“For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” 2 Peter 1:21 NIV
The Old Testament contains 61 specific prophecies about the Messiah. Different prophets living 500 to 1,000 years before Jesus, and who did not know each other, came up with them.
Many people play the lottery. (I’m not a fan.) To win a Powerball paying a lot of money requires picking five numbers selected in any order plus one number picked sixth. It usually takes several weeks of hundreds of millions of people buying lottery tickets for a winner to emerge. I like the saying, “The lottery is a tax on people who don’t understand statistics.”
One characteristic of Old Testament prophecy is that it must be 100% true to have any legitimacy. Many more verses refer to the Messiah, but 61 prophecies are quite specific. They’re not generalized statements that can be twisted into some form of truth. In short, a genuine prophecy must absolutely be fulfilled–that is, nail the real occurrence with no ifs, ands or buts.
Jesus met every single one of the 61 prophecies. The reality is unquestionable and undebatable. You know how difficult it is for someone to pick six lottery numbers. What do you think are the odds of all 61 prophecies being fulfilled by Jesus? One trillion is written as 1,000,000,000,000. I’m sure you’d agree that 1 chance in 1,000,000,000,000 would be extremely high odds. Hold on to your hat. One mathematician’s estimate of those impossible odds is “one chance in a trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion.” In short, Jesus is the only candidate–past, present or future–who could meet the 61 specific prophecies.
Does this knowledge give you greater assurance that Jesus is who He said He is? Without question, He is the Christ.
Prayer: Thank you, God, for the prophets of old who foretold the Messiah so that we could not miss identifying HIm. We acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, and we are thankful for his ultimate sacrifice for us. Amen