Christmas in the Old Testament

Some years ago, when the late Queen Elizabeth visited our country, all of the reporters relished reporting all the logistics involved in her arrival into our country: her 4,000 pounds of luggage included two outfits for every occasion, a mourning outfit in case someone died while she was here, 40 pints of plasma, and white kid leather toilet seat covers. She brought along her own hairdresser and a host of other attendants. A brief visit of royalty to a foreign country cost over $20 million (Yancey, Jesus I Never Knew, p. 37).

In contrast, God’s visit to earth took place in an animal shelter, with no attendants, and nowhere to place the infant king but a feeding trough. As Phillip Yancey writes, the event that divided history, and even our calendars into two parts, may have had more animal than human witnesses. A donkey could have stepped on him. As the carol says, “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given.”

But is that really true? Was the appearance of God on earth a secret event that happened in a remote corner of the planet without any prior warning or fanfare? If so, how could either the Jews or Romans be held responsible for missing the coming of the Messiah?

The coming of Christ was no secret; instead, He was a gift wrapped in hundreds of years of prophecy that should have been recognized by all.

The Old Testament was filled with signposts that should have directed everyone to the stable in Bethlehem.

This story takes place on the Sunday afternoon after Christ’s resurrection earlier that morning.  Two of Jesus’ followers—one named Cleopas and the other unnamed—are leaving Jerusalem, where they and hundreds of thousands of other Jews had been for the Passover, on their way back home to a village called Emmaus—about seven miles away. 

I want us to focus on Luke 24:27.

What does Jesus mean when he says, “Beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all of the Scriptures.”

Jesus is saying here that you cannot turn a page of the Old Testament without finding some reference to the birth, the ministry, the death, the resurrection, or the return of Jesus Christ.  

I would like to look at some of those Old Testament prophecies that Jesus explained about Himself.  What does the Old Testament Reveal about Christ? If you had been a Jew living in Palestine during the first century, what could you have known about the coming Messiah?

1. The Prediction of Christ’s Birth

When Jesus says that Moses testified of Christ, to what is he referring? Certainly, in Exodus, we have the picture of His Redemption.  In Leviticus, the offerings and sacrifices represent the purity of Christ; in Numbers, the importance of faith in Christ; in Deuteronomy, the teaching of Christ.

• He Was Born to Conquer Satan (Genesis 3:15)

But in the first book of the Pentateuch, we have the first mention—the protoevangelon of Christ.  Turn to Genesis 3:15. The context is the judgment for Adam’s and Eve’s sin. God pronounces a curse on Adam—his work will be difficult, on Eve—pain in childbirth, and on Satan—the power behind the serpent. In addressing the serpent, God says, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He [a descendant of the woman] shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel” (Genesis 3:15). 

We call this verse the “protoevangelon”—the first mention of the gospel, the Good News. In the midst of this judgment against sin, God offers hope—one of the woman’s descendants will eventually crush Satan and the evil he has brought into the world.

Moses prophesied the birth of the Savior into the world. But the Old Testament prophet Isaiah told us the unique manner of His birth.

• He Was Born to a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14-16; Matthew 1:20-23; 2 Samuel 7:12-14; Matthew 1:16)

Probably no other Old Testament book is filled with more predictions about the birth, ministry, life, death, and future reign of Jesus than the book of Isaiah. Remember Isaiah wrote his prophecy 700 years before the coming of Christ.

The setting of this prophecy is key to appreciating the unfathomable wisdom of God. King Ahaz was ruler over the Southern Kingdom called Judah. He received word that Syria (known as Aram) and Ephraim (another name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel) were going to team up to destroy his kingdom of Judah.

Before this boy reaches the age to know good from evil (ages 12-14), God will destroy Syria and the Northern Kingdom. 

When we get to chapter 8, the prophecy is fulfilled through the woman Isaiah married. They had a child, and within 12 years, the capital of Syria was captured by the Assyrians, and the Northern Kingdom had been defeated.

I remember hearing in college religion classes that this prophecy had nothing to do with the Messiah. It was a historical promise for the nation of Israel in the eighth century. See the word “Almah”—it simply means a young woman of marriageable age—has nothing to do with a virgin.

But here is a great illustration of where the so-called wisdom of men is foolishness to God. I often wondered if these religion professors had never read their New Testament.

Matthew uses the term “parthenos,” which very specifically means “virgin”—someone without any sexual experience. Now, this is what I want you to see. This prophecy in Isaiah had two fulfillments—the near fulfillment was in Isaiah’s day, but ultimately the prophecy referred to the Messiah. 

Had Isaiah the prophet used the Hebrew word “bethula,” which means virgin, instead of “alma,” which means a young woman, his prophecy would have been limited to only referring to the future birth of the Messiah and would have had little meaning to the people of Isaiah’s day.

But by using the term “alma”—young woman—he was able to make a prophecy that had both an immediate and a future fulfillment. When Matthew wrote, he used the term to mean virgin. When the angel spoke, he used the term that meant virgin.

Why was the virgin birth necessary? I could spend an entire sermon talking about that. But let me point out just one reason. Another prophecy in the Old Testament that predicted the coming of the Messiah is found in 2 Samuel 7:12-14. There God said that the Messiah would be a descendant of David.

The Messiah had to be a descendant of David, and the right to rule came through the father. 

Yet, had Jesus been the biological son of Joseph, He would have been disqualified to rule as Messiah. Why? In Jeremiah 22:30, God cursed Jeconiah, the last king of the Davidic line, and said, “Not one of your descendants shall ever succeed on the throne of David.” Joseph was a descendant of Jeconiah. Thus, had Jesus been biologically linked to Joseph, He would have been disqualified from sitting on David’s throne.

The word translated “by whom” is feminine singular, indicating that Jesus was born of Mary, not Mary and Joseph. He was virgin born.  

In other words, by not having Joseph as his biological father, Jesus escaped the curse of Jeconiah, but by having Joseph as his legal father, he inherited the right to rule as the Messiah as a descendant of David.  

Who could have ever dreamed up such a plan except God?  What else did Jesus show these two on the Road to Emmaus?

2. The Character of Christ’s Ministry

I think that Jesus would have pointed to all of the details of his earthly ministry, which were foretold hundreds of years before the fact.

• He Would Be Preceded by a Messenger (Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:3)
• He Would Begin His Ministry in Galilee (Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:12-13, 17)
• He Would Have a Ministry of Miracles (Isaiah 35:5-6; Matthew 9:35)
• He Would Teach in Parables (Psalm 78:2; Matthew 13:34)
• He Would Enter Jerusalem on a Donkey (Zechariah 9:9; Luke 19:35)
• He Would Be a Light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 60:3; Acts 13:47; Luke 24:27)

3. The Necessity of Christ’s Death (Isaiah 53:3-6)

Christ came to die. Jesus said of Himself in Matthew 20:28—for the Son of God came not to be served, but to serve, to give His life as a ransom for many.

Don’t allow the lights, the gifts, the sentimental warmth of Christmas to blind you to the real message of this season. We have all wandered away from God; we are deserving of eternal separation from God, but God in His mercy sent Christ to suffer, to die, to bear the full weight of God’s wrath, in order that we might be saved.  

But the story of Christ doesn’t end on Calvary. Jesus also reminded these two on the road to Emmaus.

4. The Certainty of Christ’s Resurrection (Luke 24:21-24; Psalm 16:10; Acts 2:31; Matthew 12:40; Luke 24:28-32)

If Jesus really is the fulfillment of these dozens of Messianic prophecies, it means that everything that Jesus said was true.

E.B. Hardy says that there are only two questions that ultimately matter.  

First, “Has anyone ever cheated death?” Hardy says he checked the graves of Mohammad and Buddha, and they were still occupied. The only empty grave was that of Jesus.   

Second question, “Has that person made a way for me and the people I love most in this world  to cheat death?” And the answer to that question is yes.

When Jesus said in John 3, “whoever believes in Me shall not perish but have eternal life,” it means that by simple faith I can receive the forgiveness of my sins and escape the coming wrath of God.

When He said in John 11:25 that “whoever believes in Me shall live again, even if he dies,” it means that I can know for sure that I will escape death.

When He said in John 14 “I’m going to prepare a place for you and I am coming again to take you until Myself” it means that just as Zechariah, Daniel, and the prophets of old promised, Jesus is coming back and one day I will share in all the wonders of the new heaven and new earth God is preparing for us. 

That is the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ found in both the Old and New Testaments.

What should be our response to it? “O come let us adore Him, 0 come let us adore Him, 0 come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.”