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

6. In what ways did the apostles believe that Gentile inclusion was not meant to cast off Israel from salvation, but rather to provoke them to jealousy to come to Messiah Jesus, even as the Gentiles were doing? 7. Explain in only one sentence how the OTMessianic prophecies regarding the Gentiles show the plan and purpose of God for the nations, not just for the Jews but for the Gentiles as well.

This lesson focuses upon the role that OT Messianic prophecy plays in giving prophetic and predictive truth about the Messiah, and also about God’s plan to include the Gentiles in his covenant of salvation blessing to Abraham. In a real sense, OTMessianic prophecy provides some of the clearest and strongest linkage of the Old to the New Testament, both in terms of the nature and character of the Messianic person and work of Christ and in the unveiling of God’s purpose to draw out for himself a people from all the nations, not just from the physical descendants of Abraham. Review these important insights on the role and scope of OT Messianic prophecy below. 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.

Summary of Key Concepts

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