Throughout history, Jewish people have preserved their beliefs and traditions, passing them down from generation to generation, ensuring that each new group remains connected to their rich cultural heritage. One of the most fascinating aspects of Jewish faith is the belief in prophecies – predictions made by prophets that are said to be messages from God, often guiding the community in times of uncertainty and offering hope for the future.
These prophecies, which encompass a wide range of themes from the coming of the Messiah to the eventual restoration of Israel, have profoundly influenced not only Jewish life but also the beliefs and practices of other faiths. Additionally, the interpretation of these prophecies has led to a diverse array of theological discussions and scholarly debates within the Jewish community, illuminating the dynamic and evolving nature of their spiritual beliefs through the ages.
The Old Testament is filled with prophecies that some alleged were fulfilled throughout history. These prophetic verses foretold everything from the arrival of a saviour to the destruction of cities. For the Jewish people, these prophecies held immense significance as they looked towards a future of redemption and salvation.
🕎 Isaiah
🕯️ Isaiah 7:14 – “Assuredly, my Sovereign will give you a sign nonetheless! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel”.
✍️ Commentary: Messianic Jews and Christians posit that the prophecy of the virgin birth of the Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth to Mary. However, it must be stated that some Bible translations have gone as far as including the word “virgin” in this passage. This was made as an attempt to make the story of Jesus seem perfectly fit for this prophecy. Still, Jesus’ name was actually Yeshua (ישוע), not immanuel. Nevertheless, the Talmud of Jmmanuel shows a more similar record.
🕯️ Isaiah 9:6 – “For a child has been born to us. A son has been given us. And authority has settled on his shoulders. He has been named The Mighty God is planning grace; The Eternal Father, a peaceable ruler”.
✍️ Commentary: Once again, this verse is often used to justify the birth of Yeshua as the Messiah. But when we look at his name, the meaning is different. Also, different translations of the Bible have adapted this passage to confirm their theories of the holiness of Jesus’ story.
🕯️Isaiah 11:10 – “In that day, the stock of Jesse that has remained standing shall become a standard to peoples—Nations shall seek his counsel and his abode shall be honoured”.
✍️ Commentary: Once again, Christians and Messianic Jews have posited that this prophecy refers to Jesus (Yeshua); however, it might actually refer to King David, the son of Jesse. Of course, many will point to the idea that Joseph (Jesus’ father) came from the lineage of King David. It is imperative to assert that Joseph was his putative, not biological father; therefore, Jesus was not a true descendant of King David.
🕯️Isaiah 40:3 – “A voice rings out: ‘Clear in the desert a road for GOD! Level in the wilderness a highway for our God! Let every valley be raised, every hill and mount made low. Let the rugged ground become level and the ridges become a plain. The Presence of GOD shall appear, and all flesh, as one, shall behold— For GOD has spoken’”.
✍️ Commentary: Of course, Christians and Messianic Jews claim that this verse referred specifically to John the Baptist preparing the way for Yeshua. This belief is compounded by the Gospel of Matthew (3:3) where a direct link is made to Isaiah’s statement. Yet, when we add some context, the chapter does not seem to focus on a specific human being. It seems like the message is addressed to all nations, and specifically speaks of God, not anyone else.
🕯️Isaiah 53: 3-10 – “He was despised, shunned by others, a man of suffering, familiar with disease. As one who hid his face from us, he was despised, we held him of no account. Yet it was our sickness that he was bearing, our suffering that he endured. We accounted him plagued, smitten and afflicted by God; but he was wounded because of our sins, crushed because of our iniquities. He bore the chastisement that made us whole, and by his bruises we were healed. We all went astray like sheep, each of us going our own way; and GOD visited upon him the guilt of all of us. He was maltreated, yet he was submissive, he did not open his mouth; like a sheep being led to slaughter, like a ewe, dumb before those who shear her, he did not open his mouth. By oppressive judgement he was taken away, who could describe his abode? For he was cut off from the land of the living, through the sin of my people, who deserved the punishment. And his grave was set among the wicked, and with the rich, in his death— Though he had done no injustice and had spoken no falsehood. But GOD chose to crush him by disease, that, if he made himself an offering for guilt, he might see offspring and have long life, and that through him GOD’s purpose might prosper”.
✍️ Commentary: Obviously, Messianic Jews and Christians both believe that this entire prophecy related to Yeshua (Jesus) and his crucifixion. They believe that many details in these scriptures describe the specific ordeal that Jesus went through before and after his crucifixion. Yet, nowhere in Jesus’ story is there disease, so how could this be about Jesus, when he never suffered any disease?
❗Many of Isaiah’s prophecies are often used to hook people into believing that Yeshua was the messiah being expected, even if not all details fit around him.
🕎 Psalms
🕯️Psalm 16:10 – “For You will not abandon me to Sheol, or let Your faithful one see the Pit”
✍️ Commentary: Both Messianic Jews and Christians alike believe that this psalm prophecy was fulfilled with the event known as the resurrection of Yeshua. Some Bible translations have gone as far as changing the word “pit” into “decay” to make it even more relatable. Yet, when studied in its unadulterated form, one can perceive its unique context.
🕯️Psalm 22:16-19 – “My vigour dries up like a shard; my tongue cleaves to my palate; you commit me to the dust of death. Dogs surround me; a pack of evil ones closes in on me, like lions [they maul] my hands and feet. I take the count of all my bones while they look on and gloat. They divide my clothes among themselves, casting lots for my garments.”
✍️ Commentary: Once again, Messianic Jews and Christians alike believe that this psalm specifically referred to Jesus’ crucifixion. Some translations have gone as far as adding events that did not take place or are written in its original Hebrew. Furthermore, nowhere in Yeshua’s story does it mention that dogs mauled his hands are feet. So what? Must one overlook the detail?
🕯️Psalm 41: 10 – “My ally in whom I trusted, even he who shares my bread, has been utterly false to me”.
✍️ Commentary: Of course, Christians have picked this portion of scripture in order to state that the betrayal of Yeshua by Judas’ is what this psalm is talking about.
🕯️Psalm 69:22 – “They give me gall for food, vinegar to quench my thirst”.
✍️ Commentary: Similarly to previous verses, those who believe that Yeshua is the Messiah, have claimed that this specific portion of scripture refers to actions by Romans the day of his crucifixion.
🕯️Psalm 72:10- 11 – “Let kings of Tarshish and the islands pay tribute, kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. Let all kings bow to him, and all nations serve him”
✍️ Commentary: This is often perceived as a fulfilled prophecy in relation to kings bringing gifts to Yeshua when he was born.
🕎 Genesis
🕯️Genesis 12:3 – “I will bless those who bless you and curse the one who curses you; and all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you.”
✍️ Commentary: I personally find it rather annoying that Christians and Messianic Jews have taken this verse to mean that the promise of blessing all of the descendants of Abraham was fulfilled in Yeshua, whom they claim brought salvation to all. If this was true and if Jesus already ended sin and death; then why are we still suffering as a species, and why do we still die?
🕯️Genesis 49:10 – “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet; so that tribute shall come to him and the homage of peoples be his”.
✍️ Commentary: Christians and Messianic Jews believe that such a prophecy of a ruler coming from the line of Judah was fulfilled in Jesus, because Joseph (his adoptive father) descended from the tribe of Judah.
🕎 Zechariah
🕯️Zechariah 9:9 – “Rejoice greatly, Fair Zion; raise a shout, Fair Jerusalem! Lo, your king is coming to you. He is victorious, triumphant, yet humble, riding on a donkey, on a jackass foaled by a jenny”.
✍️ Commentary: Messianic Jews and Christians believe this was the promise of the Messiah entering Jerusalem on a donkey, i.e. Jesus riding into the city on Palm Sunday.
🕯️Zechariah 11:12 – “Then I said to them, “If you are satisfied, pay me my wages; if not, don’t.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty shekels of silver—”
✍️ Commentary: Both Christians and Messianic Jews cross-reference this verse to the new testament verse–Matthew 26:15). They posit that the betrayal of the Messiah for thirty pieces of silver was fulfilled in Judas’ payment for betraying Jesus.
🕯️Zechariah 12:10 – “But I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and they shall look towards me, regarding those whom the nations have thrust through. And they shall mourn for him (that is slain) as one mourns for an only son, and shall be in bitterness over him, as one that is in bitterness for a firstborn.”
✍️ Commentary: This prophecy is often cross-referenced to John 19:37 of the new testament. Messianic Christians claim that the Messiah being pierced and mourned for was fulfilled in Jesus’ crucifixion and the mourning of His followers. Similarly,
🕯️Zechariah 13:7 – “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is associated with me, says the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn my hand against the little ones.“ gets cross-referenced to Mark 14:27.
and
🕯️Zechariah 14:4 – “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Yerushalayim on the east, and the mount of Olives shall be split along the middle of it by a very great valley from east to west; and half of the mountain shall be removed towards the north, and half of it, towards the south.” gets cross-referenced to Acts 1:9-12.
🕎 Exodus
🕯️Exodus 12:5-6 – “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: you shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Yisra᾽el shall kill it towards evening”.
✍️ Commentary: Messianic Jews and Christians posit that this verse is about Jesus, who is considered the lamb of God. What I personally find insulting is that the whole event of the passover has been desacrated with a Yeshua-centred event that according to them, symbolise Jesus as “the lamb of God. This entire rhetoric is farfetched and somewhat derogatory since it radically diverts the topic of lambs of Exodus and transforms a human as an animal; it sort of upsets me because the Passover Festival is one of the several festivals which originated in Exodus. To suddenly change the concept of a lamb to mean anything but the literal concept of this type of cattle, is obscure, and I dare to say BIASED.
🕎 Daniel
🕯️Daniel 9:25-26 – “Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Yerushalayim until an anointed prince, shall be seven weeks: then for sixty two weeks it shall be built again, with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. And after sixty two weeks shall an anointed one be cut off, and none will be left to him: and the people of a prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and his end shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are decreed.”
✍️ Commentary: Not surprisingly, both Messianic Jews and Christians make this verse about Yeshua, even though the reality of it is a lot more credible that such a farfetched and egocentric version of history.
🕎 Micah
🕯️Micah 4:1-2 – “But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall stream towards it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Ya῾aqov; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for Tora shall go forth from Żiyyon, and the word of the Lord from Yerushalayim.”
✍️ Commentary: At this point, can you guess what Christians think? Indeed, they posit that this was a prophecy about Yeshua of Nazareth, and a premonition of the spread of the gospel through the Christian church, which claims that it is the “New Zion”. This distortion of historical prophecies is compounded by the following verse:
🕯️Micah 5:2 – “Truly, [God] will leave them [helpless] until she who is to bear has borne; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the children of Israel”.
✍️ Commentary: Christians affirm that this prophecy of the Messiah being born in Bethlehem was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth. Much of Jewish commentary written by Rabbis throughout time mostly interpret this prophecy as the coming unity of the different tribes of Israel, and the mentioned pregnancy as a metaphor for an upcoming tribulation.
🕎 Jeremiah
🕯️Jeremiah 31:31-34 – “See, a time is coming—declares GOD—when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant that they broke, though I espoused them—declares GOD. But such is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel after these days—declares GOD: I will put My Teaching into their inmost being and inscribe it upon their hearts. Then I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No longer will they need to teach one another and say to one another, “Heed GOD”; for all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall heed Me—declares GOD.For I will forgive their iniquities, And remember their sins no more.”
✍️ Commentary: Christians believe that this prophecy foresaw the “new covenant” whereby disciples of Yeshua of Nazareth posited that Mosaic law was no longer relevant and that it was Jesus’ doctrine of unconditional love that one must follow in order to be saved from hell, etc. Hebrews 8:7-13 makes a direct reference to this, appropriating such scriptures.
🕎 Malachi
🕯️Malachi 3:1-3 – “Behold, I am sending my messenger to clear the way before me, and the Sovereign you seek shall come to the temple suddenly. As for the angel of the covenant that you desire, he is already coming. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can hold out when he appears? For he is like a smelter’s fire and like fuller’s lye. He shall act like a smelter and purger of silver; and he shall purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they shall present offerings in righteousness”.
✍️ Commentary: Christians believe this passage predicts a messenger who will prepare the way for the Messiah, identified as John the Baptist. In contrast, the Jewish view sees the messenger as preparing for the Lord’s arrival, leading to the purification of the people and their offerings. This purification involves judgement, distinguishing the righteous from the wicked, as well as using a refiner’s fire and fullers’ soap to cleanse the Levites and the nation.
✡️ Conclusion
These Old Testament prophecies and their fulfilment serve as a powerful testimony to the accuracy and trustworthiness of the word. They remind us that God’s plans and promises are sure, and that He is faithful to fulfil them in His perfect timing. This intricate weaving of prophecy and history not only strengthens our faith but also deepens our understanding of His divine purpose. Throughout the ages, countless individuals have found solace in these truths, recognizing that even amid uncertainty, God’s overarching narrative prevails. Let us take comfort and assurance in knowing that God’s work is true and reliable, and that we can trust in His sovereign care and provision for our lives, even during the most challenging times when our faith may be tested. Ultimately, these fulfilled promises reinforce our belief that God is unchanging and ever-present, guiding us toward a future filled with hope and assurance.
