Christian Living

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Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in the New Testament.

Regardless of our varied conversion experiences, the vast majority of us felt inspired to witness boldly too friends and families alike. However, not everyone was affected by our enthusiasm or our explanations for a radically changed life; the Bible, some of us were reliably informed, is the word of man and therefore full of contradictions.

An alleged example can be found between Isaiah 7 and Matthew 1, when the similar prophetic word was given to both Ahaz and Mary, who lived 800 years apart.

Now, at this precise moment in time you may be experiencing a crisis of confidence in wholly depending on God’s word. Even if you are in the midst of the arena of secular reasoning, you are not alone, many saints have stood where you are and they have also found that God’s word, which, after all, is His character in written form, can be depended on, no matter how seemingly impossible the fulfilment.

For example, one evangelical truth, which has proven to be a major foundation stone to every believer in every conflict, in every church age, is the plenary inspiration of Scripture. That is, God breathed His Spirit on the writers of the Bible while they were working and they wrote down in their own imitable way what they positively knew about the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.

This is exactly why so many of us have often found ourselves overflowing with excitement, when God has quickened a verse or a passage of Scripture, and then imparted to us, His peace and assurance regarding our various situations.

Isaiah also knew the word and the mind of God, when in the 8th century BC., at a time of national and international crisis, he gave Ahaz an urgent sign proclaiming the birth of a child who would still be young when the kings who were oppressing Ahaz, would be carried into captivity (Isaiah 7.7-25).

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin; will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” [Isaiah 7.14 NASB]. “A virgin” was “a young woman of marriageable age ... and every use of this word in the Hebrew Old Testament either requires or permits the meaning ‘virgin.’" [Thomas L Constable]

A similar word was given, by an angel, in the 1st century AD to a young woman named Mary. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit ... She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." [Matt 1.18-21 NASB]

Was the word of Isaiah regarding the birth of a child actually fulfilled during the reign of Ahaz? I believe so. However, there are other believers who hold an alternative point of view.

Having said that, I am thoroughly persuaded that the prophets in the Old Testament dispensation, were uniquely God’s spokesmen to the nations and the visible confirmation of their authentic ministry was an unmistakable sign to those present that God indeed had spoken. To some people this meant deliverance and healing and to others, judgement, for example, Ahaz.

If, on the other hand, there was no accompanying confirmation, then it was possible that the recipients could have been deceived by the wide-spread ministry of the false prophet’s, while at the same time, with no evident sign following, the inspired word of the genuine messenger would then have been quickly discarded and regarded as another word, just one more among the many.

The conflict we encountered at the beginning of our Christian life is but a foretaste of the enemy’s on-going assault on the authenticity of the word of God. However, now that we know that we can whole-heartedly rely on its authority, we need not doubt any miracle it promises. [David McArdle]

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