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

Our objective for this segment, Old Testament Messianic Predictions Fulfilled , is to enable you to see that: • 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 covering his birth include prophecies about the prophetic forerunner, his birthplace at Bethlehem, and his identity as the human-divine son Immanuel. • The main OT Messianic prophetic predictions were about his person and life, i.e., his introduction by the coming “voice in the wilderness,” his divine status as Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of peace, his anointing as the Servant of Yahweh, and his anticipated kingship and reign. Prophecies of Messiah’s life also include his role as the cornerstone of God’s salvific work, his role as light for the Gentiles, and his role as prophet, priest, and king.

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