There are many Old Testament verses about Jesus’ first and second coming but ten deal specifically with his birth. If there is anything that solidifies my trust and confidence in the Bible it is fulfilled prophecies. Here’s a short list of the above passages which foretold something about Jesus’ birth:
- Genesis 49:10—Christ would come through the line of Judah.
- Micah 5:2—Bethlehem would be His birthplace (Even though Mary and Joseph were living in Nazareth).
- Isaiah 11:1—Christ would come through the line of Jesse.
- Jeremiah 23:5—Christ would be a son of David.
- 2 Samuel 7:16—His throne would last forever (really a double prophecy, but for us who are living in the church age, it is a great promise, especially as the days get darker).
- Isaiah 9:6—This is that wonderful verse which Handel used in his oratorio, Messiah. He would come as a child, and government would rest on His shoulders. (Although it may not be the direct meaning of the phrase, I can’t help thinking about the Mayflower Compact and our Constitution which is so firmly grounded upon biblical principles.) He would be wonderful, a Counselor, and don’t forget that His was, is and will always be the mighty God, the everlasting Father! AND, praise God, our Prince of Peace!
- Isaiah 7:14—born of a virgin.
- Numbers 24: 17*—Christ would come out of Jacob.
- Jeremiah 31: 1—One of the saddest prophecies in the Bible: the death of the children of Bethlehem by Herod.
- Hosea 11:1—Mary, Joseph, and Jesus’ flight to Egypt.
Can the prophecies concerning Christ’s second coming relate to His first coming? The following verse is one of my favorites. Jesus is standing before Caiaphas and the assembly of “all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes” (Mark 14:53). Jesus has kept silent to their questioning but now answers:
And Jesus said,
I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power,
and coming in the clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62).
I suppose some may say that speaking of yourself in a future event would negate its genuineness, but for me it only adds credence because of Who is speaking. Jesus himself is telling us of his second coming. We will see him sitting at the right hand of the Father. He is coming in the clouds. His second coming is just as certain as his first, but here is a difference: in his incarnate state He did not speak of his first coming. But we can.
Will you tell someone about Jesus today? The Christmas season is a wonderful time to witness for our Lord. There are church programs to invite people to, special tracts to give out, and even Christmas carols playing in stores, giving us an opportunity for “a word in season.” What better season to witness of God’s great goodness than the season with a Reason!
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:2
*Very interesting that today’s Jewish leaders look to 2022, the year that a “new star or nova [which] is the product of the collision of two other astral bodies will appear in the sky due to the collision of two other astral bodies. Rabbi Yosef Berger, a rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, has proposed that the star is a fulfillment of a Biblical prophecy from the book of Numbers, in which a star precedes the arrival of an important military leader: ‘a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Sethites” (NRSV Num 24:17)’”
Excerpt from https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-the-new-star-really-a-sign-of-a-messiah-for-israel
Beyond Common Sense 