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Isaiah 53:4 says, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 8:17: “In order that what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, He Himself took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” All healings accomplished on fallen people are due to the Lord’s redemption. He took our infirmities and bore our diseases on His cross and accomplished full healing for us there. However, the application of healing by divine power can only be a foretaste in this age; the full taste will be accomplished in the coming age.
In Isaiah 62:11, Zechariah 9:9, and Psalm 118:26 we have the prophecy concerning Christ as the meek King mounting a donkey’s colt and entering Jerusalem triumphantly, to whom the crowds cried, “Blessed be He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” The fulfillment of this prophecy is in Matthew 21:4-10. This prophecy is actually related to Christ’s death. The Lord purposely went back to Jerusalem not to minister but to present Himself as the Lamb of God to be crucified. Therefore, His mounting a donkey’s colt and entering Jerusalem triumphantly was for His wonderful, all-inclusive death.
Matthew 21:4 and 5 say, “Now this took place that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, meek and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.” The way the King came into Jerusalem fulfilled the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. The term “daughter of Zion” refers to the people of Jerusalem (cf. Psa. 137:8; 45:12). This prophecy was being fulfilled to them.
Matthew 21:6-8 continues, “And the disciples went and did as Jesus directed them, and led the donkey and the colt and put their garments on them, and He sat on them. And most of the crowd spread their own garments in the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them in the road.” Garments signify the human virtues of people’s conduct. The disciples honored the lowly King by putting their garments on the donkey and colt for Him to ride on, and the crowd honored Him by spreading their garments in the road for Him to pass through. The people honored the Lord with their clothing, that is, with whatever they had.
In verse 8 we are told that others cut branches from the trees and spread them in the road. These were branches of the palm tree (John 12:13), signifying the victorious life (Rev. 7:9) and the satisfaction of enjoying the rich produce of this life as typified by the feast of tabernacles (Lev. 23:40; Neh. 8:15). The crowd used both their garments and the palm tree branches to celebrate the coming of the lowly King. A palm tree is rooted deeply in hidden springs and grows prevailingly upward into the air. This signifies the victorious life. In honoring the meek King with whatever they were, the people recognized that He was the One with the victorious life.
According to Matthew 21:9, “The crowds who went before Him and those who followed cried out, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” The Hebrew word hosanna means “save now” (Psa. 118:25). The title “The Son of David” was the royal title of the lowly King. In the warm welcome of the King, the people shouted out a quotation from Psalm 118:26: “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” According to Psalm 118, only the One who came in the name of the Lord was qualified to be praised in such a way. Thus, the spontaneous praise of the people sovereignly indicated that this meek King came not in His own name but in the name of Jehovah. Those who welcomed the King indicated through their praise that He was the One sent by the Lord, thus the One who came in the name of the Lord.
In Psalm 8:2 we have the prophecy that Christ would be the One praised by babes and sucklings. As the fulfillment of this prophecy, Matthew 21:16 says, “And said to Him, Do you hear what these are saying? And Jesus says to them, Yes; have you never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have perfected praise?” At the time of Matthew 21, Christ was warmly welcomed and exalted, and He was praised even by babes.
Prophesying that Christ would come to do the will of God, Psalm 40:6-8 says, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Hebrews 10:5-8 is the fulfillment of this prophecy. Verse 5 says, “Wherefore, coming into the world, He says, Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.” All the sacrifices offered according to the law were a shadow of Christ. At the fullness of time, Christ came with a body of blood and flesh to replace the sacrifices of the law. In the flesh He offered Himself to God once for all to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:7, 9, and 10 tell us that it was the will of God to take away the first, the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, so that the second, the sacrifice of Christ of the New Testament, might be established to replace the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Christ, as the real sacrifice for sin which has taken away sins, has sanctified us through the offering of His body once for all (v. 10).
The Triune God determined in His divine plan in eternity past that the second of the divine Trinity should be incarnated and die on the cross to accomplish His eternal redemption for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:7-9). Hence, the second of the divine Trinity was ordained to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29) before the foundation of the world, that is, in eternity past (1 Pet. 1:19-20). In the sight of God, Christ as the Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world, that is, from the existence of God’s fallen creatures (Rev. 13:8). From the time of man’s fall, lambs, sheep, calves, and bulls were used for God’s chosen people as types (Gen. 3:21; 4:4; 8:20; 22:13; Exo. 12:3-8; Lev. 1:2), pointing to Christ who was to come as the real Lamb foreordained by God. In the fullness of time the Triune God sent the second of the divine Trinity, the Son of God, to come in incarnation to take a human body (Heb. 10:5) so that He might be offered to God on the cross (Heb. 9:14; 10:12) to do the will of the Triune God (Heb. 10:7), that is, to replace the sacrifices and offerings, which were types, with Himself in His humanity as the unique sacrifice and offering for the sanctification of God’s chosen people (Heb. 10:9-10).
In the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies Christ is the One betrayed by His friend, who sold Him for thirty pieces of silver. Psalm 41:9 says, “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.” This verse was fulfilled at the time the Lord Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. John 13:18 says, “I do not speak concerning all of you; for I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.” This refers to the betrayal of the Lord by Judas. Another verse related to the fulfillment of this prophecy is Mark 14:18: “As they were reclining at table and eating, Jesus said, Truly I tell you that one of you will deliver Me up, one who is eating with Me.” The Lord spoke this word as He and the disciples were eating of the Passover feast.
Zechariah 11:12 prophesies that the one who would betray the Lord would sell Him for thirty pieces of silver: “I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.” According to Exodus 21:32, a slave was priced at thirty pieces of silver. Christ was priced as a slave, and Judas betrayed Him for this price, selling Him for thirty pieces of silver. In Matthew 26:15 Judas asked the chief priests, “What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver Him to you? And they weighed out to him thirty pieces of silver.” This clearly is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 11:12.
Zechariah 13:7 prophesies concerning Christ as the smitten shepherd: “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” This verse speaks of a man who is the Lord’s fellow, the companion of the Lord of hosts. This man is Christ, for He is equal to God as His fellow. When Christ came as a man to be the Shepherd, He was rejected, betrayed, and sold for thirty pieces of silver. However, not only was He rejected and betrayed by men, but He was even smitten by God. Christ was sold for thirty pieces of silver by men, but following that He was smitten on the cross by God Himself.
The fulfillment of Zechariah 13:7 is found in Matthew 26:31: “Then Jesus says to them, You will all be stumbled in Me this night, for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.” This verse is part of a warning given by the Lord to His disciples. The Lord was the Shepherd, and the disciples were the sheep who were to be scattered. However, all the disciples said that they would not deny Him. All, especially Peter, had the assurance and the confidence that they would follow the Lord to the end, no matter what the pathway might be. Eventually, what they did was the reverse (Matt. 26:56b, 69-75).
Isaiah 53:7 says, “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” This prophecy is fulfilled in Matthew 26:62 and 63a: “The high priest stood up and said to Him, Do you answer nothing? What are these testifying against you? But Jesus remained silent.” The Lord, standing before the Sanhedrin like a sheep before its shearers, would not say a word to vindicate Himself, fulfilling Isaiah 53:7.
The Lord Jesus is the One who was executed with two criminals. Isaiah 53:12c tells us that “he was numbered with the trangressors,” and verse 9a, that “he made his grave with the wicked.” As the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53, Luke 23:32 and 33 say, “Two others also, who were criminals, were led with Him to be executed. And when they came to the place called Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left.” The fact that Christ was executed with two criminals indicates that the Roman authorities considered Him a criminal. This was done under God’s sovereignty that the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Christ’s execution might be fulfilled.
In Isaiah 53:12 it is prophesied that Christ would make “intercession for the transgressors.” According to Luke 23:34, the fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” While He was on the cross the Lord made intercession for the transgressors, mainly for the Jews. He interceded for them regarding the evil of the transgressors, the result of their ignorance, a trespass that He prayed would be forgiven by God.
In Psalm 22:18 there is the prophecy that the crucified Christ would be robbed of His garments: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” In fulfillment of this prophecy, Matthew 27:35 says, “When they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them, casting lots.” Here we see that the Lord suffered the sinners’ robbery to the uttermost. According to John 19:23 and 24, “The soldiers then, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments and made four parts, a part for each soldier, and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore to one another, Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was not of the soldiers but was of God’s sovereignty. It happened that the prophecy of Psalm 22:18 might be fulfilled. The soldiers did exactly what was prophesied. By this we see that the Lord’s death was sovereignly planned. If God had not planned it, no one could have put Christ to death. All the fulfilled prophecies prove that the Lord’s death was not of man but of God’s sovereignty.
Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” First Peter 2:24b says, “By whose bruise you were healed.” Here the word “bruise” is a suffering that resulted in death. According to Genesis 3:15, the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and the serpent would bruise the heel of the woman’s seed. The bruise in Genesis 3:15 is related to the bruise in 1 Peter 2:24.
According to 1 Peter 2:24, we have been healed by Christ’s bruise. This is the healing of death. We were dead (Eph. 2:1), but Christ’s suffering of death healed our death so that we may live in His resurrection.
