Every year, as Christmas approaches, an avalanche of marketing rolls out to notify us of the looming holiday. The purpose of the commercials on television, flyers in the mail, notifications on social media, and holiday songs in the stores is to get us ready for the big day.
In the days leading up to the birth of Jesus, God’s equivalent were the prophets. They were sent by God to prepare people for Jesus’ coming with prophecies that announced the time and details of His coming. The following serves as a few examples.
- 4000 B.C. – Jesus would have an earthly mother but not an earthly father
Promise
Genesis 3:15 – “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Fulfillment
Galatians 4:4 – “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law…”
- 1400 B.C. – Jesus’ family line would come through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah
Promise
Genesis 12:3 – “…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you [Abraham].”
Genesis 17:19 – God said, “…your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him…” [not Ishmael]
Numbers 24:17 – “I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel.” [not Esau]
Genesis 49:10 – “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”
Fulfillment
Matthew 1:1-2 – “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers…”
- 700 B.C. – Jesus’ virgin mother
Promise
Isaiah 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.”
Fulfillment
Matthew 1:18-23 – “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)”
- 700 B.C. – Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem
Promise
Micah 5:2 – “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times [eternity].”
Fulfillment
Luke 2:1-7 – “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria…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”
- 400 B.C. – Jesus entering the Temple before it was destroyed in 70 A.D.
Promise
Malachi 3:1 – “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the LORD Almighty.
Fulfillment
Luke 2:25-27 – “Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple,
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law…”
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