The Old Testament Witness to Christ and His Kingdom, Mentor's Guide, MG09

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T H E O L D T E S T A M E N T W I T N E S S T O C H R I S T A N D H I S K I N G D O M

phenomena? How does our modern-day Gentilization of the faith actually limit our ability to fully appreciate and appropriate the whole counsel of God, especially our OT literature?

The Promise Universalized

Segment 1: Old Testament Messianic Predictions Fulfilled

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis

The term for Messiah in the Greek is messias , the Aramaic form of the Hebrew mashiach , which means “to anoint”; Christos is the equivalent NT terminology meaning “anointed one.” The OT Messianic prophecy includes a handful of basic characteristics, including its focus on the deliverance of God’s people, its strong use of figurative language, its predictions in the “prophetic perfect” tense (as if they were already accomplished), and their lack of easy-to-understand timetables as to their precise fulfilment. The main characteristic is its linkage of the testaments to Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of its prophetic descriptions. The key to tracing the Messiah’s family lineage is following the clues from the beginning of Messianic prophecy, which includes the seed of the woman in Genesis, the promise of God’s dwelling in the tents of Seth, the seed of Abraham, the lineage of Isaac through the house of Jacob, of the tribe and clan of Judah, through Boaz, Obed, Jesse and David, down to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. In many ways, tracing the themes in OT Messianic prophecy is key to understanding the OT witness to Christ. It is the way that Jesus and the apostles applied the OT to his life—these prophecies illumine our understanding of the way Jesus used the OT, they directly connect the testaments (in the way Augustine suggested, that the OT is revealed in the NT), and finally, they show that Jesus of Nazareth fulfills the prophetic predictions of the expected Messiah. The main points included in the OT Messianic prophecies cover his birth, his suffering and death, his resurrection, and his coming glory. In every way, the clear testimony of OT Messianic prophecy is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, providing a solid witness about his life, ministry, and coming Kingdom.

Summary of Segment 1

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