Over 300 Prophecies About The Messiah
So the Lord God himself will show you that he speaks a true message. Look, the young woman who has never had sex will become pregnant. She will give birth to a son. She will call his name Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14 EASY
Way below is a more detailed prophecy in Isaiah about the coming King and His immaculate birth. Before you read that, I want to reflect on the two questions I asked when I read these scriptures.
How many prophecies and Jesus are in Isaiah? I sensed the majority logged in the Old Testament would be in Isaiah. And secondly, what are the top books where these prophecies are logged?
Here we go - this is very fascinating, for me both as a Jesus People and as a scientist and researcher - with one shock about Psalms.
Isaiah tops the list at 124 out of 351 prophecies according to "New Testament Christians". As mentioned, I expected this.
The runners up are:
- Psalms with 103 prophecies;
- Zechariah 28 prophecies; and
- Genesis at 20 prophecies.
Why is the finding out about Psalms, with the second highest number of prophecies a shock for me?
Encyclopaedia Britannica writes that Psalms is a "book of the Old Testament composed of sacred songs, or of sacred poems meant to be sung." (2)
The composers were "unexpectedly" prophesying about Jesus and even the thousands of Jewish worshipers, singing the psalms, were singing the prophecies... This is truly magnificent because the message of the coming Messiah was imprinted deep into the Jewish psyche through repetition of text and song - worship, contemplation and melancholia - whenever they read and sang the Psalms, as a very constant spiritual practice.
Thus, I never expected this outcome that almost one third of the Psalms were built into the regular weekly meditation and worship practices - simultaneously singing the prophecies bout the Messiah.
Here is a more detailed account of the prophecy by Isaiah.
So Isaiah told him, “Then listen to this, government of David! It’s bad enough that you make people tired with your pious, timid hypocrisies, but now you’re making God tired. So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A girl who is presently a virgin will get pregnant. She’ll bear a son and name him Immanuel (God-With-Us). By the time the child is twelve years old, able to make moral decisions, the threat of war will be over. Relax, those two kings that have you so worried will be out of the picture. But also be warned: God will bring on you and your people and your government a judgment worse than anything since the time the kingdom split, when Ephraim left Judah. The king of Assyria is coming!” Isaiah 7:13-17 MSG
Sources
1. New Testament Christians
https://www.newtestamentchristians.com - this source is excellent, providing a tabulated comparison of Old to New Testament references.
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Psalms