Old Testament Predictions of a Forerunner
John the Baptist - The Forerunner
The Coming of the Christ

The Old Testament prophecies do not center only on the Jewish people and their neighbors. There are also many prophecies dealing with a coming Messiah who would be sent to redeem man from the curse of sin (Genesis 3:15). With the introduction of this Messiah, we shift the approach to show how God and Christ entered into history to redeem man, and how Jesus Christ gave clear evidence that He was from the heavenly Father.

Let us introduce the Messiah and the evidence He gave to show that He was sent from God by first looking at one of the last Old Testament prophecies concerning a forerunner to this Messiah brought by Malachi. He proclaimed the final preparation for the Messiah: "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts" (3:1). This book ends with the announcement, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (4:5-6).

An earlier Old Testament book, Isaiah, is the first of the prophetic books and the largest. Isaiah prophesied at the time the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, some 600 years before the prophecies were fulfilled. Isaiah wrote of the forerunner: "A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken'" (Isaiah 40:3-5).

John the Baptist - The Forerunner

The story of the forerunner and the Messiah is found in the four Gospels. The goal of Luke's gospel is described in its introduction. He compiled his narratives "of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you.... that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed" (Luke 1:1-4). Luke's goal was to give an accurate and orderly narrative of the Messiah's life and ministry so that we may know the truth about Him. The other three gospel writers undoubtedly had the same goal.

Luke goes on to give an account of the miraculous birth of the messenger whom Isaiah and Malachi had written about. In Judea during King Herod's reign, there was a priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth, both were righteous, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, but they had no children (Luke 1:6-7). And there was no hope they would have any because she was beyond the childbearing age. In this later period of their life, Zechariah was chosen to enter the temple and burn incense. In the temple an angel appeared to him and said he and his wife would have a son, and would name him John. "He will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared" (Luke 1:9-17).

Zechariah was puzzled, and when he asked how he could know this was to happen, he was told that he would not be able to speak until the son would be born. "And when he came out, he could not speak to them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple" (Luke 1:21-22).

The other Gospels also mention this forerunner. Mark begins his account with Isaiah's promise of God's messenger (Mark 1:1-2). This was fulfilled by "John, the baptizer... preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (v. 4).

Matthew writes that when John came on the scene, he was "preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand'" (Matthew 3:1-9; Isaiah 40:3).

The fourth Gospel tells of John's mission. "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light" (John 1:6-8).

The Coming of the Christ

John was an important forerunner, but he recognized his inferior position. "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie" (Mark 1:7). John was speaking about Jesus Christ, the long-awaited "anointed one"--in Hebrew the Messiah and in Greek the Christos. This latter term is Christ in English. John describes Jesus in these words: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14-15).

Jesus' birth is recorded in the Gospels in detail, and these accounts disclose that it was accompanied by signs given by Gabriel, an angel sent to a young virgin, Mary, who was betrothed to Joseph. The angel told her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Luke 1:26-33).

Since she had no husband, Mary was told that "the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Luke 1:35; cf. Matthew 1:18-23). The Holy Spirit conception would make Him "holy, The Son of God" (Luke 1:35). This conception separated Him from all other men and would enable him to "save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

The birth of Jesus fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies. The first of these is one by the prophet Micah (5:2), who foretold four hundred years before Christ's birth that He would be born in Bethlehem, the village of David (Matthew 2:6). The Jews knew Jeremiah had prophesied that God "will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land" (Jeremiah 23:5-6).

When Herod the Great sought to destroy the Son of God, a second prophecy concerning Him was fulfilled. An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to flee to Egypt. "This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Out of Egypt have I called my son'" (Matthew 2:13-15; Jeremiah 31:15).

Herod, realizing he had been tricked, "in a furious rage... killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years or under." This resulted in Jeremiah's prophecy (31:15) being fulfilled: "A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more" (Matthew 2:16-18).

After Herod's death, an angel again appeared to Joseph and told him to return to Israel. When they returned they learned that Archelaus, Herod's son, reigned in Judea, and Joseph was again warned in a dream to go to the city of Nazareth. The result was "that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He shall be called a Nazarene'" (Matthew 2:19-23; cf. Luke 1:26). Since Jesus grew up in Nazareth, the Jewish leaders were able to give Him a name of reproach, the name Nazarene, fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah would be despised (Psalm 22:6; Isaiah 49:7; 53:3). [Lenski, Interpretation of St. Matthew, pp. 88-89.]

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Copyright 1999 by Leland M. Haines, Northville, MI 48167-2053

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