The Prophets and Christ: How Prophecy Points Forward

Today's Reading

Read Luke 24:25-27. On the Emmaus road, the risen Jesus rebukes two disciples for their slowness to believe "all that the prophets have spoken." Then, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." Now read Acts 3:18, 24, where Peter declares: "What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled... And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days."

Reflection

We have spent twelve days listening to individual prophets. Today we step back to see the larger picture: how does the entire prophetic corpus point to Christ?

The answer is richer and more complex than a list of predictions and fulfillments. Yes, the prophets made specific predictions that Jesus fulfilled -- born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), riding on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), pierced for our transgressions (Isaiah 53:5), betrayed for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13). The New Testament delights in pointing these out.

But Goldsworthy insists that the prophets do more than predict isolated events. They establish the entire framework -- kingdom, covenant, temple, servant, sacrifice -- within which the coming of Jesus makes sense. Without the prophets, you cannot understand why Jesus is called a king, why He is the new covenant mediator, why His body is the new temple, why His death is described as a sacrifice. The prophets created the categories that the New Testament uses to explain who Jesus is and what He accomplished.

Wright adds a crucial dimension. The early Christians did not merely go through the prophets with a highlighter, picking out proof-texts. They believed that the entire story the prophets told -- the great narrative of exile and restoration, suffering and vindication, death and resurrection -- had been fulfilled in Jesus. Israel's exile was not just Babylon; it was the deeper exile of sin and death. Israel's restoration was not just a return to the land; it was the resurrection of the dead and the renewal of all creation. Jesus, in His death and resurrection, had enacted the climax of Israel's story.

This is why Jesus told the Emmaus disciples that "all the prophets" spoke of Him. Not just Isaiah 53 or Daniel 7 or Zechariah 9. All of them. The whole prophetic message -- judgment on sin, the call to repentance, the promise of restoration, the vision of a new creation -- finds its Yes in Jesus.

Going Deeper

Read 2 Corinthians 1:20: "For all the promises of God find their Yes in him." As you review the prophets you have studied over these two weeks, identify three prophetic themes and trace how each one is fulfilled in Christ. The prophets were not speaking into a void. They were preparing the world for the Word made flesh.