Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Many Christians all around the world participate in advent, which is a word that simply means coming or arrival. During Advent, we are waiting and preparing for the celebration of Jesus’ birth. It is a time to keep our hearts and minds prepared and ready as we wait for Christmas. On each of the four Sundays before Christmas Day, we light one of the four candles, each having a specific meaning. This first Sunday, we light the first purple candle which is known as the “Prophecy Candle.” It signifies the hope and anticipation brought about by the prophecies of the coming Messiah.
It is fitting that we start this season of advent with the Prophecy candle first, for right at the start of history, after the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden, we see the first prophecy telling us there would be a Messiah. It is the first of nearly 300 Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. Genesis 3:14-15 says, “The Lord God said to the serpent,
‘Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
This prophetic word is far more than a declaration that human beings will have enmity with serpents. The end phrase says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel,” is a prophecy of Jesus’ ultimate victory over Satan. As Spurgeon famously said about this verse: “This is the first gospel sermon that was ever delivered upon the surface of this earth. It was a memorable discourse indeed, with Jehovah himself for the preacher, and the whole human race and the prince of darkness for the audience.”
God was announcing His plan: that there would be a seed of the woman who would suffer a wound, but not be defeated, but would bring a wound to the head of Satan that would bring his ultimate demise. A wound to the heel is not usually fatal, whereas a wound to the head is far more serious. A wound to a serpent’s head means its death.
We know, of course, that Jesus was indeed victorious over Satan. The devil thought he was winning when he “bruised” Jesus by having Him sent to the cross, when in fact Jesus triumphed over death and the devil, and rose from the dead. As 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 says, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
By our faith in Jesus, we share in this victory over Satan. We still must live in this world, and suffer ‘bruises to our heels,’ but we are not without hope. As John 16:33 says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Jesus has overcome this sinful world, and one day He will return and do as Revelation 20:10 prophesies: “and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
Until then, we prevail over sin and the devil through the power of Jesus, who forgives us of our sins and sets us free from the devil’s control over us. All the while, looking forward to the day when Jesus returns, and we will be free of even these bruises. We see this promise, too, in Romans 16:20, which says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
In Ellicott’s Commentary, he writes, this victory over Satan, “is to be gained not by mere human strength, but by the coming of One who is ‘the Woman’s Seed;’ and round this promised Deliverer the rest of Scripture groups itself. Leave out these words, and all the inspired teaching which follows would be an ever-widening river without a fountain-head. But necessarily with the fall came the promise of restoration. Grace is no after-thought, but enters the world side by side with sin. Upon this foundation the rest of Holy Scripture is built, till revelation at last reaches its corner-stone in Christ. The outward form of the narrative affords endless subjects for curious discussion; its inner meaning and true object being to lay the broad basis of all future revealed truth.”
Grace is no after-thought. This promised Messiah is the plan, right from the beginning of time. This first prophecy is telling us of God’s plan, and through the added benefit of hindsight, we see also that this hints of the virgin birth. For the seed does not come through Adam, but through the woman. We see another prophecy announcing this important fact very clearly: that the Messiah would be born of a virgin. In Isaiah 7:14 which says, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
This verse in Isaiah is so beautifully clear that the Messiah would be born of a virgin, and so 700 years later when, miraculously, Mary conceives and becomes pregnant, this is no coincidence; it is the fulfillment of prophecy. Luke 1:26-38 tells us what happened. It says, “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’
And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’
And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’
And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.”
As we know, Mary did conceive. The long-awaited Messiah was finally going to arrive. The only problem was, Mary lived in Galilee, and as we see in other prophecies in Scripture, the Messiah was supposed to be born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah, who lived at the same time as Isaiah, foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. He says in Micah 5:2, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, 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.”
All of these prophecies we have been looking at seem too impossible to come true. Especially the prophecy that the Messiah would be born to a virgin. Yet, even the more probable prophecies are also too complex and specific to be a matter of chance. In Josh McDowell’s book, More than a Carpenter, he says, “the Old Testament contains sixty major messianic prophesies and approximately 270 ramifications that were fulfilled in one person, Jesus Christ” (p. 142).
He also goes on to cite the book Science Speaks, in which mathematicians Peter Stoner and Robert Newman calculated the chance of the probability of these prophecies being fulfilled. It says, “Using the science of probability, we find the chances of just forty-eight of these prophecies being fulfilled is in one person to be only 1 in 10 to the power of 157” (p. 143).
Those same men also calculated the probability of fulfilling merely eight of the sixty major prophecies. That chance is 1 in 10 to the power of 17. That works itself out to one in 100,000,000,000,000,000 of these prophecies being fulfilled. McDowell also cites the illustration Science Speaks gives to help us put that fact into perspective: “[Suppose] we take 10 to the power of 17 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar, and say that is the right one [that has the special mark on it]. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time.” (p. 148-149).
This is proof that the Bible is true and accurate. There is no possibility that all of these prophecies would have been fulfilled by mere chance. Looking again at the prophecy in Micah, the Jewish leaders who were waiting for the Messiah to be born knew this prophecy. They knew that in order to fulfill Scripture, the Messiah had to be born in Bethlehem. Matthew 2:1-6 says, “Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.’ When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
“And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”
Luke 2:4-7 tells us what happened in order to fulfill the prophecy. It says, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
This unusual circumstance of everyone being called back to their hometowns for a census to be taken was what led Mary and Joseph to return to Bethlehem. This is why many people did not know that Jesus, who grew up in Nazareth, was actually born in Bethlehem, just as the prophecy states He would be. We see this confusion in John 7:40-44, which says, “When they heard these words, some of the people said, ‘This really is the Prophet.’ Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?’ So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.”
These Pharisees and others in the crowd did not know that Jesus was, in fact, born in Bethlehem. They knew the prophecy, though. If they knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, I am sure that would have given them the evidence they were looking for. I would say that is another reason for us to study and learn more about these prophecies. I think it is crucial that we identify these prophecies in the Old Testament for the same reason that the New Testament believers found them to be so significant: these prophecies were how they were to identify the Messiah. In the same way, it is how we can know the Bible is accurate.
As the mathematical probabilities showed us, there was no way that all of these prophecies could have come true except that God could see the future, and He told His prophets to write these specific words down.
Knowing how important these prophecies are, let us end by reading one more prophecy from Isaiah. Isaiah 9:6 says, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
This prophecy tells us that the Messiah would be a human man, the government will be on His shoulders, and also lists four characteristics of Him- the most important of the four being that He is Mighty God. That name is a pretty clear proclamation of the Messiah’s divinity. This verse is more proof that this long-awaited Messiah would be no ordinary baby, but would be God Himself. Jesus confirms this Himself in John 14:9, which says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” That is why there was so much debate among the Jewish religious leaders as to the identify of Jesus. They kept trying to find out if He was indeed the Son of God, or just another prophet. Only the Son of God could be the Messiah. They were trying to see if Jesus fulfilled all these pieces of the prophetic puzzle they had been studying.
Another thing they were trying to work out is the part of this same prophecy that states the Messiah will hold “the government” on His shoulder. The Jewish religious leaders thought the Messiah would conquer and take over the government of their time. We know, only because of hindsight from the rest of Scripture, that Jesus’ increase of His government is referring to the Kingdom of God. The government resting on His shoulders means that from birth He already has authority in the Kingdom of God because He is God. In the next verse in Isaiah 9:7, it says, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
As Isaiah is saying, God’s kingdom will keep on expanding. He says, “There will be no end to the increase of His government” because when Jesus returns, at the end times, He will then establish His Kingdom in all of its full power and glory and that Kingdom will have no end. It will be “from then on and forevermore.”
All of these prophecies, and many, many more, were the hope that God’s people held onto for over 700 years. Reading these words and looking for the signs, each generation wondered if the Messiah would arrive while they were alive. We are doing the same thing, or at least we should. We’ve been given the Word of God and in it we can read the prophecies that tell us that Jesus will return. Each generation of believers since Jesus’ ascension into Heaven has been waiting and wondering when He will return. Will He return while we are alive?
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.”
That verse, and others like it, tell us that one day Jesus will return. He will come again, and if we believers are alive at that time, we will meet Him in the air. That tells us that when He returns, there will be no doubt that it is He. We should study these prophecies describing His return, so we will not be caught off guard, nor led astray by false prophets or false reports of His return.
At this Christmas time, in the first week of Advent, we are looking back and remembering how God’s people waited for so long for the promised Messiah to come to them. Today, we no longer have to wait for God to be Emmanuel, the God-with-us. If He is our Savior, then He now dwells within us by His Holy Spirit. Yes, we still get bruised and hurt by sin and the devil, but we are not without hope. Jesus has overcome sin and the devil, and now that same power of God resides in us. Our hope is in knowing one day He will physically return. This is the hope that God’s people hold on to now. We, too, are waiting for the arrival of the Messiah. And like the people of old, we have His prophecy given to us, so we can look for the signs and line them up with Scripture. This advent week, let us remember we are waiting not just for Christmas, but for Jesus’ prophesied return. And may our hope be found in the Lord, the God who is with us.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we think about all these prophecies You have given us and sometimes it seems like they don’t relate to us. When we get bruised and banged up here on earth, sometimes it feels like You are far away. Help us to put our hope in the truth: that You are not far away and distant from us. You are the God who is with us. You dwell within us. Please comfort our hurts and heal us. Please help us at this Christmas time to place our hope in You, and to really know that Your prophecies are true: not just the ones of old, but the ones that have yet to be fulfilled. Please help us, by Your Holy Spirit, to ready our hearts, not just to celebrate Your birth, but to wait with anticipation for Jesus’ return, when You will take us to dwell with You forever. We love You and in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
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