Jesus Christ – revealed in the Old Testament – Tanakh?

➤ God declared His Son as His Anointed One in the Book of Psalms chapter 2

🔖 “The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying,” Psalms 2:2
🔖 “Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion.” Psalms 2:6
🔖 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.” Psalms 2:7
🔖 “Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession” Psalms 2:8
🔖 “Serve the Lord with fear, And rejoice with trembling.” Psalms 2:11
🔖 “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psalms 2:12

📌 Here we have a clear instruction from Yahweh, that we should place our trust in His Anointed One – His Son to serve and rejoice with Him with trembling.

➤ A virgin will give birth to a son who will be called Immanuel (God with Us)

🔖 “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

📌 In Hebrew, עִמָּנוּ אֵל – Immanuel means God with us. This was fulfilled in Luke 1:35. Mary, a virgin, conceived and gave birth to a son – Jesus Christ.

➤ The Father and Holy Spirit sent the Son (the passages were from Zechariah and Isaiah)

🔖 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord.” Zechariah 2:10
🔖 “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you.” Zechariah 2:11
🔖 “Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; From the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit Have sent Me.” Isaiah 48:16

📌 Notice here that it mentions how the Lord God will join Zion together with the people of the nations! In closer inspection, it states that the Lord was sent by the Lord God and His Spirit! Lastly, it also mentions that the Lord came from the beginning (before the creation) which is from everlasting! Angels, humans and creatures cannot exist before creation, hence the One alluded could only be God!

➤ The Messiah will bear the sins of men as a “Suffering Servant”. He will be rejected and despised. He will be pierced and smitten, and by His wounds people will be healed.

Isaiah 53
🔖 1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
🔖 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, And as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
🔖 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
🔖 4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
🔖 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
🔖 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
🔖 7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
🔖 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.
🔖 9 And they made His grave with the wicked— But with the rich at His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was any deceit in His mouth.
🔖 10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.
🔖 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.
🔖 12 Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors.

📌 The Suffering Servant mentioned is none other than Jesus Christ. No one in world history ever fits this story. There are several misinterpretations and deliberate mis-translations that are shared today on this chapter. Isaiah 53, however, is clear and consistent that it mentions a man (not a nation or a group of men or a future person) who suffered and was rejected, who was cut-off (die, as in killed), but who was resurrected to justify and save His people, by serving as a blood offering and atonement for sin (should be sinless).
We will discuss in deeper and detailed context this correct interpretation of Isaiah 53 in an upcoming article.

➤ The Anointed One will be born in Betlehem

🔖 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” Micah 5: 2

📌 Indeed, Jesus was born in Betlehem, and Herod the Great commanded all male babies in Betlehem murdered as he feared that the baby would replace him as king. Notice also that the passage mentions “the One” was from of old and everlasting. This was fulfilled in the time of Matthew 2:4-6

➤ The Messiah will be a descendant of Jacob

🔖 “I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel..” Numbers 24:17a

📌 The first half of the verse mentions that the promised one will come from Israel as a descendant of their father Jacob.

➤ The Messiah came to free the captives and bring salvation to His people

🔖 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;” Isaiah 61:1-3
🔖 “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,” Isaiah 61:1-3
🔖 “To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:1-3

📌 Christ came to save His people from destruction (damnation), from the clutches of sin and the death trap that comes with it.

➤ Daniel’s vision of restored Israel from Babylonian captivity, time table of Messiah’s death, and the Romans destruction of Zion (during occupation)

🔖 “Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.” Daniel 9:25
🔖 “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.” Daniel 9:26

📌 Clearly, the Messiah mentioned here died 490 years (14 generations) after Israel’s captivity in Babylon, then the ruler of the Roman empire brought destruction upon the nation of the Lord. All of these prophesies were fulfilled in ancient history, while Daniel 9:27 is reserved for the future tribulation of 7 years and the abomination to be made by the AntiChrist.

➤ Messiah comes as a lowly King riding on a donkey to Jerusalem

🔖 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah 9:9

📌 Jesus fulfilled this when he entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This was fulfilled in Matthew 21:8–10.

➤ Messiah will be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver

🔖 “Then I said to them, “If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.” So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.” Zechariah 11:12
🔖 “And the Lord said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—that princely price they set on me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the Lord for the potter.” Zechariah 11:13

📌 Jesus was sold and betrayed by His disciple Judas Iscariot for 30 pieces of silver. When seized with remorse, he later returned the silver to the high priest, but they did not place the money into the treasury as it was blood money. They later used it to buy a pottery field as a burial site for foreigners. This was fulfilled in Matthew 27:3-10.

➤ Anointed One will not see decay (in death)

🔖 “Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.” Psalms 16:9
🔖 “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol (Hades), Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” Psalms 16:10
🔖 “You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalms 16:11

📌 This was fulfilled in Acts 2:31 as the Messiah was resurrected from Hades, and His body did not decay.

➤ Anointed One will be resurrected

🔖 “I shall not die, but live, And declare the works of the Lord.” Psalms 118:17
🔖 “The Lord has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death.” Psalms 118:18

📌 This was fulfilled in Luke 24:5-7

➤ Messiah will be called from Egypt

🔖 When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. Hosea 11:1

📌 Fulfilled in Matthew 2:14–15 when Joseph brought the child Jesus to Egypt and stayed there until Herod was no more.

➤ There is only one true God as per the Bible

🔖 — That all the people of the earth may know that the LORD is God, and that there is none else. 1 Kings 8:60

📌 There is only one G-d, and apart from Him, there is none. Let me repeat, there is only one God.

Since we mentioned that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and the Son of God, we will also touch some points to explain how can Christ be God if the Bible tells us that there is only one God. We are including this to present the case for Christ’s divinity, since one may argue that Christ can never be God as the scriptures speak of only one God. True! There is only one, but you will understand this point when you read the context of the verses below.

➤ There is only One God, but He speaks in plural numerous times

📌 The Trinity doctrine is not mentioned literally in the Bible, but it is understood through the verses that you will see below, that there is One God (One as a being, but three in person). The scope of this article is not about the Trinity, we will write and expound on it in a future article. The verses here give credence that though we have one singular God being, He has three persons. Let us examine the passages below:

🔖 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26
🔖 “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” Genesis 3:22
🔖 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” Genesis 11:7
🔖 “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8

📌 There are incorrect interpretations that God was speaking to angels, but angels can never be equated to God in likeness, much more that angelic beings will own power to create like a God. As per Gill’s Exposition comments on Genesis 11:7 “These words are not spoken to the angels, as the Targum and Aben Ezra; for, as Philo observes, they are said to some as co-workers with God, which angels could not be in this work of confounding the language of men.”

📌 Our context here is that yes, there is only one God (the one we know as “I AM”). But it is clear that he speaks in unison with others or another with His own likeness and image. This is where we mention God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. They co-existed eternally together as one God from the beginning of time. One being, three distinct and co-equal persons. Although they are one, they have different roles:

🔹 God the Father – God above all
🔹 God the Son – God with us
🔹 God the Holy Spirit – God in us.

📌 Acts 7:55 best explains it in the experience of Stephen the Martyr: “But he (Stephen), being full of the (God) Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God (the Father), and Jesus (the Son) standing at the right hand of God”.

📌 And so we don’t deviate from the topic of Christ further, (promise!) we will discuss the doctrine of Trinity and explain it further in an upcoming article!

➤ Angel of the LORD in Genesis is not an angel but God

🔖 Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” Genesis 16:10
🔖 ₂ And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. ₆ Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Exodus 3:2,6

🔖 Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name is in Him. Exodus 23:20-21

📌 It is widely accepted by Christian bible scholars that the Angel of the Lord is God and that it was the Son of God, before He came to human form in Christ, who spoke in the old testament.
📌 Only the Creator can multiply the seeds or descendants of men. Angels cannot claim that they will multiply nor claim such authority as it belongs solely to God. Also, angels cannot pardon or forgive sins and will never bear the name of G-d. Lastly, no angel can claim that he is God, such as the one who spoke from the burning bush. In the New Testament, Jesus in His time showed that He forgave people of their sins, an attribute that only belongs to YHWH.

➤ God rained destruction upon Sodom on earth, while another is in the heavens?

🔖 “Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens.” Genesis 9:24

📌 In Genesis 9:24, it is pretty clear that the Lord who threw down fire on Sodom was on the earth, while the Lord also was out in the heavens. Though there are no additional passages to explain it, it shows us that God was simultaneously exhibiting His different persona as He executed the judgment of Sodom.

➤ Two God persons mentioned by a Psalmist?

🔖 “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.” Psalms 45:6
🔖 “You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions” Psalms 45:7

📌 It is undeniable that the Word itself proves the plural persons of God. The One God anointed another person of the God-head with oil (as written here).

➤ God was called a man

🔖 “The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.” Exodus 15:3

📌 As we all know, God is not a man. He is divine, He is the creator of man. But this specific verse is an allusion to the future incarnation of God (to enter the world as mortal) as the God-turned into a man Messiah of the human race. As with Gill’s exposition comments, the “man of war” term is a description of the Lord who fights like a “human warrior” against His powerful enemies from Satan and his principalities and powers in the world. As mentioned in the second half of the verse, Gill continued, “the Lord is his name; or Jehovah, which proves him to be more than a man; and being so, it is no wonder that he is so mighty, powerful, and victorious.”

📌 References:
🔹 Modern Scolarship – Bart Ehrman ^a
🔹 Old Testament ^b
🔹 Tanakh or Hebrew Bible Tanakh ^c
🔹 New Testament New Testament ^d
🔹 New King James Version New King James Version ^e
🔹 Tanakh canon Tanakh to Protestant Old Testament ^f