In this lesson we will continue to see the prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ’s living and ministry on earth. The main points of this lesson will cover the status of Christ at His death and also His betrayal.
At the end of His earthly ministry, Christ entered into Jerusalem in a humble and meek way, riding on a donkey’s colt. During His three and a half years of ministry, He stayed far away from Jerusalem, the center of Judaism. But at the end of His earthly ministry, He purposely went into Jerusalem to offer Himself as the Lamb of God to be crucified for the accomplishing of His wonderful and all-inclusive death.
According to the Old Testament prophecies, the crucified Christ would be the Messiah who was cut off (Dan. 9:25-26a), the stone that was rejected by the builders (Psa. 118:22-23), a stone to strike against and a rock of stumbling to the Jews (Isa. 8:14-15), the stone engraved by God Himself (Zech. 3:9), and the smitten Shepherd (13:7). Through these prophecies we have a rich realization of the statuses of Christ at His death.
In Daniel 9:25-26a the angel Gabriel spoke to Daniel and said, “Know therefore and comprehend: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of Messiah the Prince will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks...And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing.” The phrase cut off refers to the crucifixion of Christ, the anointed One. As recorded in the Old Testament, after Cyrus the king of Persia defeated Babylon, he was moved by God and made a proclamation that the children of Israel could go up to Jerusalem to rebuild the holy temple (Ezra 1:1-3). Then Artaxerxes the king, in the twentieth year of his reign, allowed Nehemiah to return for the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:1-8). According to history and the Jewish calendar, the time from the issuing of the decree to rebuild Jerusalem with street and trench by Artaxerxes until the Passover of the year in which the Messiah (Christ) was cut off on the cross was altogether sixty-nine weeks or four hundred eighty-three years (Dan. 9:25). Christ was cut off exactly on the Passover of that year (John 19:14-16). The prophecy spoken to Daniel by the angel was accurately fulfilled. The words cut off and will have nothing in Daniel 9 refer to the termination of the old creation with the human government in the old creation. This is the glad tidings to us. This prophecy promised that the anointed Christ would terminate the old creation by His crucifixion so that Christ in His resurrection might become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to germinate those whom God has chosen, His new creation.
Psalm 118:22-23 says, “The stone which the builders rejected / Has become the head of the corner. / This is from Jehovah; / It is wonderful in our sight.” The Hebrew expression for head of the corner can also be translated “chief cornerstone.” This is a prophecy concerning Christ as the stone rejected by the Jewish builders that became the cornerstone in resurrection. The Lord Jesus quoted this prophecy in Matthew 21:42 to unveil that even though the Jewish builders rejected Him, God honored Him for the building of His dwelling place among His people on earth. In his preaching to the Jews Peter also said that the prophecy concerning Christ being the stone had been fulfilled: “This is the stone which was considered as nothing by you, the builders, which has become the head of the corner” (Acts 4:11). Christ is the stone given to the Jews by God. The Jewish builders, the leaders, should have been working for God’s building, but they despised Christ to such an extent that they put Him on the cross. In God’s New Testament economy Christ is the stone rejected by the Jewish builders yet a cornerstone precious to God, joining the Jews and the Gentiles (1 Pet. 2:4; Eph. 2:18-21). As our Savior, He makes us living stones (Acts 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:5), and in the process of transformation we are being built into a dwelling place of God in spirit (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 2:19-22).