Jesus is Unique [Part 2]

Jesus is “Unique” [Part 2]
One very outstanding aspect of Jesus' life is that many detailed predictions and prophecies were made about Him by ancient prophets in the Old Testament, many centuries before He was born. Some contain specific details regarding His birth, life and death, that no other mortal man could possibly have fulfilled! The discovery of hundreds of ancient Old Testament manuscripts by archaeologists during this century, has proven without a doubt that these prophecies were indeed written centuries before Jesus was born.

Here a sample of the kind of specific predictions we're talking about:

Around the year 1000 B.C, 10 centuries before Jesus was born, another outstanding prophecy regarding the Messiah was given by Israel's King David. In his prophecy, David gave details of a cruel and agonizing death which he himself never suffered:
“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death. For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet. I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me. They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.” Psalm 22:14-18

Although written by King David the above passage of the scriptures does not talk about King David because he died a peaceful, natural death. Instead, he was predicting with great accuracy the circumstances surrounding the cruel death on the cross of the Messiah, the Christ, who was to come. Let's examine in detail the above prophetic psalm:
" I am poured out like water, …my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." Jesus not only poured out His life for us spiritually, but the New Testament tells us that shortly after He died, while He was still hanging on the cross, "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water."--John 19:34. When the soldier pierced His side, His life was literally, "poured out like water". (Unwittingly, this Roman soldier fulfilled another prophecy, " and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced… ", a prophecy given by the Prophet Zechariah around 500 B.C.-- Zechariah 12:10.)

1,000 years before Jesus' birth, King David described details of His death that no mere man could have foreseen: "All my bones are out of joint."--This is one of the horrors of death by crucifixion; the weight of the victim's body literally pulls his arms out of their sockets.

"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me." The New Testament tells us that Jesus' wicked and vengeful religious enemies, the Scribes and the Pharisees, gathered around Him as He was nailed on the cross, mocking and reviling Him.-- Matthew 27:39-44.

"They have pierced my hands and my feet." This is probably the most astounding prediction within this prophecy. Crucifixion was not practiced by the Jews of David's time. Their religious laws demanded that criminals be executed by stoning. But God showed King David how the Messiah would die 10 centuries later, executed at the hands of an empire that did not even exist in David's day, Rome, whose principal means of executing criminals was crucifixion!

"They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture." In the Gospels of the New Testament we find the almost incredible fulfillment of this prophecy: "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be."-- John 19:23,24.


In 712 B.C., the prophet Isaiah predicted:" he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; "-- Isaiah 53:9.
Jesus' bitter religious enemies condemned Him as a criminal, as a wicked man, thus as He died, the Bible tells us "Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand, and another on the left."--Matthew 27:38. After His body was removed from the cross, " a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph … went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus, and when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
And laid it in his own new tomb"-- Matthew 27:57-60.-- A "grave with the rich!"

1,000 years before Jesus was born, the Spirit of God prophesied through King David that the Saviour would be resurrected from the dead: " For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption"-- Psalms.16:10.
King David died and was buried in a grave, and his flesh saw corruption and decay. But Jesus was raised from the grave three days after His death! - As the Angel said to the mourners who came to Jesus' tomb, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen" -- Lk.24:5,6.

What mere human can choose the place where he is going to be born? Or what man can, or would cause his own death by a terribly agonizing execution? How could anyone manipulate their enemies to pay a specific price for their betrayal, mock and revile them as they are dying, much less cause a band of soldiers to gamble for their clothing and pierce their side after they are dead, and cause a rich man to bury their body in his own personal tomb? Yet Jesus fulfilled not only these, but many more specific predictions regarding His birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection!-- He was, and is, truly "unique" in every sense of the word!