3 Amazing Ways Christmas Fulfilled Prophecy in the OT
Many Christmas carols celebrate the birth of Jesus and the reasons he came to earth. Some, like Handel’s “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” quote Old Testament prophecies about Jesus.
That’s a good thing.
When times are tough and news is distressing, it helps to look at the way Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Seeing the amazing ways God revealed the coming of Jesus sends faith soaring. That assures us God will manage the future well too.
God unfolded his plan in stages, beginning with a promise to Eve, the first woman.
1) Jesus’s Birth as the Serpent Crusher Promised to Eve
Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. He also created a man and woman in his image—Adam and Eve. God blessed them and told them to fill the earth with more image-bearers, to subdue the earth, and rule over all its creatures.
The Creator placed them in a garden with a river and fruit trees. He walked with them and talked with them. The garden was a sanctuary where he could dwell with his people. He created the first couple not just to rule, but to fellowship with him.
In the garden grew two special trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they “shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
But then a serpent entered the garden. Revelation 12:9 links the serpent to Satan. He told Eve that God lied. They wouldn’t die but would become like God. Believing the serpent over God, she ate the fruit and gave some to Adam, who also ate.
The Promise
God judged the three beings, but in the judgment, he gave the man and woman hope. Although Adam and Eve would die, before they did, Eve would bear children. Further, God told the serpent:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Genesis 3:15
One day, an offspring (literally seed) of Eve would deal the serpent a mortal blow. In the process, though, the serpent would wound him.
Genesis 3:15 is called the Protoevangelium because it is the first announcement of the gospel: the good news that a seed of the woman will crush the serpent.
Jesus, born of a woman but not of an earthly father, is the serpent crusher.
Hebrews explains why he took on flesh and came as a baby:
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14–15
Though the crucifixion, the serpent wounded Jesus, but Jesus broke the devil’s power of death. Satan’s end will be the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).
The Christmas Hope
Christmas marks the coming of Eve’s long-awaited offspring, the Serpent Crusher. He defeated death and gives the hope of evil’s end.
2) Jesus’s Birth as the King Who Rules Forever Promised to David
Time passed and God revealed more of his plan regarding Jesus to more people, including King David.
The prophet Samuel anointed David king with oil, then the tribe of Judah anointed him, and finally all of Israel anointed him. The Hebrew word translated “anointed” and “anointed one” is māshîaḥ,from which we derive our English word messiah. David was anointed for service and therefore was an anointed one, or messiah. All the kings descended from David were anointed king and therefore held the title messiah.
God’s Promise to David
David wanted to show God gratitude for saving him from enemies and making him king. He asked a prophet about building a magnificent temple to replace the tent in which the ark of the covenant dwelt.
The Lord was pleased but told David his son would build the temple, not him.
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son…. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.”
2 Samuel 7:12–14,16
David pleased the Lord. He wanted to build God a house in the form of a temple. In response, God promised to build David a house in the form of a dynasty—the house of David. David would not be the one to build God’s house, however, because he had shed so much blood in wars. Instead, an offspring—seed—would build the house.
The First Temple
David’s son Solomon built the Lord’s temple. Most Jews thought his dynasty would last forever. But Solomon didn’t remain faithful to God.
Eventually, wicked kings led the people so far astray that God sent the people into exile. Babylon destroyed Solomon’s temple.
Babylon ruled instead of David’s descendants.
But in exile, Ezekiel explained God’s anger at leaders who ruled harshly and made themselves rich off the people entrusted to them. He called them shepherds who ate the sheep they should have fed (Ezekiel 34:1-21).
Then God gave this promise:
And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken.
Ezekiel 34:23-24
Hope budded for a future righteous king, a son of David whose throne would last forever. God called the future shepherd “David” because David was a type of the future king. That means many events in David’s life foreshadowed greater events in Jesus’s life.
The Second Temple
The exile ended and the people returned to the land. They built a second temple. And they waited for the son of David who would rule forever—the Messiah.
But foreign kings continued to rule. Eventually, a Roman emperor ruled over the land where Jews lived.
Jesus’s Birth
During that time, the angel Gabriel appeared to a virgin named Mary.
And the angel said to 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 forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:30–33
Mary gave birth in Bethlehem. Not far away, an angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds and said:
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11
Christ comes from the Greek word meaning Anointed One. It means the same as Messiah. Bethlehem was tiny and insignificant except for being known as David’s birthplace. “Born…in the city of David” points to David’s birth being a type of this child’s birth.
The Hope of Messiah
Jesus grew into adulthood and began ministering. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and taught about the coming kingdom of God. His followers hoped he would establish a kingdom on earth free from Roman rule immediately.
Instead, Rome crucified Jesus on behalf of jealous religious leaders. Mere decades later, Rome razed the temple.
The Temple of the Holy Spirit
But Jesus rose from the dead. Although the earthly temple was no more, Jesus began building a different type of temple:
You are…members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19-22
Christians are the temple of the Holy Spirit (see also 1 Corinthians 3:16).
The Christmas Hope
Christmas is the coming of the righteous king who’ll reign forever. He is our hope of righteous rule in the new heavens and earth.
3) Jesus’s Birth as the Mighty God Promised through Isaiah
Before the exile, prophets warned the people to turn back to God. The prophet Isaiah warned of exile but also gave hope. He told a wayward king about a newborn child:
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Immanuel means God With Us. The child’s birth would mean God is with us. When Jesus was born, God was literally with people.
A Child Is Born
Further, Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 9:6–7:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The birth of Jesus fulfilled this prophecy in many ways.
For to us a child is born
In Luke 2:11, the angel told the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior.”
To us a son is given
John 3:16 reads, “God…gave his only Son” to bring us eternal life.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder
We’ve already seen that Jesus is king forever, which puts the government on his shoulders.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor
People were astonished by Jesus’s authority and wisdom (Matthew 9:8; Mark 6:2). Even his detractors said he taught truthfully, not caring about people’s opinions and not swayed by appearances (Matthew 22:16). He is “wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Mighty God
Every other time the Old Testament uses this title, it is a title for God (for instance, Isaiah 10:21). The New Testament tells us how it applies to Jesus. Calling Jesus “the Word,” John wrote:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
John 1:1–2
Then John explained what happened upon Jesus’s birth:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14
God took on flesh in Mary’s womb.
Everlasting Father
This could be a divine title, or “Father” might be used as a substitute for “King” (as David called King Saul “my father” in 1 Samuel 24:11). Hebrews 2:13 applies Isaiah 8:17,18 to Jesus: “I will put my trust in him…Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me.” “Children” here are Jesus’s followers.
As to everlasting, Jesus “was in the beginning with God” (John 1:2) and is “alive forevermore” (Revelation 1:18).
Prince of Peace
Jesus makes peace with God possible:
Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1
He will reign on David’s throne…establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness…forever
He is Messiah, the righteous king who will reign forever.
The Christmas Hope
Christmas brought the hope of Immanuel, God with us.
Conclusion
Here we have amazing ways Christmas fulfills three Old Testament prophecies. The birth of Jesus fulfills the promise to Eve of a child who will crush the serpent. It fulfills God’s promise to David of a child who will be the righteous king who rules forever. And it fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of a child who will be called Mighty God.
These are just three of hundreds of prophecies about Jesus.
God carefully revealed his plans to make people righteous so that they could dwell with him forever. No matter how crazy this world gets, we can rest assured that the prophecies about the new heavens and earth will be fulfilled too. And we will be with King Jesus forever.
If you would like to know more about how the Old Testament tells of Jesus, see Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament. This is an affiliate link for which I receive a small commission at no cost to you.
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