of all to foe, which none can trust,
For aiding the Beast, all in God’s Book blot!
Eternal enmity from woman’s Seed;
Prostrate throughout life, and killed upon sight—
These curses were among those God decreed;
Serpent and Satan both, this earth’s blight!
Eve found the fruit most pleasing to her eye—
That’s how sin always looks to you and I!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added)
Prophecy Made: Genesis 3:14-15—“So the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this: Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he [Jesus/God] will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’ “ (Written in the 15th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Galatians 4:4-5—“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.” (Written in the 1st century A.D.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: The Serpent’s Curse”
A major objective of God’s Master Plan is to reveal glimpses of the future, especially prophecies pointing to His coming to earth as a man to redeem mankind from condemnation. Since the sin of Adam brought huge consequencies (physical death, spiritual death, and eternal separation from God for all men that would ever live), God’s redemptive Plan (His coming as His own Son, His dying for the sins of Men, and His adoption as co-heirs those men and women who believe in Jesus as Lord) is just as huge. Therefore, He deliberately reveals in the Old Testament prophecies of future events in the life of Jesus, written hundreds of years before the events occur and that are fulfilled and written about in the New Testament. There are at least 340 such prophecies in Old Testament scripture, everyone of which He precisely fulfilled; not one has been found false.

The earliest messianic prophecy is found in Genesis 3:15 (quoted above). It is contained in the words of God when He pronounced judgment upon the serpent for allowing Satan to use his body to speak to Eve, calling her attention to the beauties of the forbidden tree and its fruit, lying to her, and causing her to eat what God had commanded Adam not to eat. He did eat it, of course, when proffered by his wife; he was with her and heard the talk between her and the serpent. There are double meanings, or even more, in some prophecies; here, God’s words have immediate application to the serpent’s lifestyle; also, there is meaning for the future—when Jesus is born of the virgin Mary, He becomes the Seed of woman that is an enemy of Satan and will crush the devil by overcoming death and rising back to life. The words spoken by God to the serpent are fulfilled in the redeeming gospel as explained by the apostle Paul in Galatians 4:4 (above). Since Mary was a virgin, Jesus’ “Father” was God the Holy Spirit, not Joseph, the man to whom she was engaged, and He was born without being condemned by Adam’s sin. He was qualified to shed His blood in atonement for all the sins of men, including that of Adam. Any man or woman is freed from condemnation and adopted into the family of God by sincere belief in Jesus as the Messiah (which means the “anointed one” or Christ); his or her sins are forgiven, and that person receives salvation to eternal life with God in heaven.

God’s Master Plan included redemption from before creation. Adam’s sin and all men’s condemnation came as no surprise to God. Neither did Israel’s being temporarily “set aside” from salvation because of their rejection of Jesus. Preplanned solutions were determined and ready to go before God launched the universe. If you read this and are not a believer in Jesus Christ, you are still under condemnation; if you die physically without ever accepting belief in Jesus Christ, you can never be redeemed—your chance is gone forever. This is being written in my hope that it will cause you to trust Jesus for your eternal salvation.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the grave, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Israel Achieved God's Purpose (MP 56)

Fourteen hundred years before Christ was born,
God’s earth was covered with the race He made;
They were all condemned, hopeless, and forlorn,
Unless He came, His life for sins to trade!
The tribe God Chose, full-grown, dwelt in the land
He’d promised Abraham’s offspring to own,
Having been brought by God’s Almighty hand,
Though to rebellion they were ever prone!
Israel conquered Canaan, but disobeyed,
By allowing many aliens remain;
Straying, strife, and wars their lives did pervade,
History filled with troubles, stress, and strain!
God’s toil with them full justified His zeal;
The priceless prophecies prove Jesus real!

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SPECIAL NOTICE: Beginning MARCH 9, I will start a new series in God’s Master Plan for the world---PROHECIES OF THE COMING MESSIAH! With Israel settled in Canaan, God revealed 340 forecasts of the future life of JESUS OF NAZARETH, every one of which was fulfilled! You will not want to miss any of these amazing prophecies and proofs of their fulillment! WILLIAM J.B. CRITTENDEN
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Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Joshua 21:43-45—“So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their forefathers, and they took possession of it and settled there. The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their forefathers. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord handed all their enemies over to them. Not one of the Lord’s promises to the house of Israel [Jacob] failed; every one was fulfilled.”

Acts 9:23—“Yet Saul [later named Paul] grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah].”

Commentary on: “Israel Achieved God’s Purpose”
How God labored with Israel! For over five hundred years, beginning with Abram, He manipulated everything: To have them born of chosen parents; arranging for Jacob and all seventy family members to be isolated in Egypt for 430 years and multiplied into millions; crushing Egypt and bringing them out on a forty-year odyssey through the desert back to Canaan; and leading them to victory over all the seven tribes that already resided in the Promised Land. And He was forced to do all this in spite of the stubborn Israelites’ repeated rebellions against Him and the faulty leaders placed over them! Now that they were resting in Canaan, instead of gratefully worshiping Him and remaining faithful, they began 1400 more years of disobedience, internal squabbling, civil war, idolatry, intermarriage with aliens, etc., in punishment, for which God raised up conquerors from Assyria, Babylon, Macedonia, and Rome, during which most of them died or were carried away.

If you read the Old Testament all the way through, you cannot help but grow weary of Israel’s incorrigible behavior and their incessant calls upon God to have mercy on them; which He obligingly does over and over again, until finally even a gracious God has had enough—He dulls their spiritual insight even more, until the spiritual and civil leaders, the wise and wealthy, cannot recognize God when He comes to earth as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, bringing redemption so that they can live eternally. We can only shake our heads and ask: Why did God choose Israel anyway? After all, didn’t He know the future? Then, knowing how impossible it would be to make them love and be faithful to Him, wasn’t choosing Israel a mistake by God?

No, it was not a mistake; Israel achieved the purpose God had for it; they remain “the apple of His eye”; and they will receive grace for conversion to accept Christ and become evangelists to the world during the millenium—the thousand year reign of Christ. God is satisfied with Israel for many reasons. Two of the most important are: (1) The more than 300 prophecies in the Old Testament that describe visible events in the life of Jesus ought to convince the most skeptical cynic to believe that the man Jesus of Nazareth is in reality God of this universe; and (2) From the Israelite race came the Savior of the world. From our limited perspective we cannot know the full mind of God, and the story of Israel is not yet finished. The Bible has many prophecies of unfulfilled evens still to occur in the life of Israel.

In the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament we read how Saul, a young star Pharisee, was called by God from heaven to become His apostle to the Gentiles. Immediately Saul began baffling the Jews in Damascus by presenting the prophecies written hundreds of years before His birth proving that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah sent from God. He proved it by recalling to them events in the life of Jesus that precisely matched those written long ago by the prophets.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in you heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Moses Foretells Israel's Future (MP 55)

Moses sang to Israel his final song,
Full of forecasts about things to come;
Righteous some of the time, but mostly wrong,
Israel suffered greatly for sins they’d done!
They were set aside when the Savior came,
For rejecting the Son that God had sent,
Refusing to believe in Jesus’ name,
Or of numerous evils to repent!
Solely given the Law and first to hear
The gospel of redemption and God’s grace,
But always turning to God a deaf ear,
They’re still in sin, with Gentiles in their place!
Israel’s redemption is yet long delayed;
When Christ returns, their sin-debt will be paid!

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SPECIAL NOTICE: Beginning MARCH 9, I will start a new series in God’s Master Plan for the world---PROHECIES OF THE COMING MESSIAH! With Israel settled in Canaan, God revealed 340 forecasts of the future life of JESUS OF NAZARETH, every one of which was fulfilled! You will not want to miss any of these amazing prophecies and proofs of their fulillment! WILLIAM J.B. CRITTENDEN
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Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Deuteronomy 31:15---"Jeshurun [Israel] grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him, and rejected the Rock his Savior [Jesus/God]’ “

Deuteronomy 31:16-17—“And the Lord said to Moses, ‘You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people [Israel] will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land [Canaan] they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I had with them. On that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them and they will be destroyed. Many disasters and difficulties will fall upon them…’ “

Commentary on Israel’s Future
From the time of God’s call to Abraham until the death of Moses east of the Jordan River was approximately 500 years; God had overseen the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; He had nursed and nurtured the sons of Jacob through their lives and those of their descendants into a nation of millions of people; He had struck ten plagues upon Egypt and brought the Israelites out of slavery and through forty years of trials and problems of surviving the desert, until they were finally ready to enter the Promised Land and take their place as a nation—one that would introduce God to the world and lead the way for Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from condemnation for sin. And now, God tells Moses that all their efforts have been unsuccessful; that Israel will soon “abandon” Him and reject Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah (Jesus is God Himself coming to redeem men from the condemnation that their own sins and Adam’s had caused). Moses must have been disappointed after his incessant problems with this whining, complaining, unfaithful race, and I can imagine God’s sorrow as He spoke these words.

The reason God commanded Israel to destroy the Canaanites or drive them all out is that He foreknew that if any were left in the land, His Chosen people, the Israelites, would become corrupted by intermarriage or by worshiping idols and false gods. Our God is extremely jealous that those who follow Him do not stray into adopting idols or religions practices other than Christianity. He knew that the people He had chosen to be a nation of priests were weak-willed, spiritual babies that could not resist temptation (as are many modern-day people). Israel did not obey God; they did not destroy or drive out all the Canaanites. They accepted some offers of peace treaties; many were left alive, as were their idols and religious practices. Just as God knew, their failure to demolish them all led to Israel’s complete downfall. If you are a new Christian and are trying to quit smoking, don’t leave a single cigarette around the house to tempt you; you should apply this same process in all your old habits. If you have been drinking alcohol, destroy all that you have left; if you are in the habit of buying lottery tickets, don’t stop at the neighborhood U-Totem.

Israel did live in the land about 1500 years. Though their shortcomings brought turbulence, crises, and disasters, their zenith as a nation was about 1000 B.C., when David and his son Solomon reigned as kings. Shortly after Solomon died, civil war divided the nation into two, and both of these were conquered with many people being taken away from each. When Jesus of Nazareth was born, the land contained a remnant of Israelites living in Galilee in the north and Judah, including Jerusalem, in the south, under occupation by the Roman Empire. In 70 A. D. Roman General Titus besieged Jerusalem, conquered it and flattened it. He had all the land that was Canaan and the home of Israel plowed up and sown with salt, trees along the Jordan cut down, and all the cities and houses destroyed; consequently, the land that once flowed with “milk and honey, turned into desert. The people were killed or sold into slavery, and Israel had no homeland until 1948 A. D.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9)

Prophecy Fulfilled; Promises Kept (MP 54)

God through Moses prophesied many things,
Some of which have already been fulfilled;
We know that whatever the future brings,
It’ll be safe on the others hope to build!
All God’s promises to Abram He kept
To the letter, and all His forecasts, too;
Four hundred years Abram’s offspring dwelt
In Egypt, as God said, and it came true!
Before Israel invaded Canaan’s land,
Said God, “Drive them all out—every one;
For if you don’t do as I command,
I’ll do to you what to them you should’ve done!
Looking back, we can tell, that’s what God did:
Israel driven out; of the land was rid!

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SPECIAL NOTICE: Beginning MARCH 9, I will start a new series in God’s Master Plan for the world---PROHECIES OF THE COMING MESSIAH! With Israel settled in Canaan, God revealed 340 forecasts of the future life of JESUS OF NAZARETH, every one of which was fulfilled! You will not want to miss any of these amazing prophecies and proofs of their fulillment! WILLIAM J.B. CRITTENDEN
*******************************************************
Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Genesis 15:13-14—“Then the Lord said to him [Abram], ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country [Egypt] not their own, and they will be enslaved four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions.’ “

Numbers 33:50-56—“On the plain of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho the Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land… . But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land… . They will give you trouble in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I plan to do with them.’ “

Commentary on: “Prophecy Fulfilled; Promises Kept”
God made many promises to Abraham and kept them all. He promised that his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the dust of the earth when Abraham had no child at all and his wife was too old to have children; when Abraham died at the age of 175, he left six sons by two wives and a servant girl. His descendants include all the Jews, Arabs, and spiritually all Christians. Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, was a descendant, by Whom all nations on earth have been blessed.

God told Abraham this in about 2000 B.C., and 500 years later, his grandson Jacob’s descendants came out of Egypt. They had been enslaved 400 years; when they came out; Egypt was a broken nation. Jacob’s name was changed by God to Israel, and that is the name of the Chosen nation descended from Abraham.

Before Israel invaded Canaan, the land God had promised to Abraham’s descendants, God through Moses commanded them to slay or drive out all the seven nations that occupied the land. There was not to be a single inhabitant left in the land. God told them they had to get rid of them all or the ones remaining would be a perpetual thorn in Israel’s side. He also prophesied that if they did not drive them all out, He would do to them exactly what He had planned to do with the Canaanites—that is, God would slay or drive out of the land all the Israelites and scatter them into nations all over the earth. AND THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED!

The facts of history supply us the information about Israel’s grim past. They failed to kill or drive out all the Canaanites; some groups Israel made peace treaties with and allowed these to continue living in the land. Since they did not follow God’s command to extinguish them all, Israel brought upon themselves a horrible destruction. If we fast forward to 70 A.D., skipping 1400 years of civil war, conquests by other nations, and Israel’s idolatry and repeated rebellions against God, we find a small remnant of the Israel that conquered Canaan after Moses’ death. For rejecting Jesus as Messiah, God allowed the Romans under Titus to completely destroy Jerusalem and all the other cities of Israel; they slew more than one million Israelites and sold the remaining 300,000 into slavery for a penny each. This was in Jerusalem alone. They cut down all the trees, plowed up the land, and sowed it with salt. Surviving Jews lived in foreign nations for 1878 years, until 1948, when the United Nations ceded Israel a small piece of land to re-establish the nation. And Israel’s return to the land in 1948 is also prophesied by God in the Bible many times, as well as that Israel will reverse themselves and accept Jesus as their Messiah and King!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

Israel's Spiritual Insight Impaired (MP 53)

Israel’s Spiritual Insight Impaired (MP 53)

From the lips of a vile sorcerer came
Words of truth from God, so the world might know
Of God’s Second Coming, on earth to reign
For a thousand years, His glories to show!
Alas, O Israel! If your eyes could see,
And your minds perceive, what God has in store,
Beyond these doleful woes of history,
You’d temper all tears, and tolerate more!
Hundreds of forecasts of future glories
God sprinkled throughout the pages of Writ*,
To help His own bear their tragic stories,
And implant them with persevering grit!
But these cheering aids pass by you unaired,
Your spiritual insight by sin impaired!
*Writ = Bible

Scripture Quoted: (NIV) [Brackets added]
Numbers 24:15-19—“Then he [Balaam the sorcerer] uttered his oracle [words from God]: ‘The words of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly, the oracle of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened: I see him [Jesus Christ], but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star [Jesus Christ] will come out of Jacob [Israel]; a scepter [King] will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth [noisy boasters]. Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong. A ruler [Jesus Christ] will come out of Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.’ “

Isaiah 6:9-10—“He [God to Isaiah]] said, ‘Go and tell this people [Israel]: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’ “

Commentary on Israel’s Spiritual Insight Impairment
God has spoken through persons who are righteous, and He has spoken through those who are unrighteous as well. In Numbers 22-25 there is an incident involving a Gentile sorcerer named Balaam who spoke true words from God in a prophecy. This “fortune-teller” was employed by Balak, king of Moab, to put a curse on Israel, who were camped near Moab’s border. The Moabites were full of dread that Israel would invade and conquer their nation. Balaam knew about God, but he did not worship Him; he made use of God as one of the “tools” of his trade, so to speak. He was in fact a Baal worshiper. God warned Balaam not to go with Balak, but God let him go provided Balaam spoke only what God told him to say. After three tries, complete with animal sacrifices, with Balaam saying only nice things about Israel, he uttered the oracle quoted above.

This is a “prophecy” from God—a glimpse of what will happen in the future—and it is about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (God) to earth. The First Coming has already occurred (the New Testament reveals that over 300 such prophecies as the above in the Old Testament all came true), and these words don’t fit the First Coming. Jesus was a “star” out of Jacob, but He didn’t receive a “scepter”; but He will receive one the Second Coming; He will defeat those Arab nations the Second Coming, and He will rule with an iron scepter a thousand years. Therefore Balaam was speaking of something that hasn’t happened to this day (2011), but it will happen.

Israel had the Old Testament with all its prophesies for many years, but their religious leaders misconstrued or overlooked not only the prophecies but also many of the God-given laws and decrees. Their repeated rebellions against God, not just while wandering in the desert, but after they settled in Canaan, too, reveals their lack of trust in God and their failure to understand spiritual passages of scripture. In Deuteronomy 29:4 Moses told them they were calloused, unperceiving, blind and deaf to the truths God taught. Eight hundred years later (which was 700 years before Jesus was born) God placed a judgment upon Israel that further dulled their capacity to understand spiritual things (See Isaiah 6:9-10 quoted above). By that time it is obvious that God did not want Israel to accept Jesus as Messiah His First Coming to earth. Now, God knew from before creation how Israel would conduct themselves, and He prepared a redemption plan that turned salvation from Israel to the Gentiles; therefore, we can assume that He didn’t want Israel to accept Jesus, and He may have dulled them from Abraham, rather than Isaiah. When He comes the Second time, He will “free captive Israel”, and they will accept him en masse.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him sill not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)