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In this lesson we will see how the Old Testament prophets prophesied concerning Christ’s being anointed and His living and work during the three and a half years of His ministry on earth.
Christ is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “the anointed.” The earthly ministry of Christ began with His being anointed. Isaiah 61:1 prophesied concerning the anointing of Christ, the Anointed of Jehovah. This verse says, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me.”
According to Matthew 3:16 and Luke 3:21-22, after His baptism Christ rose up from the water, and the Spirit of God descended in bodily form as a dove upon Him. This was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1. This prophecy was fulfilled and carried out to anoint the new King, Christ, and recommend Him to God’s people. In His first coming the Lord was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, when the essence of the Holy Spirit was added to His humanity, He was constituted a God-man. He then lived thirty years as a man in the essence of the Holy Spirit. At the age of thirty He was ready to come forth to carry out His ministry. When He was baptized in the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him economically. Before that time, He was constituted with the Holy Spirit essentially. However, in order to carry out God’s economy, He needed the Holy Spirit economically for power and authority (Acts 10:38) so that He could be the Servant of Jehovah to minister God into man. This is the significance of “the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me.”
According to the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, Christ was not only anointed to have the Spirit of God upon Him; for His whole life the Spirit of God was upon Him in His living and work. At the beginning of His ministry He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted, tested, by the devil (Matt. 4:1). During His ministry He had the Spirit of God with Him; thus, when He spoke God’s words, He could give the Spirit without measure (John 3:34). He also cast out demons by the Spirit of God and released man from the bondage of Satan (Matt. 12:28; Luke 4:18).
Isaiah 42:2 says, “He will not cry out, nor lift up His voice, / Nor make His voice heard in the street.” The fulfillment of this prophecy is referred to in Matthew 12:19, which says, “He will not strive nor cry out, nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.” Christ in His living and work on the earth did not strive with others, nor promote Himself; He did not seek to make Himself known to people on the streets. He had no fame, and He made no name for Himself. His quietness indicated His victory, which qualified Him to be the Servant of Jehovah. His hiding was related to His breaking of religious regulations. Consequently, He was rejected by the religionists, and He was limited in His freedom to minister openly. In order to care for His headship and for the members of His Body, He had to hide Himself.
Christ, the anointed One, was not only silent and hidden; Isaiah also prophesied that He would not break a bruised reed nor extinguish a dimly burning flax (42:3). The fulfillment of this was referred to in Matthew 12:20, which says, “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench.” The Jews were accustomed to making flutes of reeds. When a reed was bruised and unable to make music, they broke it. They also made torches out of flax with oil. When the oil ran out, the torch could not produce shining light but instead would smoke; hence, they quenched it. The prophet Isaiah used bruised reeds and dimly burning flax as types to prophesy concerning the poor situation of God’s people at the time of Christ’s earthly ministry. Despite their poor situation, Christ would not break a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax; He kept the door of mercy and grace open to all the people. No matter how much opposition, persecution, and attack He encountered, the Servant of Jehovah, Christ, was always merciful and full of sympathy.
According to Psalm 18, a psalm of David, Christ trusted fully in God in His living on earth (vv. 1-2). When He was tested by the devil, He stood in the position of a man and declared, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). He cast out demons by the Spirit of God (12:28). In the matter of feeding the five thousand with five loaves and two fish, He trusted in and looked to the Father; He looked up to heaven and blessed the food (14:19). Peter testified, “Who being reviled did not revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten but kept committing all to Him who judges righteously” (1 Pet. 2:23). The Lord kept committing all His insults and injuries to Him who judges righteously in His government, the righteous God, to whom He submitted Himself. He trusted God fully in all things.
Psalm 69 prophesied that Christ would be devoured by the zeal for God’s house (v. 9a). This prophecy was fulfilled at the time Christ cleansed the temple, the house of God (John 2:12-17). When the Lord saw the corrupted situation of the temple, He could not tolerate it. He made a whip out of cords and drove the people, as well as the sheep and the oxen, out of the temple. He also poured out the money of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. After the Lord cleansed the temple, “His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘The zeal of Your house shall devour Me’” (v. 17). Out of the zeal for God’s house, He could not tolerate the corruption, greed, and defilement in God’s temple. His heart for the Father was absolute and pure. Therefore, in His zeal for God, He cleansed the temple.
The prophets prophesied both in Psalm 69 and Isaiah 53 concerning the suffering of Christ in His earthly ministry.
In prophesying concerning Christ’s suffering Isaiah said, “He was despised and forsaken of men, / A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; / And like one from whom men hide their faces, / He was despised; and we did not esteem Him” (53:3). According to the account of the four Gospels, the Lord Jesus was continually despised and forsaken, causing Him to sorrow and be acquainted with grief. The Jews did not like to see Him, and they did not esteem or regard Him (Matt. 13:54-57). Furthermore, in spite of all the Lord’s ministry on the earth, there was no response from the religious people. They did not receive Him. On the contrary, they rejected Him, just as it was prophesied in Isaiah 53:1: “Who has believed our report? / And to whom has the arm of Jehovah been revealed?” The arm of Jehovah is a figure of speech signifying the Lord Himself in His saving power. The Lord Jesus, the Savior Himself, is the arm of Jehovah coming to save man. But in the religious world no one knew Him as the arm of Jehovah, nor did they respond to or receive Him. On the contrary, the religionists forsook Him and even nailed Him to the cross. Christ, as the Servant of Jehovah, was full of sorrow in His human living, which fully qualified Him to be the Savior of the world.
Taking David as a type, Psalm 69 prophesied concerning Christ’s suffering: “More numerous than the hairs of my head / Are those who hate me without cause” (v. 4a). The Lord Jesus quoted this verse in John 15:25, saying that He was hated by many without cause. This indicates that Christ suffered not only for our sake, but He also suffered in bearing reproaches for the sake of God. Hence, Christ was not only our Substitute bearing our problems but was also God’s Substitute bearing God’s problems. Paul quotes Psalm 69:9 in Romans 15:3, saying, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon Me.” Paul quotes this verse in order to encourage the saints to receive the believers according to Christ and to bear the problems of others just as Christ bore God’s problems.
Isaiah 42:1-4 says, “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, / My chosen One in whom My soul delights; / I have put My Spirit upon Him, / And He will bring forth justice to the nations. / He will not cry out, nor lift up His voice, / Nor make His voice heard in the street. / A bruised reed He will not break; / And a dimly burning flax He will not extinguish; / He will bring forth justice in truth. / He will not faint, nor will He be discouraged, / Until He has established justice in the earth; / And the coastlands will wait for His instruction.” This prophecy speaks of what Christ was and did as the Servant of Jehovah in His ministry and service. Matthew 12:17-21 speaks of the complete fulfillment of this prophecy.
Isaiah 61:1 prophesied concerning Christ’s being anointed to bring good news: “Jehovah has anointed Me / To bring good news to the afflicted.” This prophecy was fulfilled in Luke 4:18-19. When the Lord came to Nazareth, which was the place where He grew up, He entered into the synagogue and stood up to read the Scriptures. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to Him, and after reading Isaiah 61:1-2, He sat down and said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). This indicates that Christ in His earthly ministry was to bring good news. To bring good news in Greek means “to bring glad tidings,” that is, to preach the gospel. To preach the gospel was the first commission of the anointed Lord; He preached the gospel to the poor, that is, to those who were the poor in heavenly, spiritual, and divine things (Luke 12:21; Rev. 3:17; cf. Matt. 5:3).
Isaiah 61:2 also prophesied that Christ will “proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah.” This prophecy was fulfilled in Luke 4:19. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah was anointed by God to proclaim the jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord. According to the description in Leviticus 25, the year of jubilee was the time to proclaim liberty and the return of property to the rightful owners. Hence, the year of jubilee was a time of release and freedom and a year of return of lost property. Those who had been sold into slavery were released in the year of jubilee. Thus, Isaiah’s prophecy points to the New Testament age typified by the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:8-17). In the New Testament age God accepts the returned captives of sin (Isa. 49:8; 2 Cor. 6:2), and those who are oppressed under Satan in sin or in sickness enjoy freedom (Luke 13:11-13; John 8:34), that is, the release of God’s salvation. The anointed Christ brings in the real jubilee for God’s children.
Isaiah 61:1 also prophesies that Christ would proclaim “the opening of the eyes to those who are bound.” This indicates that Christ in His earthly ministry would open the eyes of the blind, those who are physically and spiritually blind (Zeph. 1:17; John 9:39-41; 1 John 2:11; Rev. 3:17). While on earth Christ not only healed the physically blind (Matt. 9:27-30; 20:30-34; Mark 10:46-52; Luke 18:35-43; John 9:1-7), but He also opened the spiritual eyes so that people could know Him (vv. 30-38).
The anointed ministry of the Lord also released those who were exiles and prisoners under Satan’s bondage by casting out demons (Isa. 42:7). The Lord Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Therefore, part of the signs and wonders that He did in His ministry was to cast out demons, Satan’s subordinates, from demon-possessed people (Mark 1:34, 39; 3:15; 6:7, 13; 16:17) that they might be delivered from Satan’s bondage (Luke 13:16), out of Satan’s authority of darkness, into God’s kingdom (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13).
Isaiah 42:4a prophesied concerning Christ in His ministry, saying, “He will not faint, nor will He be discouraged, / Until He has established justice in the earth.” The Hebrew word translated as justice has the meaning of “judgment, verdict.” This means that when we have Christ, we have judgment and justice. Christ is justice (judgment); therefore, Christ is the answer. Isaiah prophesied that Christ the Servant of Jehovah would establish justice in the earth. This means that the Gentiles will receive the all-inclusive Christ as the judgment and answer to everything, issuing in peace and satisfaction. Justice is the issue of righteousness through judgment. The judgment of righteousness is justice. The salvation that we have received is the result of God’s judgment on Christ. Christ is righteous, but as our Substitute He was judged by God according to His righteous law, completely fulfilling all the requirements of the law. The result of God’s judgment was justice, salvation. Therefore, in Isaiah’s prophecy justice is the salvation brought forth through judgment. Christ, as the Servant of Jehovah, established justice in the earth as the righteous One who passed through the verdict of the judgment of the righteous God to bring forth justice. This justice is the salvation that He has established in this earth.
Psalm 78:2 says, “I will open my mouth in a parable; / I will utter riddles from of old.” The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 13:35, “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.” This word continues the fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm 78. In His earthly ministry Christ revealed the things of the kingdom in parables in order to make them mysteries to the opposing and rejecting Jews so that they would not understand them. The Lord said, “I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand...For the heart of this people has become fat, and with their ears they have heard heavily, and their eyes they have closed” (Matt. 13:13-15). However, His disciples were blessed because they saw and heard the mysteries of the kingdom revealed by the Lord through the parables that He spoke.
Concerning Christ’s entering into Jerusalem at the end of His ministry, the Old Testament has three main prophecies in Isaiah 62:11, Zechariah 9:9, and Psalm 118:26. These Scriptures speak concerning Christ as the meek King mounted on a donkey’s colt in a lowly way and entering Jerusalem triumphantly, to whom the crowds cried, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” These prophecies fully came to pass through the events portrayed in Matthew 21:4-9 and 16.
Isaiah 62:11 prophesies concerning Christ’s entering into Jerusalem, and Zechariah 9:9 further prophesies concerning the way Christ entered into Jerusalem, saying, “Exult greatly, O daughter of Zion; / Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! / Now your King comes to you. / He is righteous and bears salvation, / Lowly and riding upon a donkey, / Even upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.” According to the record in the four Gospels, this verse was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem the last time. The term daughter of Zion denotes the inhabitants of Jerusalem (cf. Psa. 137:8; 45:12). The Lord Jesus’ going into Jerusalem was not to fight or to compete but to be a meek King. He had no intention to come as a great King fighting or competing with others; He came to be a lowly King, a humble King, riding not on a majestic horse but meekly on a colt.
When the heavenly King entered into Jerusalem, He received the warm welcome of the crowds. They cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt. 21:9). Hosanna in Hebrew (hoshiah-na) means “save now.” The cry of the crowd was a quotation from Psalm 118:25-26: “O Jehovah, do save, we pray! / O Jehovah, do send prosperity, we pray! / Blessed is He who comes in the name of Jehovah.” The warm welcome the Lord received when entering Jerusalem, as recorded in Matthew 21:9, fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 118. As a meek King, He was qualified to receive such praise, because He did not come in His own name but in the name of God.
After entering Jerusalem, the Lord went into the temple, and many children cried out, saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David” (Matt. 21:15). The priests and scribes were indignant because of this. However, the Lord Jesus asked them, “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise’?” (v. 16). In asking this, the Lord quoted the prophecy in Psalm 8:2: “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength / Because of Your adversaries, / To stop the enemy and the avenger.” Thus, the Lord indicated that He was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Psalm 8. Babes and sucklings are the youngest, smallest, and weakest ones, which typify the children of the kingdom of the heavens. The Septuagint version translates the Hebrew word strength into “praise,” which the Lord also agreed with and used, quoting it in Matthew 21:16. This indicates that to praise is for strength to issue out of the mouth. God is working in man so that the weakest ones and the smallest ones can offer, out of their mouths, praises full of strength. In this way He perfects praise and stops the enemy and His avenger.
Christ is the equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “the anointed.” The earthly ministry of Christ began with His being anointed. Isaiah 61:1 prophesied concerning the anointing of Christ, the Anointed of Jehovah. This verse says, “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, / Because Jehovah has anointed Me.” When Christ was baptized, the Spirit of God descended upon Him. For His whole life, the Spirit of God was also upon Christ in His living and work. Toward man, He did not strive nor cry out, and His voice was not heard on the streets. In caring for His headship and for the members of His Body, He hid Himself. As the anointed One, Christ would not break a bruised reed nor quench a smoking flax. He was always merciful and full of sympathy. Toward God He had full trust. He lived on every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth, cast out demons by the Spirit of God, and trusted and looked to the Father as the source of every blessing. He also committed all His insults and injuries to the righteous God who judges righteously in His government. His heart for the Father was absolute and pure; hence, the zeal of God’s house devoured Him. When He ministered on the earth, He was despised, forsaken, acquainted with grief, hated, and reproached by man. All the sufferings that He experienced qualified Him to be the Savior of the world.
In the first aspect of His ministry, He was the Servant of Jehovah. As such, He brought good news and proclaimed the jubilee of God so that those who were oppressed under Satan in sin or sickness could enjoy the release of God’s salvation. He also healed the blind; He not only healed the physically blind, but He also opened the spiritual eyes of the people. He cast out demons, thereby releasing those who were exiles and prisoners under Satan’s bondage. In His earthly ministry He did not faint, nor was He discouraged, until He established justice in the earth. In revealing the mysteries of the kingdom, He used parables so that His disciples might see and hear the mysteries of the kingdom.
In His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, He rode on a colt in lowliness and received the crowd’s warm welcome. He was qualified to be praised in such a way because He came in the name of God. The children in the temple cried out to Him, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” This fulfilled the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning God’s perfecting praise out of the mouth of infants and sucklings and stopping the enemy and the avenger.
